A framed and mounted black line etching by the English artist Sir Henry Rushbury KCVO CBE RA (28 October 1889 – 5 July 1968) depicting St James's Church Clerkenwell. Signed in pencil by the artist.

Clerkenwell contained a notorious slum at the turn of the 20h Century and was the setting for George Gissing's Novel, The Netherworld -

"Opposite, the shapes of poverty-eaten houses and grimy workshops stood huddling in the obscurity. From near at hand came shrill voices of children chasing each other about – children playing at midnight between slum and gaol!"

“Draughtsman, watercolourist, printmaker and painter. Henry George Rushbury was born at Harborne, Birmingham, and attended Birmingham School of Art, 1903-9, where he studied mural painting and stained glass.

For two years he was assistant to Henry Payne and worked on decorations for Madresfield Court, Worcestershire, before moving to London in 1912. He later studied briefly at the Slade School of Fine Art under Henry Tonks (q.v.). He married the artist, Florence Lazell, in 1914 (their daughter is the painter and muralist, Julia Rushbury, b.1930).

He was appointed an Official War Artist during WWI and again during WWII. His first solo exhibition was at the Grosvenor Gallery, 1921; he also exhibited at the Royal Academy, New English Art Club, Royal Watercolour Society, Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, Fine Art Society and the Goupil Gallery.

Elected RA in 1936, he was Keeper of the RA 1949-64. Awarded CBE in 1960 and was knighted in 1964. He lived at Lewes, Sussex. His work is held in the Tate Gallery, in the RA Collection as well as in the British Museum. A centenary exhibition was toured from Birmingham City Art Gallery”

British Museum