HUBARD GALLERY, Liverpool.  ‘Procrastination is the Thief of Time’.  Everybody has been, or is going, to the Hubard Gallery, 28, Middle of Lord Street.
130mm x 190mm. [Liverpool]: Riddick & Kerr [1824].

Single sheet printed on one side, tipped onto an album leaf.  Small ink burn with slight hole.                                 



    ~ William James Hubard (1809-1862) was born in Whitchurch, Shropshire.  His maternal grandfather was Reinhardt, a celebrated German sculptor.  At about the age of 7 he began to display precocious artistic talent, and in 1822, at the age of 13 he appeared publicly in Ramsgate as a portraitist. His debut was attended by the Duchess of Kent and members of the royal family including Princess Victoria, most of whom had their portrait painted by the child prodigy.  

    He became something of a sensation, and travelled throughout Britain; while in Liverpool he attracted the attention of newly-arrived visitors from America. In the same year, 1824, he sailed for New York, landing just after the arrival of General Lafayette.  Even though the young artist had only a brief glimpse of the general, he produced from recollection a remarkable likeness which was then displayed in his gallery.  This handbill, produced to accompany his Liverpool exhibition, says that “a faithful likeness in bust, with a frame and galss, may now be had for one shilling, or with highly finished drapery, 2s.6d to 5s.6d.,” also “portraits of horses, dogs, &c, plain or elegantly bronzed.”