[Balliol College]

Method Etching
Artist John Baptist Malchair
Published [n.d. c. 1770-80]
Dimensions Image 85 x 190 mm, Plate 111 x 191 mm, Sheet 220 x 300 mm
Notes A scarce etching of the old front of Balliol College with figures standing outside. Inscribed J.M.C. f in the lower right of the plate.

John Baptist Malchair (b Cologne, 1731; d Oxford, 12 Dec 1812). English painter and printmaker of German birth. The son of a watchmaker, he moved to England c. 1754 and taught music and drawing in London, Lewes and Bristol before settling in Oxford as a drawing-master and leader of the band at the city's Music Room. In 1763 he published 12 etchings of views near Oxford; further sets of etchings followed in 1771 and 1772. His only Royal Academy exhibit was a watercolour landscape, shown in 1773 when he was listed as an honorary exhibitor. There is no evidence that he sold his work. Nearly 500 drawings by Malchair are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; these include unpretentious cottage subjects and panoramic views of the city (e.g. Oxford in Flood Time, from Shotover Hill, 1791) characterised by an atmospheric haziness achieved through blurred pencil lines and grey or pastel wash.

Condition: Light oversall surface dirt, short tear to right margin edge not affecting the image, diagonal crease left just to left corner plate mark, stain to lower left paper edge not affecting the image.
Framing unmounted
Price £100.00
Stock ID 49653

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