William Henry Pyne

He specialized in picturesque settings including groups of people rendered in pen, ink and watercolour.

[2] Pyne's book The Costume of Great Britain, including 60 paintings of professional and working-class men and women and scenes from everyday life (published by William Miller in 1805),[3] attracted the attention of the publisher Rudolph Ackermann, and Pyne was to engrave and write for many of his projects, including writing the text for the first two volumes of the very successful illustration-centred The Microcosm of London.

It caused financial difficulties for him – he was imprisoned for debt more than once,[4] and died a poor man in 1843.

[5] As Ephraim Hardcastle, he wrote gossipy columns on art for the Literary Gazette, which in 1824 were collected in 2 volumes as Wine and Walnuts, or After-dinner Chit-chat.

His son, George Pyne (1800–01 - 1884), was also a painter in watercolour, writer on drawing and perspective.