John Cooke Bourne (1 September 1814 – February 1896) was a British artist, engraver and photographer,John Hannavy (2013) Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography.. p. 196. best known for his lithographs showing the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway.
His set of prints were each published as separate book, and became classic representations of the construction of the early railways. Prints were often hand coloured for a vivid picture of events.
Biography John Cooke Bourne was born in London, where his father worked as hat-maker in Covent Garden. He was related to the engraver George Cooke, who was his godfather,John Gage (1972) Turner: Rain, steam and speed. p. 86 and became befriended with his son Edward William Cooke,Engineering & engineers: bridges, rivers & canals, railways & the steam engine, electric telegraph. Elton Engineering Books, 1988. p. 24 whose uncle, William Bernard Cooke (1778–1855), was also a line engraver of note. After general education, Bourne became a pupil of the landscape engraver John Pye, who had specialised in illustrations for popular annuals and pocket-books. Bourne was further influenced by the work of Thomas Girtin and John Sell Cotman.Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators. Oxford University Press (2012) p. 154
When in the early 1830s near his home the construction started for the London and Birmingham Railway, the first main-line railway to enter London, this became Bourne's major source of inspiration. In 1836 Bourne started making drawings of the construction sides as subjects of professional study. These drawings were published in 1838/39 in a book in four volumes, with an accompanying text by John Britton. Late 1840 he lithographed some drawings for Robert Hay's publication, entitled Illustration of Cairo. Bourne continued to draw railway scenes, and in the 1840s became associate with Charles CheffinsRonald Russell. Discovering Antique Prints. Osprey Publishing, 2001, p. 57-58 In 1846
Cheffins commissioned Bourne to produce a series of drawings about the Great Western Railway, which connected London with the southwest and west of England and much of Wales. This led to the 1846 publication of History of the Great Western Railway. Bourne also drew the illustrations for Bennet Woodcroft's A sketch of the origin and progress of steam navigation from authentic documents. with were lithographed by Cheffins.Bennet Woodcroft. A sketch of the origin and progress of steam navigation from authentic documents with illustrations drawn by J.C. Bourne and lithographed by C.F. Cheffins. 1848
At the end of the 1840s, Bourne started working for Charles Blacker Vignoles, who was employed to construct the Nicholas Chain Bridge in Kiev over the Dnieper River. He travelled to Russia, drew and later photographed its construction until its completion in 1853. In that year, he made some pictures for the new 4th edition of Bennet Woodcroft's A Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation."John Cooke Bourne " at sciencemuseum.org.uk. Accessed 18 February 2014Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. Vol. 128. p. 296 (1982): This source confirms that in the 1850s edition "... pictures are by John Cooke Bourne and line drawings by Henry Bernoulli Barlow."
Bourne kept working in Russia as artist in residence for another decade. In the year 1852 he travelled together with Roger Fenton to Moscow and St Petersburg,John Cooke Bourne at luminous-lint.com. Accessed February 18, 2014. which resulted in his painting of the Moscow Kremlin (see image). He stayed in Russia in total for a period of twelve years as illustrator and photographer, before returning to England.
Bourne exhibited his work in the Royal Photographic Society in 1854, the Royal Academy of Arts in 1863 and the Royal Society of British Artists in 1865. Back in England in 1866, he married Catherine Cripps, and settled in Teddington. He died in 1896 at Brentford, a town in West London.
Work Bourne's major works were his drawings of the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway, and of the operations of the Great Western Railway, which were printed in 1838/39 and 1846. After these works he worked in Russia for over a decade.
A Series of Lithographic Drawings on the London and Birmingham Railway, 1838
Bourne's 1838 publications A Series of Lithographic Drawings on the London and Birmingham Railway, showed the construction of the railway from London to Birmingham in the year 1837–38.Peter Neaverson, Marilyn Palme (2002) Industry in the Landscape, 1700–1900. p. 162 For this work Bourne had translated his original watercolours into lithographs. It was accompanied by a text, entitled Topographical and descriptive Accounts of the Origin, Progress, and general Execution of that great national Work, written by John Britton. Britton was known in his days from the publication "The architectural antiquities of Great Britain",John Britton. The architectural antiquities of Great Britain which had appeared in multiple volumes since 1807. Britton (1838; p. 14) wrote about Bourne's work: It represent, not only some of the most striking scenery upon the line, but the peculiar manual and mechanical operations connected with the execution of the principal works. Amongst them the process of tunnelling, the formation of embankments and cuttings, the gear and machinery used in sinking shafts, and the subterraneous works of the stationary engine-house at Camden Town, are at once remarkable and interesting.Quote cited in: Gordon Norton Ray (1976) The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790 to 1914. p. 55
About the origin of this work Britton in his 1849 autobiography would recalled, that "some beautiful drawings of this Railway were made in the year 1838, by Mr. John C. Bourne, as studies from nature. They were submitted to Mr. Britton, who suggested the expediency of their being published. The great cuttings, embankments, and tunnels, on the London and Birmingham Railway, were, at the time referred to, matters of great novelty and absorbing interest to the inhabitants of the metropolis; and it appeared therefore certain that the beauty of Mr. Bourne's drawings, and the popularity of the subject, would ensure success in their publication."John Britton, T. E. Jones (1849) The Autobiography of John Britton: Personal and literary memoir of the author. p. 56
Britton (1849) further stated about the used techniques: "On considering the best mode of multiplying the drawings, that of tinted lithography was adopted, as best calculated to preserve the spirit and character of the originals, without reducing them in size. Although Mr. Bourne had not previously made any drawings on stone, he was eminently successful even in his first efforts; and the whole of the series (thirty-seven in number) were thus executed by himself. The prints were published in four periodical parts, at one guinea each (super-royal folio). On the completion of the work, a general Historical and Descriptive Account of the Railway, occupying twenty-six printed pages, was written by Mr. Britton."
