Pen and ink with grey wash over graphite on paper Given by
Felder Fine Art, 2001 Kerrich was a clergyman, a distinguished
antiquarian and a gifted amateur artist. After graduating from
Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1771, he travelled to Europe on
the Grand Tour, and was awarded a silver medal for drawing by
the academy in Antwerp. In 1797 he was elected Fellow of the
Royal Society and in the same year was appointed Cambridge
University Librarian. A significant part of Kerrich's own
collection of paintings, drawings, and - especially - prints
came to enrich the collections of the Fitzwilliam through the
bequest of his son, Richard Edward Kerrich in 1873; other parts
of his collection were left to the British Museum and the
Society of Antiquaries. As a draughtsman, Kerrich worked mainly
as a portraitist, and he made a special study of Gothic
architecture and sepulchral monuments. He was one of the first
artists to work in lithography, and to take an interest in
atmospheric sky effects and cloud formations, an