The Quayside, Magdalen Street, Oxford

A musical child prodigy, Crotch made his London debut on organ and piano at the age of four, and was educated at Cambridge from the age of eleven. He was appointed organist of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1790, and became the first Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in 1810. He was a prolific and talented amateur watercolourist whose style was much indebted to J.B. Malchair (1731-1812), a violinist and teacher of many Oxford undergraduates, who numbered the Finch family (see lot 251) amongst his pupils. Malchair handed over his practice to W. A. Delamotte (see preceding lots 195-6).