ONE of the great assets of the internet and electronic communication is that resources are now readily accessible that previously could only have been reached by herculean means.

Add to that a profound and personal knowledge of the world of museums, auction houses, book collectors and others who curate rare and little-known works and you have a formula for making remarkable new discoveries.

In particular, artists whose works have not generally been exhibited, but have lain in cabinets and bookshelves and in corners of grand houses can be resurrected, with astonishing results.

One of these is George Shepherd (1784-1862), son of a silversmith, whose remarkable watercolours reveal views of places – many in Hampshire – that have long disappeared with the passage of time and the wrecking-ball.

And yet, until Winchester resident Bill Hoade first became aware of Sheppard’s talent six years ago, he was an obscure, largely forgotten artist, whose works were so scattered that it was virtually impossible to study them.

Now the full range of his work is demonstrated in a fine, limited-edition volume that for the first time demonstrates his genius – and also tells the story of his rise and fall.

It all started when Bill was introduced in the archives of Winchester College to Winchester Illustrated, a collection of volumes with interleaved, or ‘extra-illustrated’ watercolours of the city. These remarkable pictures, dating from the mid-1820s, spurred him to track down Shepherd and put him on the podium of art appreciation.

As well as pictures of familiar subjects – the cathedral, the Square, local churches and the High Street, there are views of the Plague Monument, Serle’s House and officers’ barracks, the George Inn, the New County Gaol, Hyde House and the abbey gatehouse, “the Duchess of Portsmouth’s house in St Peter’s Street” and many other parts of the city. Each view is accompanied by detailed historical commentary.

The study of Shepherd’s work has also tracked down unknown views of places throughout the country that will delight local historians everywhere. In Hampshire alone, as well the series of Winchester views, there are some other amazing pictures of places at the end of the Regency period.

The quest to find Shepherd’s work took Bill on a tour of the country and its museums – not only Hampshire, but London, Oxford, Middlesex, Kent, and Cornwall. His many contacts with curators and the like and the museums they directed came up with great treasures. George Shepherd: His Life and Work is designed by Tim Underwood and illustrated with more than 200 reproductions of drawing, watercolours and prints from a wide variety of sources.

Much of Shepherd’s income came from illustrations for books, printed with engravings made by others – often with changes to the picture. As illustrated in the new book, many of the fine engravings in Mudie’s History of Hampshire, published in the 1830s, were, for example, made from Shepherd’s works.

Those not content with engravings – and able to afford it – ‘grangerised’ their volumes by commissioning pictures from artists and inserting them into printed editions, as seen in ‘Winchester Illustrated’. In this way, the extent was often increased so much that what may have started a single volume required a bookcase to accommodate the additional volumes.

The term ‘grangerising’ is credited to clergyman James Granger (1723-1776), whose Biographical History was often ‘extra-illustrated’ in this way, though he apparently never did so himself. Amongst many wealthy men who took up the practice was the eccentric, and even insane, landowner and collector Sir Gregory Osborne Page Turner (his real name!) who employed Shepherd to produce a large number of drawings and watercolours.

An unknown painting by Shepherd turned up after a call in the Hampshire Chronicle for owners of works by him. Dr Bruce Lees responded with a watercolour of Twyford Church that he and his wife had hanging in their home. It showed an oversize tombstone in the foreground inscribed “I:M.”.

Locally, this was thought to be in memory of a child from the Moberley family, prominent in the area. But research suggests that the unfortunate child was, in fact Joseph Maberly – ‘I’ and ‘J’ were often not distinguished – a son of Page Turner’s solicitor (who later defrauded him). Sadly, the child died whilst being ‘shown’ to his grand-parents and was probably buried in Twyford in an unmarked grave and the tombstone imaginary, an exercise in ‘artistic licence’.

Bill commented: “This was a very important moment for me in my research as I am sure that it was this visit of Shepherd to Twyford that later made him suggest to Page Turner that he paint the wonderful series of pictures of Winchester in the College that are now reproduced for the first time in full in the book.”

Shepherd’s works often have a “relaxed quality and meticulous attention to detail” and “overtones of impressionism”. They include views of Andover, Basingstoke and Christchurch (then in Hampshire) commissioned by Alexander Hendras Sutherland for his grangerised volumes of Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion, now in the Ashmolean Museum.

Bill writes: “The picture of Andover is wonderfully tranquil, with the foreground figures passing their time leisurely gleaning among the corn stooks, paying no heed to the buildings drenched by the evening sun in the centre of the composition.” Colourful wild flowers “complement the colours of the clothes worn by three women and a boy”.

The view of Christchurch shows the church and town “beautifully reflected in the calm water bathed in the afternoon sun”, with a ferryman and passengers and a small boy fishing in the foreground. The picture is one of peace and calm with sailing vessels idly moored in the harbour.

In contrast, Basingstoke is depicted as a busier place, with coach and horses making their way up Church Street, with liveried men “trying to coax the resistant horses to move forward on what is clearly a hot afternoon, to judge from the elegantly dressed ladies reclining in the open coach”. In the distance is the cupola of the old town hall, demolished in 1832.

Bill Hoade brings to this project a long career as a leading figure in the antiquarian book trade – in many areas, especially in archaeology – cataloguing and dealing with many fine libraries and specialist collectors. He started life playing the saxophone and working in Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. Whilst on tour in the USA he collected rare books, sending them back home in ‘11 lb parcels’. When his bedroom eventually became so full he couldn’t get in it, he went into the book trade, first in London and later in Dorset.

George Shepherd: His Life and Work, with a foreword by Professor Martin Biddle, is published in a limited edition of 310 copies at a special low price for subscribers, who have their name printed in the front. This traditional form of ‘crowd funding’ will ensure that the work of a great artist is honoured – and it could be a good investment.

To order, visit: www.hoade-ink.com.

For more on Hampshire, visit: www.hampshirearchivestrust.co.uk and www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

barryshurlock@gmail.com