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Chadwyck Healey Collection [Artist: John Crowther]

Date of Creation:

c.1870-1902

Reference Code:

SC/GL/CHA

From Collection:

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Scope and Content:
  • Watercolours showing ancient, picturesque or threatened buildings in the London area. Created from 1879 to about 1894 they record some of the older structures remaining in London at a time of rapid transition.

    The collection of watercolours by John Crowther (the Chadwyck-Healey Collection) was given to Guildhall Library in 1961 by Sir Edward Chadwyck-Healey. Sir Edward , who died in 1979, was the grandson of Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey (1845-1919, created baronet for Wyphurst in the County of Surrey in 1919) who in 1879 commissioned the watercolours from then relatively unknown John Crowther. The intention of the commisssion was to record some of the buildings endangered by the rapid expansion and modernisation of the Victorian metropolis. John Crowther worked for more than 15 years on the project, producing more than 440 watercolours and some pencil drawings.
    The watercolours depict ancient buildings in many parts of central and suburban London. As a record of changing London a particular strength of the series are the depictions of the area around the Inns of Court. Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey was a lawyer which may have influenced this concentration, but the artist John Crowther was often drawn to the more picturesque sites also completeing pictures of some of the remaining galleried coaching inns and old manor houses swallowed up by suburbia. He was also attracted to the richness of buildings such as the City of London Livery Company Halls, the interiors of which he depicted particulalrly successfully.
    The watercolours are detailed records of the subjects and locations depicted but also have great delicacy and atmosphere.

    The artist John Crowther 1837?-1902? was born in Pudsey, Yorkshire and began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1876.
Extent: 442 watercolours and drawings in 27 boxes
Other Formats: Items available through the LONDON PICTURE ARCHIVE:. The LONDON PICTURE ARCHIVE can only be viewed online. Please check the LONDON PICTURE ARCHIVE or see staff for details.
Classification: COLLECTIONS
Site Location: London Metropolitan Archives
Format Type: work of art: paper
Level of Description:
    Series

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Administrative History:
  • The collection of watercolours by John Crowther (the Chadwyck-Healey Collection) was given to Guildhall Library in 1961 by Sir Edward Chadwyck-Healey. Sir Edward , who died in 1979, was the grandson of Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey (created baronet for Wyphurst in the County of Surrey in 1919) who in 1879 commissioned the watercolours.
Creator: Crowther, John (1837?-1902?)
Custodial History: Commissioned by Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey in 1879 the watercolours comprising this collection were given to Guildhall in Library in 1961 by Sir Edward Chadwyck-Healey. In 2009 the collection was transferred with the prints, drawings and maps collections to LMA.
The Chadwyck-Healey Collection was augmented in 2012 by the addition of a watercolour by Samuel Prout, showing the house occupied by William Caxton near to Westminster Abbey. This was the gift of Sir Charles Edward Chadwyck-Healey
Copyright: City of London
Source of Acquisition:
  • Owned by CoL
Access Restrictions: Not available for general access
Related Material: A handlist of the collection with a note on Crowther was prepared by the LTS at the time of the 1947 display of the watercolours at Guildhall Art Gallery . A further selection of the drawings was shown in 1963, and in c2005 a two-part exhibition of selected drawings of interiors was held in Guildhall Library. Guildhall Library hold pamphlets and catalogues on the collection and these exhibitions.