Charles Alfred Stothard (July 5, 1786 - May 27, 1821) was an antiquarian draughtsman.
Stothard was born in London, the son of the painter, Thomas Stothard. After studying in the schools of the Royal Academy, he began, in 1810, his first historical picture, the Death of Richard II in Pomfret Castle. In 1811, he published the first part of his valuable work, The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
He was appointed historical draughtsman to the Society of Antiquaries, and was deputed by that body to visit Bayeux to make coloured drawings of the tapestry for publication in the series Vetusta Monumenta. He was made a fellow of the society in 1819, and subsequently engaged in numerous journeys with the view of illustrating the works of Daniel Lysons.
His widow, Anna Eliza Bray, with the assistance of her brother, completed his Monumental Effigies, left unfinished at his death. She also published a biography of Stothard in 1823.[1] 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 was published in 12 parts between 1811 and 1817, together forming two folio volumes. Alfred John Kempe added text in 1832 and John Hewitt issued an enlarged edition in 1876.
While engaged in tracing a portrait from one of the windows of the church of Bere Ferrers, Devon, he fell off a ladder and died. His grave is at Bere Ferrers. A later fellow antiquarian, W. H. Hamilton Rogers, who also made studies of the Ferrers family in the same church, wrote 70 years later:[2]
"A gifted student in the pursuit we also at humbler distance love, made pilgrimage here, and was engaged in making a drawing of its interesting painted story, when death suddenly stayed the work of the artist, snapping the very pencil in his fingers, and instantly translated him, from picturing the earthly image of the Founder of these courts below, into his immortal presence in the great temple above... His cunning fingers are mouldering in the dust below, and moss and decay are stealthily obliterating his record outside, but the fidelity and truth of his works remain bright and undimmmed, forming his best and most enduring monument".
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.