William Daniell

He travelled extensively in India in the company of his uncle Thomas Daniell, with whom he collaborated on one of the finest illustrated works of the period – Oriental Scenery.

In 1784 William accompanied his uncle to India, who worked there on a series of prints, acting as his assistant in preparing drawings and sketches.

[citation needed] William's brother Samuel Daniell remained independent of his uncle and also became a topographical artist; he went to South Africa in 1801 and after his return to England published African Scenery and Animals (1804–5), a collection of aquatints.

Both he and William were inexperienced printmakers and had to enlist the help of Indian craftsmen, but the set, executed in aquatint,[3] was completed in November 1788 and sold well.

In August 1789, Thomas and William set off up-river past Murshidabad to Bhagalpur, where they stayed with Samuel Davis (1760–1819), an employee of the East India Company and a skilled amateur artist.

They continued on to Kanpur and then travelled overland to Delhi, visiting Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Mathura on the way; the following April they made a pioneering tour to Srinagar, Uttarakhand and Garhwal in the Himalayas.

Since the Third Mysore War was in progress, the Daniells suspected that a market existed among the British for oil paintings and drawings of the areas in which the conflict was taking place.

Farington records in his diary that William Daniell had informed him that after his return to England he spent the next seven years working from six in the morning until midnight perfecting his aquatinting techniques.

In looking at it, one may almost feel the warmth of an Indian sky, the water seems to be in actual motion, and the animals, trees and plants are studies for the naturalist.

The original intention was to make a coastal trip by sea, but it became clear early on in the venture that this was not practicable, and most of the journey around the coast had to be made by road.

In the summer of 1813, Daniell and his companion, Richard Ayton, who was to write the accompanying text, covered the coast from Land's End to Holyhead.

Daniell's approach was to make pencil sketches of views that looked interesting, annotating them with details of colour and texture.

The transfer of the picture from paper to copper in the form of an aquatint plate required great artistic skill and dexterity.

The novelist Walter Scott not only advised Daniell on the places to visit in Scotland, but also provided him with material for inclusion in the accompanying text.

When setting out from London in May, he had not planned to cover so much of the coastline on one visit, but the weather in 1815 was exceptionally favourable, with good visibility and clear skies providing perfect conditions for an artist.

Garvey's book follows Daniell around part of the voyage, the Hebridean islands of Eigg, Rum, Skye and Raasay, locating the viewpoints included in his aquatint prints.

Over the period 1813 to 1825, in parallel with preparing the prints for the Voyage, Daniell was busy on other projects, which included paintings for the Academy Exhibitions.

The artistic quality of the paintings and aquatints produced and published by Daniell for A Voyage Round Great Britain was considered to be very high.

His shipping scenes, such A Bird's-Eye View of the East India Dock at Blackwell (National Maritime Museum, London), were supplemented by greatly admired battle pieces.

We feel, in looking at these aquatints, that perhaps Daniell, with the philosophy of a much-travelled man, realised that in the cool greys and greens with which he "stained" his prints was the charm of his own land, more enduring than the exotic mystery of the Orient or the strange architecture of Hindistan.Daniell worked right up to his death, on 16 August 1837 at Brecknock Terrace, Camden Town (now 135 St Pancras Way).

The final twist in the story of A Voyage Round Great Britain, was the discovery, in 1962, of 306 of the original 308 Daniell copper plates, the location of which had not been known for more than 100 years.

It seems appropriate that of all the topographical books of the 19th century it should be copper plates for Daniell's Voyage Round Great Britain that have survived – they are a monument to his industry and his unsurpassed skill in handling the remarkable delicacy of the aquatint process.