George
Scarf was born in Mainburg, Bavaria on 23rd April, 1788. At the age
of sixteen he went to Munich to study art. Scarf studied painting
and lithography under Professor Hauber. A talented artist, Scarf soon
found work producing lithographs for printers in Munich.
In 1810 Scarf left Munich and began travelling through France and
Holland. He caught up in the Allied siege of Antwerp in January, 1814.
He managed to escape and then enlisted in the English Army where he
was employed to draw maps, sketches of fortifications and diagrams
of troop movements. After seeing action at the Battle of Waterloo,
Scarf returned to Paris.
In 1816, Scarf decided to emigrate to England. At first Scarf concentrated
on political prints and cartoons. He produced pictures of the Spa
Fields Riots (1817), the Westminster Election
(1818), the Cato Street Conspirators (1820)
a portrait of Arthur Thistlewood (1820)
and the Coronation of George IV (1821).
Scharf
began working with German lithograph publishers
who had settled in England. This included Rudolph
Ackermann, Charles
Hullmandel and Francis Moser. This involved the production of a large
number of prints and paintings of London.
These were mainly street scenes and
incidents of ordinary London life. Scharf was especially interested
in men at work. Two of his most paintings of this period were Laying
a Water-Main in Tottenham Court Road
(1834) and Railway
Construction at Camden Town
(1836).
In the 1840s Scharf tended to concentrate on scientific work. His
main clients were doctors, naturalists and the Royal
College of Surgeons.
Scharf's health began to deteriorate in the early 1850s. Unable to
work, his last years were dominated by money problems. George Scharf
died on 11th November, 1860.
George Scharf, Laying a Water-Main in Tottenham Court Road
(1834)
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