Artwork - William 'Memory' Woodfall

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Title: William 'Memory' Woodfall
Artist: Thomas Beach
Date: 1782 [Date painted]
Medium:
Categories: Portraits
Catalogue number: WOA 3345
Description: This is a version of the painting by Beach in the National Portrait gallery collection. Woodfall became known as the farther of Modern parliamentary reporting. He was the printer and editor of The Morning Chronicle and then produced his own paper, The diary. He undertook to write detailed accounts of the proceedings of parliament the same night, and his ability to remember information without the assistance of notes earned him the sobriquet of 'memory'. Before Woodall's revolutionary approach, parliamentary reporting had been irregular and often suspect. Of Beach he wrote' Mr Beach [paints] in a style which entitles that gentleman to a very distinguished situation among the best artists of the present age'.
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