in this and the following years, and a number of small but spirited drawings of the famous actors and actresses of the day. Among the prose works illustrated by him were novels by Fielding, Smollett, Richardson, and Sterne, Ridley's ‘Tales of the Genii,’ Paltock's ‘Peter Wilkins,’ ‘Don Quixote,’ ‘Gil Blas,’ ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ the ‘Arabian Nights,’ the ‘Vicar of Wakefield,’ and ‘Gulliver's Travels.’ These designs made a new departure in book illustration by their variety of invention, their literary sympathy, their spirit and their grace. Those to ‘Peregrine Pickle’ and ‘Peter Wilkins’ have been specially admired, but Stothard never surpassed those to ‘Clarissa Harlowe’ for elegance, or those to ‘Tristram Shandy’ for delicate humour. He may be said to have founded the types of Sancho Panza and Uncle Toby, afterwards adopted by his friend Charles Robert Leslie [q. v.] and others. To this period also belong a few charming illustrations to Ritson's ‘Songs’ (1783). A little later (1788–9) came his illustrations to the ‘Pilgrim's Progress,’ in which he found a region of pure but very human allegory well suited to his gentle imagination.
Some larger prints published separately about this time included ‘The Power of Innocence,’ illustrations of ‘Cecilia,’ the ‘Sorrows of Werther,’ ‘Caroline de Lichtfield,’ and a few classical and allegorical pieces, as ‘Callisto’ and ‘Zephyrus and Flora.’ The last two were engraved by William Blake [q. v.], at this time a friend of Stothard, and often employed to engrave his designs. To 1790 belong his illustrations to ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ published by John Stockdale, and engraved by Medland, a series of great beauty (reingraved by C. Heath, and published by Cadell thirty years later); and also a set of six charming groups of children at school and at play. Besides these more important designs, he executed a number of headpieces, tailpieces, frontispieces, and vignettes of all kinds, including some charming miniature drawings of royal festivities. He designed even shop-cards and fashion plates, for, though popular, he was poorly paid, and, having married in 1783, had to provide for an increasing family.
For some years Stothard's contributions to the Royal Academy consisted principally of designs from poets and novelists, and he sent none from 1786 to 1791. In the latter year the exhibition of ‘Friars, a Conversation,’ and three historical pictures (‘Marriage of Henry the Fifth with Catherine of France,’ and two from the life of Richard I), was followed by his election as an associate. It is said that after this his contributions to the academy exhibitions were generally painted in oils. It was at this time that he was employed upon Macklin's bible, for which he painted ‘Jacob's Dream,’ ‘Ruth and Boaz,’ and ‘St. John preaching in the Wilderness.’ In 1792 he exhibited ‘A Confirmation,’ one of his elegant illustrations of the Book of Common Prayer, which was published by Harding in that year. In 1793, besides six paintings from Telemachus, came the exquisite little picture of ‘The Dryads finding Narcissus,’ which is now in the National Gallery. These years, 1792–3, are memorable for the appearance of his designs to Milton, which were engraved by Bartolozzi, and perhaps show more than any other of his works the true limits of his genius. It was far more at home in ‘Paradise’ than ‘Pandemonium,’ but his ‘Sin’ and ‘Death’ are finely conceived. It was in 1793 also that his first illustrations to Rogers's ‘Pleasures of Memory’ were executed. The first edition of the poem in the British Museum, illustrated by Stothard, is dated 1794, but there are two engravings in the print-room—one of them the delightful ‘Hunt the Slipper’—which are dated 1793.
Stothard was elected an academician in 1794, and removed from Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, to 28 Newman Street, where he remained till his death. He purchased the house and furniture out of the capital left him by his father. About this time he began a series of a dozen or more pictures of historical events for Bowyer's ‘Historic Gallery’ or illustrated edition of Hume, on which he appears to have been engaged for ten years at least (1795–1805). They range from the ‘Suppression of the Monasteries’ to the ‘Landing of William III at Torbay.’ They are of no great merit, but one of them, ‘The Smothering of the Princes in the Tower’ (dated 1795), is interesting from its likeness to Chantrey's famous ‘Sleeping Children’ in Lichfield Cathedral (which is said to have been designed by Stothard); the pose of the children had, however, been anticipated in Northcote's ‘Murder of the Princes in the Tower,’ exhibited in 1786 (cf. Mrs. Bray, Thomas Stothard, p. 184 n.) In 1796 he exhibited ‘A Victory,’ which he kept till his death, and regarded as his finest painting, and in this year appeared his illustrations to the ‘Fables of Flora,’ which are remarkable for the gracefulness of their fancy and the beautiful drawing of the flowers. In 1798 were published his beautiful illustrations to Pope's ‘Rape of the Lock,’ in 1790 the ‘Seven Ages’ from Shakespeare, and by the close of the century he may be said to have almost covered
