This search will return exact matches only. For best results:
Please note that only low-res files should be uploaded. Any images with overlay of text may not produce accurate results. Details of larger images will search for their corresponding detail.
Drag file here
Upload
Processing search results
Waiting for update..
Error:
Search by Color
Choose your Colors
Add up to 5 colors and slide the dividers to adjust the composition
Add Color Block
Filters
Add keywords to refine your results
Search
Advanced Search
Search Tips
Searching for a particular field
Field
Search term
Example
Asset title
title:
title:pony
Asset title and keywords
~
~pony
Asset description text
description:
description:london
Agency prefix
prfx: or $
prfx:lal or $LAL
Asset id
imageid:
imageid:250297 or imageid:[2500 TO 4000]
Agency name
coll:
coll:history
Medium
medium:
medium:oil
Century
century:
century:20th
Keywords
kw:
kw:dog
Artist name
artist: or ?
artist:monet or ?monet
Artist nationality
??
??French
Creator ID
creatorid:
creatorid:37
Location
loc: or @
loc:exeter or @exeter
Classification
class: or #
class:57 or #57. Use # for unclassified assets
Year
year:
year:1850 or year:[1700 TO 1800]
Metadata Block (Hidden)
Contact us for further help
High res file dimension
Search for more high res images or videos
St George’s Hall, Liverpool, 1852 (pen & ink, w/c, gouache and gum arabic on paper)
IMAGE
number
ROC3505919
Image title
St George’s Hall, Liverpool, 1852 (pen & ink, w/c, gouache and gum arabic on paper)
pen and ink, watercolour, gouache and gum arabic on paper
Date
1852 AD (C19th AD)
Dimensions
32.2x48.3 cms
Image description
A watercolour depicting the exterior view of a classical neo-grecian building, with columns at the front and on the side, designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes. Figures and carriages are visible in the foreground. Signed and dated at lower right: "W. Wyld 1852". Inscribed and dated in a later hand on the verso. William Wyld was born in London but spent most of his life in France. After working for the British Consul in Calais and then going into the wine trade, he became a full-time watercolourist in 1834, influenced by the luminous works of the similarly expatriate Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-28). Queen Victoria first saw Wyld’s work in 1843 in the collection of her aunt Louise, Queen of the Belgians, choosing some of those watercolours for her own collection, and Louise subsequently ordered more works from Wyld to send to Victoria. The artist was invited to stay at Balmoral in September and October 1852, writing in a letter to a friend, ‘I am well and getting on very well with Her Majesty, who altho’ a Queen is one of the most amiable women I ever spoke to, and so completely does she put you at your ease that I am no more embarrassed in talking to her than to you.’ The Queen and Prince Albert visited Liverpool on 9 October 1851 and Manchester over the following two days, and commissioned a watercolour of each of the cities from Wyld soon after; £73 10s for the pair was paid to the artist in April 1852. The civic highlight of Liverpool was the great neo-Grecian St George’s Hall, the interiors of which were still under construction when Victoria visited the city. It was designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, who in 1839, at the age of twenty-five, had won a competition for a concert hall to be built in Liverpool by public subscription. The following year he won an ancillary competition for a court building, but contributions for the concert hall were meagre, and the city took over that project and decided to combine the two buildings in one. Elmes’s final plans date from 1841; he died in 1847, and Charles Cockerell (1788-1863) saw the building through to completion in 1856. Victoria thought St George’s Hall was ‘one of the finest modern buildings imaginable, quite worthy of ancient Athens ... The taste is so good & the style so pure ... Albert, whose great mind is always so ready to admire & approve all that is vast, great & grand, was delighted. He never really admires what is small in purpose & design, & frittered away in detail.’ Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010
Provenance
Commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1851 for her Souvenir Album