Charles Alfred Stothard

Charles Alfred Stothard (5 July 1786 – 28 May 1821) was an English antiquarian draughtsman, with a special interest in monumental effigies.

Life Stothard was born in London, the son of the painter, Thomas Stothard. He was educated at a school run by a Mr Dearne, and then became a private pupil of the Rev Robert Burnside. He studied at the Royal Academy from 1807, and began his first historical picture, the Death of Richard II in Pomfret Castle three years later. His depiction of the king was based closely on the effigy on his tomb in Westminster Abbey.

He soon abandoned the historical painting for a project which he hoped would be more remunerative, The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain. He published the first part in 1811; an accompanying advertisement explained that its purpose was to supply historical painters with accurate details of costume up to the reign of Henry VIII, to illustrate history and biography, and to provide accurate information on dress for productions of the plays of Shakespeare. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1819.

The "founder of these courts below" was Sir William Ferrers, founder of Bere Ferrers church, whose image appears in the stained glass window Stothard was drawing at the time of his death.

Publications Stothard's principal publication was The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain; selected from our cathedrals and churches for the purpose of bringing together, and preserving correct representations of the best historical illustrations extant, from the Norman Conquest to the reign of Henry the Eighth, a folio volume containing many etched plates. He began to issue it in parts in 1811, but it remained unfinished at his death. His widow, Anna Eliza, brought it to completion, with the assistance of four different etchers (who produced the remaining plates from Stothard's original drawings), and her brother, Alfred John Kempe (who provided additional text, based in part on Stothard's own notes). The complete volume finally appeared in 1832, although it contains two title pages, one dated 1817 and the other 1832, which has sometimes caused bibliographical confusion. The focus of the published work is firmly on effigies, but Phillip Lindley has shown that this was a consequence of Stothard's premature death, and that his intention was to record more of their monumental and architectural contexts.

A second edition of Monumental Effigies, in two folio volumes and with further additional text by John Hewitt, was published in 1876. A facsimile edition of the first edition, at a slightly reduced size, was issued by Ken Trotman Publishing in 2011.

Engravings from Stothard's drawings of the Bayeux Tapestry were made by James Basire, and published in 1823. They show the complete tapestry, and were described by the art historian Eric Maclagan as "exquisite plates [which] still provide what is in many ways the most adequate representation of the original".

Anna Eliza also published her Memoirs of Stothard, incorporating many journal entries, letters, and other original documents, in 1823. The book did much to mould and enhance his posthumous reputation.