Samuel Lines

After a period working in agriculture for his uncle he moved to Birmingham in 1794 and secured an apprenticeship as a designer to Thomas Keeling, a firm of clockmakers and enamellers.

[2] Lines was then employed by Messrs Osborn and Gunby of Bordesley as a sword blade decorator, designer and engraving to the highest standard.

[5][6] His art classes notoriously started at five o'clock in the morning, with Lines himself personally visiting latecomers to rouse them.

[8] In 1809 he was one of a group of local artists who founded the Birmingham Academy of Arts – a school of life drawing that came closer to Lines' vision by holding its first public exhibition of its members' works after moving to Union Street in 1814.

[4] In December 2013 a Birmingham Civic Society blue plaque was attached to the Old Joint Stock pub, (formerly a bank) on the site of his home and drawing academy.

Samuel Lines (1863) by William Thomas Roden
Samuel Lines, Birmingham from the Dome of St Philip's Church in 1821 (1821), Oil on canvas.
Blue plaque