Background
Stothard was born in London on the 5th of July 1786. He was the son of the painter, Thomas Stothard.
Stothard was born in London on the 5th of July 1786. He was the son of the painter, Thomas Stothard.
He was educated at a school run by a Mr Dearne, and then became a private pupil of the Rev Robert Burnside. He studied at the Royal Academy from 1807.
He began, in 1810, his first historical piece, the Death of Richard II in Pomfret Castle. He published in 1811 the first part of his valuable work, The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. He was appointed historical draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries, and was deputed by that body to visit Bayeux to make drawings of the tapestry.
He was subsequently engaged in numerous journeys with the view of illustrating the works of D. Lysons. While engaged in tracing a portrait from one of the windows of the church of Beer Ferrers, Devonshire, he fell and was killed on t. he spot (May 27, 1821).
Stothard's principal publication was The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain; selected from our cathedrals and churches for the purpose of bringing together, and preserving correct representations of the best historical illustrations extant, from the Norman Conquest to the reign of Henry the Eighth, a folio volume containing many etched plates.
He was made a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1819.
Quotes from others about the person
A later antiquarian, W. H. Hamilton Rogers, who also made studies of the Ferrers family in the same church, wrote 70 years later:
A gifted student in the pursuit we also at humbler distance love, made pilgrimage here, and was engaged in making a drawing of its interesting painted story, when death suddenly stayed the work of the artist, snapping the very pencil in his fingers, and instantly translated him, from picturing the earthly image of the founder of these courts below, into his immortal presence in the great temple above. .. His cunning fingers are mouldering in the dust below, and moss and decay are stealthily obliterating his record outside, but the fidelity and truth of his works remain bright and undimmmed, forming his best and most enduring monument.
In February 1818, he married Anna Eliza Bray. They had one child, a daughter, who only survived her father by a year.
