Artvee
  • Browse
    • Abstract
    • Figurative
    • Landscape
    • Illustration
    • Posters
    • Religion
    • Mythology
    • Drawings
    • Still Life
    • Animals
    • Botanical
    • Asian Art
  • Books
  • Artists
  • Explore
    • Topics
    • Culture
    • Movements
  • Highlights
  • Collections
  • Galleries
  • Artvee Pro
Login
Artvee
Menu
Vincent Robert Alfred Brooks - Jockeys of the Victorian and Edwardian Turf executed by Spy and others for the ‘Vanity Fair’ Series

Jockeys of the Victorian and Edwardian Turf executed by Spy and others for the ‘Vanity Fair’ Series

Vincent Robert Alfred Brooks (English, 1815–1885)
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Favourite
Collect

Standard, 1195 x 1800px JPG, Size: 1.56 MB

Download

Max Size, 2720 x 4096px JPG, Size: 10.23 MB

Download
License: All public domain files can be freely used for personal and commercial projects.
Why is this image in the public domain?
The Artist died in 1885 so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries where the copyright term is the Artist's life plus 70 years or fewer.
Vincent Robert Alfred Brooks

Vincent Robert Alfred Brooks first set up business in 1848. His father was the radical printer and stationer John Brooks of 421 Oxford Street. John Brooks has been described as the publisher of the Owenites because of his association with the early socialist Robert Owen. He published an edition of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Queen Mab, and was a member of the second council of the National Political Union.

After leaving school, Vincent Brooks spent time on John Minter Morgan's farm estate near Uxbridge before returning to London to join his father in business. Around 1840 John Brooks relocated to the Channel Island of Jersey where he continued to trade as a wholesale stationer and paper merchant. Vincent was left with the business in London. At some time during this period he was also associated with Charles Robertson, an artists' colourman based in Long Acre.

It is not certain at what point Vincent Brooks first practised lithography. A number of his early pieces were shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The following year the business moved from Oxford Street to 40 King Street, Covent Garden.

Vincent conducted lithographic classes at Marlborough House during 1855 in what was destined to become the Royal College of Art. He was entrusted with the Princess Royal's Dying Soldier on the Battlefield, which was reproduced and sold in aid of the Patriotic fund. The following year the Arundel Society commissioned a series of lithographs to be issued yearly to their subscribers. An effort described as ‘...the most important non-commercial application of chromolithography' in the country at the time. However, the Arundel Society complained, maybe unjustly, about the quality or the lack of expertise in depicting religious subjects. The prints were also hampered by delays and by 1860 production had been switched to a German firm.

The Leighton Brothers, who would go on to produce the pictures featured in the Illustrated London News, left their Red Lion Square premises in 1857. Vincent Brooks is reported to have taken over the remaining plant.

Staying in the Covent Garden area of London, two years later, during 1859, Vincent Brooks moved to larger premises in Chandos Street. The street is now renamed Chandos Place. Work from this era is marked either as Vincent Brooks Lith. or Vincent Brooks imp.

London's International Exhibition of 1862 saw Vincent Brooks awarded a gold medal for his Lithograph of Mulready's Choosing the Wedding Gown. The same year Vincent Brooks produced one of his finest works in the form of a chromo-lithograph of the Lumley Portrait of William Shakespeare. It is even reported that the reproduction was so complete that one was sold for forty guineas to a purchaser who thought he was buying the original portrait.

During the 1860s, Vincent Brooks acquired plant and premises of Messrs J.S.Hodgson & Son of High Street Lambeth and he embarked in letterpress and colour block printing. The firm also fought off competition from Day & Son and Messrs Hanhart Bros in reproducing one of John Leech's cartoons of Jorrocks in a competition organised by Punch Magazine. The company's winning entry was reproduced by one of their leading chromo-lithographic artists, William B. Bunney, and the firm's success led to many years of work from Punch.

In 1865 Vincent Brooks became involved with the 'inventor' of colour printing George Baxter. He purchased many of Baxter's plates and printed them using Baxter's presses which he had lent him on the understanding that George Baxter Jr. took up the management of them and that George Baxter himself supervised the work. It was a complex process that required up to 20 blocks per image. The process failed to pay its way and Brooks sold the plant four years later to Abraham Le Blond.

1866 saw Vincent Brooks joined in business by his second eldest son Frederick Vincent Brooks who was to eventually take over after his father's death. Vincent's eldest son Alfred William Brooks had preceded his younger brother into the firm but 'never had very robust health' and by 1901 had left the business. Later that year the firm purchased William Willis’ remarkable Aniline process of direct photography, which reproduced engineering 'blue prints' keeping the original positive image.

