Artwork
H Beard Print Collection
H Beard Print Collection is a print by the Romanticist artist Samuel Richardson. It dates from 20 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
The scene captures Richardson with the “remarkable characters” he met that year.
This print shows Samuel Richardson and friends in Tunbridge Wells back in 1748.
It’s from 1804, printed in London for Richard Phillips.
That makes it one of the later Romantic-era prints.
The scene captures Richardson with the “remarkable characters” he met that year.
It feels like a snapshot of social life from the 1700s.
The print is now at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Want to see more Romantic prints? Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Overview
The work is a printed image titled “H Beard Print Collection,” created in 1804 and produced in London for the publisher Richard Phillips. It portrays the novelist Samuel Richardson together with a group of acquaintances he encountered at the spa town of Tunbridge Wells in 1748. The print is part of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection.
Subject & Meaning
The composition records a gathering of Richardson and the “remarkable characters” he met during his 1748 visit to Tunbridge Wells, a fashionable resort for the eighteenth‑century elite. By depicting this social circle, the image offers a visual snapshot of contemporary leisure and intellectual exchange among literary and cultural figures of the period.
Technique & Style
Executed as a print in the early Romantic era, the work employs line work and shading typical of early nineteenth‑century British engraving. The relatively flat rendering of figures and the emphasis on narrative detail reflect the period’s interest in documenting historical episodes with a modest degree of realism.
History & Provenance
Printed in London in 1804 for Richard Phillips, the image was likely intended for a market interested in literary nostalgia. It entered the Victoria and Albert Museum’s holdings at an unspecified date, where it now serves as a reference point for studies of Richardson’s social milieu and early Romantic print culture.
Context
Tunbridge Wells was a celebrated spa destination in the mid‑1700s, attracting writers, aristocrats, and physicians. Richardson’s 1748 visit placed him among a network of influential personalities, a fact that the print commemorates. The work thus situates the novelist within broader patterns of 18th‑century social mobility and the emergence of public leisure spaces.
Artist & collection
Artist
Samuel Richardson made a single print in the H Beard Collection on 20 May 1804. The sheet shows a modest street scene, likely a London lane, with a row of brick houses and a shallow cart track. A solitary figure in a…
