Frederick Catherwood
Frederick Catherwood ( 27 February 1799 - 20 September 1854 ) was an illustrator and architect British famously illustrated the discovery of the ruins of Mayan civilization during the expeditions of John Lloyd Stephens. While Catherwood was not the first Westerner to explore some of Mayan cities, it was nevertheless the first to illustrate with precision what he saw, unlike his predecessors who, like Jean-Frdric Waldeck , sometimes had an imagination overflowing. His drawings are so great archaeological value, as some sites have deteriorated thereafter, but also artistic.
Biography
Catherwood was born in suburban London to Hoxton.
After completing a series of lectures on Piranesi to the Royal Academy in 1820 , he became interested in the architecture and especially the ancient monuments. He was then invited by the painter John Severn to travel to Rome where he studied classical architecture.
In 1824 , while in Egypt to paint, he met Robert Hay interested in his drawings and invited him to accompany him on an expedition to the Nile to draw and explore the ruins of ancient Egypt. He returned to London in 1835 after 9 years of exploration.
Then he met John Lloyd Stephens in a show of Brudford Panorama Catherwood company which was associated, and they become friends. After the fire in New York in 1835, Catherwood traveled to the United States , at the insistence of Stephens to help rebuild the city as an architect.
In October 1839 Stephens from a diplomatic mission to Central America and brings with him Catherwood. November 17, they start exploring Copn that Stephens buys 50 Catherwood there making his first drawings of the Mayan civilization.
They are interrupted in their explorations by diplomatic obligations Stephens. These completed, then they explore Palenque and Uxmal.
Catherwood then falls ill and they are forced to return to New York in July 1840.
In October 1840, they returned for another expedition. They then explore Mayapan , Uxmal again, and then radiating from this city to many sites throughout the region, ending their journey by Labn , Chichen Itza , Coba and Tulum.
They return to the United States in June 1841. In 1843, Stephens publishes Incident of travels in Central America, the story of their travels, illustrated with 120 drawings of Catherwood, who was very successful. Catherwood reissued the book in 1854 after the untimely death of Stephens, adding a short biography of him.
In September 1854 he sailed to California on the SS Arctic, which in a dense fog hits another ship off Newfoundland. Catherwood drowned along with 300 other passengers.
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