At Paris's Exposition Universelle, held during 1867, Vincent Brooks won a gold medal for 'the excellence of their reproductions'.

Vincent Brooks had started negotiating to take over the business of Day & Son Ltd during 1866. Financially assisted by the Henry Graves, the Printseller of Pall Mall, Vincent Brooks bought their property, name, and goodwill in an agreement dated 25 March 1867. The firm now became known as Vincent Brooks, Day & Son.

In Collection: Vanity Fair caricatures (View all 1077)

Explorers and Inventors. ‘Wives without wires’. Mr. Guigliemo Marconi.

Explorers and Inventors. ‘Wives without wires’. Mr. Guigliemo Marconi. (1905)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Politicians – ‘West Hampshire’. William Bramston Beach. June 27, 1895

Politicians – ‘West Hampshire’. William Bramston Beach. June 27, 1895 (1895)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Literary; ‘Before Sunrise’, Algernon Charles Swinburne, November 21, 1874

Literary; ‘Before Sunrise’, Algernon Charles Swinburne, November 21, 1874 (1874)

Carlo Pellegrini (Italian, 1839-1889)
Politicians – ‘Clapham’. Mr. Percy Melville Thornton. 22 March 1900

Politicians – ‘Clapham’. Mr. Percy Melville Thornton. 22 March 1900 (1900)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Politicians – ‘A Cynical Radical’. Lord Weardale. 25 July 1906

Politicians – ‘A Cynical Radical’. Lord Weardale. 25 July 1906 (1906)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Vanity Fair: Politicians – ‘The Smart Critic’. Mr. Bernal Osborne. 28 May 1870

Vanity Fair: Politicians – ‘The Smart Critic’. Mr. Bernal Osborne. 28 May 1870 (1870)

Alfred Thompson
Musicians; ‘Queen’s Hall’, Mr. Henry Wood

Musicians; ‘Queen’s Hall’, Mr. Henry Wood (1907)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Vanity Fair: Royalty; ‘A Living Monument of English Injustice’, The Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, April 16, 1870

Vanity Fair: Royalty; ‘A Living Monument of English Injustice’, The Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, April 16, 1870 (1870)

Alfred Thompson
Politicians – ‘Wit and Wisdom’. Mr. A.C. Plowden. 16 December 1908

Politicians – ‘Wit and Wisdom’. Mr. A.C. Plowden. 16 December 1908 (1908)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Politicians – ‘Australia’ Sir Edmund Barton. October 16, 1902

Politicians – ‘Australia’ Sir Edmund Barton. October 16, 1902 (1902)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Politicians – Vanity Fair. ‘The Privy Purse’ The Rt. Hon. Gen. Sir Henry Ponsonby. 17 March 1883

Politicians – Vanity Fair. ‘The Privy Purse’ The Rt. Hon. Gen. Sir Henry Ponsonby. 17 March 1883 (1883)

Théobald Chartran (French, 1849-1907)
Politicians – ‘Alick’. The Hon. Alexander Grantham Yorke. 20 August 1881

Politicians – ‘Alick’. The Hon. Alexander Grantham Yorke. 20 August 1881 (1881)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Politicians – ‘A Late Whip’. Lord Tweedmouth. 12 July 1894

Politicians – ‘A Late Whip’. Lord Tweedmouth. 12 July 1894 (1894)

Leslie Matthew Ward (English, 1851-1922)
Military and Navy; ‘Handsome Fred’, Captain Frederick Marshall, March 16, 1878

Military and Navy; ‘Handsome Fred’, Captain Frederick Marshall, March 16, 1878 (1878)

Carlo Pellegrini (Italian, 1839-1889)
Sports, Miscellaneous; Carriages; ‘A Peninsular Veteran’, The Marquis of Tweeddale, January 8, 1876

Sports, Miscellaneous; Carriages; ‘A Peninsular Veteran’, The Marquis of Tweeddale, January 8, 1876 (1876)

Carlo Pellegrini (Italian, 1839-1889)
View all 1077 Artworks

0 Artworks
Follow
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Favourite
Collect

Standard, JPG, Size:

Download

Max Size, JPG, Size:

Download
License: All public domain files can be freely used for personal and commercial projects. .
Why is this image in the public domain?
  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Contact us
Artvee.com 2024 All Rights Reserved
We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. By browsing this website, you agree to our use of cookies.
More info Accept
  • Sign in
  • Browse
    • Abstract
    • Figurative
    • Landscape
    • Illustration
    • Posters
    • Religion
    • Mythology
    • Drawings
    • Still Life
    • Animals
    • Botanical
    • Asian Art
  • Artists
  • Books
  • Explore
    • Topics
    • Culture
    • Movements
  • Highlights
  • Collections
  • Galleries
  • Artvee Pro