German, 1764 - 1834
Rudolf Ackermann was born in Saxony, Germany, in 1764. Ackermann was apprenticed to his father, a coachbuilder, and spent his early life in Dresden, Paris and finally immigrating to London in the 1780s, still building coaches. In 1795 Ackermann opened a print shop a 96 Strand, London, where he sold prints, books, artist materials and exhibited paintings.
Ackermann was one of the first publishers in England to use the aquatint process for illustration, pioneering the popular method. In 1797, he moved his business to 101 Strand where, in the following year, it became known as 'The Repository of the Arts'. Ackermann was a talented lithographer and began publishing a series of attractive colour-plate books. This included The Microcosm of London, that was published in three volumes between 1808 and 1811. In addition to publishing, the shop also housed the only public arts library in London. Ackermann was a major patron of British artists and designers, featuring them in his monthly fashion and arts magazine, 'The Repository of the Arts'. He had a close association with Thomas Rowlandson, who illustrated one of his first colourplate works, and had many caricatures published by Ackermann.
Adresses: Wissembourg, as Imagerie alsacienne (successor of the business of F C Wentzel; Ackermann also succeeded C Burckardt in Wissembourg) 96 Strand, London (1795-1806; 1827-56, as The Repository of Arts, in 1832 and in 1834 as Messrs Ackermann & Co, in 1836 as Ackermann & Co.) on the corner of Beaufort Buildings (see trade card Banks 100.19) 101 Strand, London (1797-1825; called from 1798 The Repository of Arts) (nb this operated simultaneously with 96 Strand, as did some of the later addresses); also under this address Ackermann's Lithographic Press (in 1817) 220 Strand, London (1803) 191 Regent Street, London (from 1825, in 1835; R. Ackermann Junior's Eclipse Sporting Gallery in 1831) 106 Strand, London (1855-61) 157a New Bond Street (20th century) 3 Old Bond Street (20th century) 33 Old Bond Street (1991)
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