William Kilburn
William Kilburn | |
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Born | 1745 Dublin, Ireland |
Died | 1818 | (aged 72–73)
Known for | Illustrations, calico printing |
William Kilburn (1745–1818) was an illustrator for William Curtis' Flora Londinensis, as well as a leading designer and printer of calico. A few hundred originals of his water colour designs make up the Kilburn Album, housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.[1]
William Kilburn was born in Dublin in 1745.[2] He was the son of a Dublin architect, Samuel Kilburn (d.1770), and was an apprentice to a calico printer, but spent his spare time engraving and sketching. He moved to Bermondsey after his father's death, and found living quarters near Curtis's nursery. Within a short while his skills were being used in the Flora Londinensis, for which he provided life-sized preparatory watercolours and thirty-one signed etchings. An engraved, illustrated trade card for the gardener Thomas Greening in the British Museum, London, further attests to Kilburn's activity in this medium.[3] He soon returned to calico printing, becoming financially successful.
Kilburn was the chief petitioner in March 1787, requesting
Many of Kilburn's works are available for viewing at The Victoria and Albert Museum, in South Kensington, London. An archive of Kilburn patterns are also available from the online V&A archives.
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Illustration of dandelion from Flora Londinensis
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Printed cotton with seaweed pattern
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c.1790 dress in a Kilburn cotton print, (RISD Museum)
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Detail of textile from dress
References
- ^ "Alistair Kilburn, Artist - HOME PAGE".
- ^ "Design | Kilburn, William". V&A Collections. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
- ^ Martin Hopkinson, "Gardeners' Trade Cards by William Kilburn and Francois Vivares", Print Quarterly, XXXV, no.4, December 2018, pp.420-426 http://www.printquarterly.com/8-contents/66-contents-2018.html
- JSTOR 871159.