According to Simon Houfe, Read, who specialized in landscape and architectural subjects, “was placed in a lawyer’s office at Ipswich and then as an assistant to an architect” before going to London where he studied drawing under J. W. Whymper and W. C. Smith. He began working for the Illustrated London News in 1844, and “over the years he became an institution in The ’News and he was unofficially retained as Art Editor.” He was also an accomplished watercolorist. — George P. Landow
Illustrations for English Sacred Poetry
- The Old Church in a Storm by Robert Blair
- Thou art, O God by Thomas Moore
Illustrations for The Illustrated London News
- The Minister’s Ford
- The Prodigal Son
- Westgate Quarter (Exeter)
- Rougemont Castle (Exeter)
- The Guildhall (Exeter)
- Houses, North Street (Exeter)
- Old Houses, Forth Street (Exeter)
- Entrance Gate to the Castle (Lancaster)
- Doorway in Bridge-Lane (Lancaster)
- The Castle (Lancaster)
- Stalls in the Parish Church (Lancaster)
- Staircase in the King’s Arms (Lancaster)
- Lancaster from the Moor (Lancaster)
- Stone Bow (Lincoln)
- Old Houses (Lincoln)
- [St. Mary’s] Conduit (Lincoln)
- The Jews’ House (Lincoln)
- Obelisk (Lincoln)
- The Ferry (Norwich)
- Old Houses near the Market-Place (Norwich)
- Erpingham Gate (Norwich)
- Entrance to the Grammar-School (Norwich)
- Bishop’s Bridge (Norwich)
Bibliography
[All Illustrated London News material is available in the Hathi Trust online versions of copies in the Princeton University Library.]
Houfe, Simon. The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Book Illustrators. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors club, 1998.
"Leaves from a Sketchbook: Exeter." Illustrated London News 55 (1869): 169-70. Web.
"Leaves from a Sketchbook: Lancaster." Illustrated London News 53 (1868): 72-73.
"Leaves from a Sketchbook: Lincoln." Illustrated London News 53 (4 December 1868): 565-66.
"Leaves from a Sketchbook: Norwich." Illustrated London News 53 (1868): 169-70.
Wilmott, Robert Aris, ed. English Sacred Poetry of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries. "A new edition." London: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, 1863.
Last modified 31 May 2021