Artist: Edward Hull (English, 1823-1906)
Title: Oxford from Headington Hill
Medium: Antique heliogravure on wove paper after the original by a Master Engraver.
Signature: Signed in the plate, lower left.
Dimensions: Image size 7 7/8 x 10 7/8 inches.
Framed Dimensions: Image Approximately 17 x 20 inches.
Framing: This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.
Edward Hull was an English illustrator and watercolour painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. He was the brother of Willam Hull, another well known illustrator and watercolour painter. Hull was born in Keysoe in Bedfordshire, England, the fourth son (and sixth child) of a farmer, James Hull, who became a Moravian missionary to Manchester. He was an engraver who also painted many watercolours and, in later life, became known as a book illustrator. He was employed from 1855 to 1861 by The Illustrated Times, a successful London weekly, and was an illustrator for several books such as Stratford on Avon by Sidney Lee (published around 1890) and The Laureate’s Country (a book on Alfred Tennyson) by Alfred J. Church, published around the same time. Hull lived most of his life in London. He travelled widely in England as his paintings and illustrations show. He married and had two daughters and three granddaughters. He died on 3 February 1906 and is buried in St Peters Church at Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire. The Royal Academy shows a number of Hull’s paintings being exhibited there to 1874. The earliest one shown from 1827 is by another Edward Hull, a son of Thomas Henry Hull – a well-known miniaturist – and originally thought to be a relative of Edward Hull (1823–1906), but they are no longer thought to be related. The two are often confused. There is also another Edward Hull who was a furniture maker and shop owner who was a close friend of Augustus Pugin (the designer of much of the interior of the House of Commons). He also lived in London at the same time but is also not related.