George Garrard
Encyclopedia
Scale model
A scale model is a physical model, a representation or copy of an object that is larger or smaller than the actual size of the object, which seeks to maintain the relative proportions of the physical size of the original object. Very often the scale model is used as a guide to making the object in...
, sculptor, engraver and printmaker. He played a major role in lobbying Parliament
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
to introduce legislation to protect the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
of works by modellers of animal and human figures.
Life and work
Garrard came from a family of artists, tracing his descent back to Marcus Gheeraerts the YoungerMarcus Gheeraerts the Younger
Marcus Gheeraerts was an artist of the Tudor court, described as "the most important artist of quality to work in England in large-scale between Eworth and Van Dyck" He was brought to England as a child by his father Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, also a painter...
(c. 1561/62–1636) who was a painter to Queen Elizabeth I of England
Artists of the Tudor court
The artists of the Tudor court are the painters and limners engaged by the monarchs of England's Tudor dynasty and their courtiers between 1485 and 1603, from the reign of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I....
and her successor Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark was queen consort of Scotland, England, and Ireland as the wife of King James VI and I.The second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark, Anne married James in 1589 at the age of fourteen and bore him three children who survived infancy, including the future Charles I...
. He studied art first under a well-known drawing-master called Joseph Simpson, then with Sawrey Gilpin
Sawrey Gilpin
Sawrey Gilpin was an English animal painter, illustrator, and etcher who specialised in paintings of horses and dogs. He was made a Royal Academician.-Life and work:...
, and in 1778 became a student of the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, where, in 1781, he first exhibited some pictures of horses and dogs. Three years later he sent with other pictures a "View of a Brewhouse Yard", which attracted the notice of Sir Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
, who commissioned him to paint a similar picture. In 1793 he exhibited "Sheep-shearing at Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire", but early in 1795 it occurred to him that (plaster) models of cattle might be useful to landscape painters, and from this time he combined painting with modelling.
This led him in 1797, with the concurrence of the Royal Academy and some of the leading sculptors of the day, to petition parliament in support of a bill for securing copyright on the works of modellers of human and animal figures. This resulted in an act of 1798 - "An Act for encouraging the Art of making new Models and Casts of Busts, and other Things therein mentioned" ("The Models and Busts act"). Now, for the first time, British copyright law provided protection for a medium other than print.
In 1800 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in the same year he published a folio volume with coloured plates, entitled "A Description of the different varieties of Ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
en common in the British Isles, embellished with engravings; being an accompaniment to a set of models of the improved breeds of Cattle, executed by George Garrard, upon an exact scale from nature, under the patronage of the Board of Agriculture" (or "Prints of improved British Cattle"). In 1802 he exhibited "A Peasant attacked by Wolves in the Snow" but after 1804 he appears to have restricted himself almost entirely to sculpture and modelling.
Garrard painted both in oil
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
and watercolours, and contributed also to the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy busts, medallions, bas-reliefs, and groups of animals, such as "Fighting Bulls" and "An Elk pursued by Wolves", sometimes in marble or bronze, but more often in plaster. He exhibited in all 215 works at the Royal Academy, besides a few others at the British Institution
British Institution
The British Institution was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it was also known as the Pall Mall Picture Galleries or the British Gallery...
and the Society of British Artists. He painted a large picture called "Woburn Sheep-shearing in 1804" and containing eighty-eight portraits of agricultural celebrities of the time (it was hung at one time in Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey
Woburn Abbey , near Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the seat of the Duke of Bedford and the location of the Woburn Safari Park.- Pre-20th century :...
). The picture was engraved in aquatint
Aquatint
Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching.Intaglio printmaking makes marks on the matrix that are capable of holding ink. The inked plate is passed through a printing press together with a sheet of paper, resulting in a transfer of the ink to the paper...
by the artist himself.
Garrard married Matilda Gilpin, the eldest daughter of his teacher Sawrey Gilpin. He died at Queen's Buildings, Brompton, London, on 8 Oct. 1826. A chronological list of his paintings can be found in Walter Gilbey's "Animal Painters, volume 1" (see "further reading").
Further reading
- Gilbey, Sir Walter. Animal painters of England from the year 1650, volume 1 (London: Vinton & Co., 1900) pp. 176–189.
External links
- George Garrard online (ArtCyclopedia)
- George Garrard on Artnet
- Paintings by G. Garrard (Bridgeman Art Library)
- Portraits published by George Garrard (National Portrait Gallery, London)
- Loading the Drays at Whitbread Brewery, Chiswell Street, London, 1783
- Portraits by George Garrard (Leeds Art Gallery - 30 Aug 2010)
Attribution