1838 review One of the first reviews of this work in The Architectural Magazine by John Claudius Loudon, described that "the present work will comprise a series of thirty-three, or more, finished sketches, as executed by the artist on the respective spots, and transferred by himself to stone, with scrupulous fidelity. At the conclusion of the work, and with the last number, will be presented to the subscribers a brief Topographical and Descriptive Account of the Origin, Progress, and general Execution of this great national Line of Railway; with Descriptive Notices of the Scenes and Objects delineated in the different drawings."
The lithographs which will be contained in the whole work are the following:
No. ii. London Entrance Gateways, with Offices, &c. No. iii. View of covered Area adjoining the booking offices. No. iv. View of Parts of a Bridge under the Hampstead Road, &c. No. v. View under the Hampstead Road Bridge. No. vi. Excavations and Buildings, Park Village. No. vii. Eastern Face of the Bridge over the Regent's Canal at Camden Town. No. viii. View at the Camden Station, showing the Locomotive Engine House, the Chimney shafts of the Stationary Engine House, &c. No. ix. View of the southern Entrance to the Tunnel at Primrose Hill. No. x. View of the curvilinear Embankment, near Watford. No. xi. The River Colne Viaduct, near Watford. No. xii. View of South Face of Watford Tunnel. No. xiii. East Face of Nash Mill Bridge. No. xiv. Horse Runs, showing the raising of Ballast on the Embankment at Boxmoor. No. xv. View of the Oblique-arched Bridge at Boxmoor. No. xvi. Bridge over the Railway for Gravelpath Lane, near Berkhamsted. No. xvii. Deep Cutting, with Horse Runs, near Tring. No. xviii. Jackdaw Hill, Linslade, from the South-East. No. xix. East Face of Denbigh Hall Bridge. No. xx. View of the Embankment at Wolverton, during its Progress. No. xxi. View of the Wolverton Viaduct, from the South-West. No. xxii. and xxiii. showing different Portions of the Blisworth Cutting. No. xxiv. The Weedon Viaduct, from the East. No. xxv. and xxvi. Interior of the Kilsby Tunnel, and Entrance to the same. No. xxvii. Engine and Head Gear for raising Skips in the Shaft to Kilsby Tunnel. No. xxviii. Pumps at the same Tunnel, with the Engine-Houses, Gins, &c., in the distance. No. xxix. Brick Fields at the Kilsby Tunnel. No. xxx. View of the Viaduct over the River Avon. No. xxxi. View of the Sherbourne Viaduct, near Coventry. No. xxxii. and xxxiii. Views of the Birmingham Station. The second part of the work appeared in November 1838, and the two following parts at intervals of two months afterwards.
Loudon (1838) proceed: "Of the artistic merits of the lithographs, we cannot speak in too high terms; and as portraits, having passed along the whole line from London to Birmingham, they appear to us, as far as we could judge in that rapid transit, sufficiently faithful. For both these results, it is a great advantage that the same artist who made the drawings from nature should have also transferred them to stone." Britton (1838) describes in the text: The drawings were made during the years 1836, 1837, and 1838; and were intended as subjects of professional study, as scenes and compositions replete with picturesque effect and artistic character, rather than with any intention of their publication. As they increased in number, they increased in interest; and, as they have collectively afforded both amusement and information to many amateurs and men of science, by whom they have been examined and applauded, the artist is induced to submit them to the ordeal of public criticism, by which their intrinsic and relative merits will be duly and fairly appreciated. They are intended to show the letter as well as the spirit of railway formation, by representing not only localities and accompaniments on the line of road in its completed form, but embankments, viaducts, tunnels, and bridges, in such various stages of progress as to exhibit their practical formation and construction. Loudon (1838) concluded that: "It is added, that they are on that account likely to gratify both. the lover of the picturesque and the man of science: the former, by variety of lines and combinations; and the latter, by different modes of application of machinery, mechanism, and manual labour."
1839 reviews A 1939 review in The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal mentioned the completion of the other two parts. It further stated, that: