I 82 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



and he went with his mother to Hve at Stepney 

 Green. 



He had ere then displayed such marked fondness 

 for drawing that his mother wisely determined to 

 seek for him some calling in which his talent should 

 be of service ; and accordingly he was apprenticed 

 to a designer of patterns for the richly brocaded 

 silks which were then worn by ladies. His master 

 died before Stothard's indentures expired, and 

 though he continued to work for the widow, it is 

 evident that he had no faith in the pattern-design- 

 ing industry as a means of livelihood. He worked 

 hard at other branches of art, and having minutely 

 studied Nature, his clever drawings of animals, birds 

 and flowers, earned him the patronage of publishers 

 for whom he executed vast numbers of illustrations 

 for various books. His first illustrations of im- 

 portance were those executed for the Town and 

 Country Magazine, Bell's British Poets and the 

 Novelists Mao^azine. Among; other famous men 

 who noted his early talent was John Flaxman, the 

 sculptor ; and their meeting laid the foundation of 

 a close and lasting friendship which proved of ad- 

 vantage to both. 



Stothard in the year 1778 became a student at 

 the Royal Academy ; ceasing to live with his 

 mother, he shared lodgings in the Strand with 

 a friend, and contrived to live on the interest of 



