Thomas Malton, Architectural Draughtsman
(d. 1801)
Architectural Draughtsman
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was born in 1726. He originally kept an upholsterer's shop in the Strand. He began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1772, and contributed five architectural and perspective views between that date and 1785. In 1774 he published "The Royal Road to Geometry," and in 1775 "A Compleat Treatise on Perspective," folio, with frontispiece and 58 plates. He advertised a course of lectures on perspective in 1775, and was then living in Poland Street. In 1785 he left London, owing to pecuniary embarrassments, and settled in Dublin where he struggled to support himself by teaching perspective. He died in Dublin on 18th February, 1801. A "View of the inside of the Cathedral of St. Peter, Waterford," was engraved by John Roberts after a drawing by him. He engraved in aquatint and published in London in 1785 two views after drawings by F. Wheatley, "The Sheds of Clontarf" and "A View of the Bay of Dublin."
His son, James Malton, is separately noticed. Another son, THOMAS MALTON, jun., born in 1748, was also an architectural draughtsman and exhibited 128 drawings and designs in the Royal Academy between 1773 and 1803. He did not work in Ireland. In 1792 he published "A Picturesque Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster," with 100 aquatint views by himself, and in 1802 "Picturesque Views of the City of Oxford." He died in London on 7th March, 1804.