William Walcot (1874 – 1943) - an Architect’s View of London.

William Walcot was truly “the architects’ etcher”, having been trained as an architect himself, prior to becoming an artist and mastering the art of etching. It was his fellow architects who were the first to recognize his genius and it is architects who have proved to be the enduring customers for his art and his etchings. London, in particular, attracted Walcot’s eye and through his skill with the etching needle he created a vibrant record of 20th-century London and its changing streets up to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Born in Russia, William Walcot was trained and practised as an architect until his arrival in England, soon after the turn of the century. His brilliant sense of architectural perspective led to his rapidly becoming the foremost architectural artist of the period, enjoying spectacular success during his lifetime.

William Walcot’s inventive style owed much to his early training as an architectural draughtsman in Paris, where he had developed a great sympathy for the work of the Impressionists. His superb architectural etchings were unique in their suggestion of space and in their grasp of scale – highly distinctive in style, these works combine architectural accuracy with an impressionistic appearance of vibrant everyday life. Through skilful draughtsmanship and an ingenious combination of printmaking techniques Walcot beautifully contrasts the grandeur and permanence of architecture with the transient nature of the bustling activity at its feet.

In the past few decades a series of exhibitions, including shows at The Building Centre in London and most recently the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Architects as Artists show, have brought William Walcot’s work to prominence once more.