William Alfred Delamotte, Front of St John’s College, Oxford, 1840

William Alfred Delamotte (1775-1863) was born in Weymouth, the son of a French refugee, and studied at the Royal Academy Schools under Benjamin West. For forty years he was drawing master at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Oxford was his chief subject, and his ‘Original Views of Oxford’ appeared in 1843.

The view runs along the stone front of St John’s College, with the gate tower beyond and a line of trees on the right. Dons in gowns and mortarboards walk the broad pavement. A woman in a bonnet talks with a fellow, and a girl sits beside a basket with a dog at her side.

Lithograph with a buff tint stone, finished by hand in watercolour. Lettered in the stone at lower left ‘Front of St John’s College Oxford’, ‘W. A. Delamotte del.’ and ‘1840’. In a cream mount with a gilt slip, within a black and gilt frame.