MALTON, THOMAS, the elder (1726–1801), architectural draughtsman and writer on geometry, born in London in 1726, is stated to have originally kept an upholsterer's shop in the Strand. He contributed two drawings of St. Martin's Church to the exhibition of the Free Society of Artists in 1761, and also architectural drawings to the exhibitions of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1766 and 1768. In 1772 and the following years he sent architectural drawings to the Royal Academy. In 1774 he published 'The Royal Road to Geometry; or an easy and familiar Introduction to the Mathematics,' a school-book intended as an improvement on Euclid, and in 1775 'A Compleat Treatise on Perspective in Theory and Practice, on the Principles of Dr. Brook Taylor.' He appears to have given lectures on perspective at his house in Poland Street, Soho. Subsequently, owing to pecuniary embarrassment, it is said, Malton removed to Dublin, where he lived for many years, and obtained some note as a lecturer on geometry. He died at Dublin on 18 Feb. 1801, in his seventy-fifth year. There are four drawings by him in the South Kensington Museum.
His eldest son, Thomas Malton the younger, is noticed separately.
Malton, James (d. 1803), architectural draughtsman and author, was another son. He accompanied his father to Ireland. Like his father, he was a professor of perspective and geometry, and, like his brother, produced some very fine tinted architectural drawings. In 1797 he published 'A Picturesque and Descriptive View of the City of Dublin,' from drawings taken by himself in 1791-5. In 1795 he published 'An Essay on British Cottage Architecture;' in 1800 a practical treatise on perspective, entitled 'The Young Painter's Maulstick,' and in 1802 'A Collection of Designs for Rural Retreats or Villas.' Malton died of brain fever in Norton (now Bolsover) Street, Marylebone, on 28 July 1803. There are specimens of his drawings in the British and South Kensington Museums.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760-1880; Pasquin's Artists of Ireland; Gent. Mag. 1801 i. 277, 1803 ii. 791, 1804 i. 283; Catalogues of the Royal Academy, &c.]
MALTON, THOMAS, the younger (1748–1804), architectural draughtsman, son of Thomas Malton the elder [q. v.], was born in 1748, probably in London. He was with his father during the latter's residence in Dublin, and then passed three years in the office of James Gandon [q. v.], the architect, in London. In 1774 Malton received a premium from the Society of Arts, and in 1782 gained the Academy gold medal for a design for a theatre. In 1773 he sent to the Academy a view of Covent Garden, and was afterwards a constant exhibitor, chiefly of views of London streets and buildings, drawn in Indian ink and tinted; in these there is little attempt at pictorial effect, but their extreme accuracy in the architectural details renders them of great interest and value as topographical records; they are enlivened with groups of figures, in which Malton is said to have been assisted by F. Wheatley. After leaving Ireland, Malton appears to have always lived in London, with the exception of a brief stay at Bath in 1780; from 1783 to 1789 he resided in Conduit Street, and at an evening drawing-class which he held there, received as pupils Thomas Girtin and young J. M. W. Turner, whose father brought him to be taught perspective. In after-life Turner often said, 'My real master was Tom Malton.' In 1791 Malton removed to Great Titchfield Street, and finally, in 1796, to Long Acre. He made a few of the drawings for Watts's 'Seats of the Nobility and Gentry,' 1779, &c., and executed some large aquatints of buildings in the metropolis and Bath, being one of the first to avail himself of the newly introduced art of aquatinta for the purpose of multiplying copies of his views. He also painted some successful scenes for Covent Garden Theatre. In 1792 Malton published the work by which he is now best known, 'A Picturesque Tour through the Cities of London and Westminster,' illustrated with a hundred aquatint plates. At the time of his death he was engaged upon a similar series of views of Oxford, some of which appeared in parts in 1802, and were reissued with others in 1810. Malton died in Long Acre on 7 March 1804, leaving a widow and six children. His portrait, painted by Gilbert Stuart, was engraved by W. Barney in 1806; and a portrait of his son Charles, when a child, drawn by Sir T. Lawrence, has been engraved by F. C. Lewis. The South Kensington Museum possesses three characteristic examples of Malton's art, and a fine view by him of the interior of St. Paul's Cathedral is in the print room at the British Museum.
