John Gendall sketchbooks

The volumes are a series of sketches pasted in at a later date. They include watercolour drawings, pencil sketches, chalk and charcoal drawings of various picturesque locations at Lynmouth and Plymouth (one volume), Okehampton, Gloucester and Tintern (another), and other places (a miscellaneous volume).

John Gendall (1789-1865), artist, was brought from Devon to London by Sir John Soane. In the city he worked for Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834) as a manager, a developer of the new art of lithography, and an illustrator of publications. His sketching tour of Normandy was published as 'Picturesque tour of the Seine from Paris to the Sea'. After leaving Ackermann's, he moved back to Devon and occupied premises in Cathedral Yard, Exeter. He continued to paint in Exeter, and exhibited works at the Royal Academy from 1846 until his death on 1 March 1865.

Usual EUL arrangements apply

They were among the books bequeathed in 1953 by Ransom Pickard (source of information: Exeter University Annual Report).

Held at the Royal Albert Museum, Exeter, for some while after the exhibition. Returned to the University Library in late 2000.

The drawings are unlisted

Usual EUL arrangements apply.

The volumes remain in their original bindings.

John Gendall (1789-1865), Exeter's forgotten artist [catalogue of an exhibition held at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum] 11th July to 16th October, 1979 [with an essay by Felicity Owen] (The Museum, 1979).