Philip James de Loutherbourg Hand Numbered Limited Edition Print on Paper :"The Great Fire of London"
Title: The Great Fire of London
Dimensions (W x H ): Paper Size: 36 x 28 in | Image Size: 32 x 24 in
Edition | Medium: Each print is hand numbered, accompanied by a certificate signed by the Master Printer and is numbered to match the print. The editions are limited to 1880 copies. |
This Gouttelette print on paper is published with light-fast inks to BS1006 Standard onto acid-free calcium carbonate buffered stock, mould-made from 100% cotton and sourced from environmentally conscious paper suppliers. This product is exclusive to Rosenstiels.
About the Art: Superior Edition
About the Artist:
Loutherbourg was born in Strasbourg in 1740, the son of an expatriate Polish miniature painter. Intended for the Lutheran ministry, he was educated at the University of Strasbourg. However, rejecting a religious calling, Loutherbourg decided to become a painter, and in 1755 placed himself under Charles-André van Loo in Paris and later under Francesco Giuseppe Casanova.
His talent developed rapidly, and he became a figure in the fashionable society of the day. In 1767 he was elected to the French Academy, although below the age required by the rules of the institution, and painted landscapes, sea storms, and battles. Loutherbourg then travelled through Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Eventually settling in London in 1771.
He worked for David Garrick designing costumes and scenery at the Drury Lane theatre, gaining notoriety and admiration for his work until 1785. Thereafter achieving greater success with his mechanical theatre.
All the while he still painted, being commissioned to paint naval pictures to commemorate British naval victories, which still hang in the National Maritime Museum. With his finest work being the Destruction of the Armada. He also painted the Great Fire of London and several historical works. He was made a member of the Royal Academy in 1781.
In 1789 Loutherbourg temporarily gave up painting, in order to pursue an interest in alchemy and the supernatural; He and his wife also took up faith-healing. A pamphlet called ‘A List of a Few Cures performed by Mr and Mrs De Loutherbourg, of Hammersmith Terrace, without Medicine’ was published in 1789. Written by a follower named Mary Pratt, it claimed that the Loutherbourgs had cured two thousand people between Christmas 1788 and the following July.
Loutherbourg died in Chiswick in 1812.
