Rydal Bridge

A painter who combined the beauty of landscapes in the English Lake District with topographical accuracy, Farington is now perhaps more well-known as a diarist. A Topographical artist, son of the Rev. William Farington, Joseph Farington was born at Leigh, in Lancashire. His father encouraged his interest in painting and, after studying with the painter Richard Wilson, Farington was admitted as a student at the Royal Academy, at its formation in 1768. He became a full member, a Royal Academician, in 1785. Farington was not only an artist but a diarist. From 1793 until his death in 1821, he kept a diary, which has since provided art historians with much information about the London art scene at that time. As an artist, Farington is best known for two collections of engraved views of the English Lakes. The first, a series containing twenty plates, was published in 1789, the second, with forty-three plates, was issued in l816. Rydal Bridge, illustrated here, is dated 1786 and was given to the LACF by Sir Michael Sadler in 1922.