Bibliography on JL Petit

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21st Century

Peer Reviewed Articles

  1. G. Stamp (Formerly independent scholar and architectural professor)

In Search of The Byzantine: George Gilbert Scott’s Diary of an Architectural Tour of France in 1862, Architectural History, vol 46 (2003), pp 195–200. Noting Scott followed Petit’s itinerary from 1851.

  1. D. Moore (Former keeper of Pictures National Library Wales)

The Building of Caerdeon Chapel in Merioneth: a unique pictorial record, in: Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol 136 (2007). Focusing on Petit’s series of pictures of Caerdeon under construction.

  1. P. Modiano (Independent Researcher)

The Revd JL Petit (1801-68) and the Beauty of Churches, The British Art Journal, vol XVIII No 2 2017 (superseded by 2023 article below, for Petit’s later work.)

John Louis Petit – Standing up to the Neo-Gothicists, Ecclesiology Today Issue 55-56 2017

JL Petit: Lost Progressive Artist of the Mid-19th Century, The British Art Journal, vol XXIII, No 3, 2023

The Exceptional Character of the Caerdeon Chapel (forthcoming) 2026

  1. N. Karydis (Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Architectural History, Univ Kent)

 

Discovering the Byzantine Art of Building: Lectures at The RIBA, The Royal Society and The London Architectural Society, 1843-58, in: Architectural History, vol 63 (2020).

Books

  1. P. Modiano

J L Petit – Britain’s Lost Pre-Impressionist (2022). A short introduction to Petit’s art. The book received coverage in the Guardian, Country Life (issue 2.11.22 p134 by Huon Mallalieu), national media and journals eg The Victorian. Endorsement Andrew Graham-Dixon.

Petit’s Tours of Old Staffordshire (2019). Groups ~Petit’s Staffordshire art into tours. Longlisted for the W M Berger Art book prize. Wide local coverage in Wolverhampton and Staffordshire, the Historian, Blackcountryman and a few other journals.

Clarke, Petit and St. Mark’s – A 19th Century Journey on the Isle of Man (2022). The story of his friendship with the Chaplain of St Mark’s. This book identified a cluster of buildings almost certainly designed by Petit. Coverage in on-island press, reviewed in the IoM Soc Antiquaries annual review IoM Studies, 2023 vol XVIII, p179.

Other Articles/ Online

  1. W. Szatkowski (Independent Researcher)
  • Wikipedia article on John Louis Petit (from 2023) (with P. Modiano)
  • “The Kind and Clever Sisters” – The Misses Petit of Lichfield (2024) at http://revpetit.com/the-misses-petit-of-lichfield/. This describes three artist sisters who lived with him in Lichfield.
  1. Prof C Baker (Independent Researcher)
  1. P. Modiano

(selection)

  • www.jlpetit.com (from 2017-2025)
  • St James’ Church, Gerrards Cross, The Historian, Issue 149 Spring 2021
  • John Louis Petit, The Tablet, 10.9.22 p21
  • John Louis Petit, Antique Collecting, September 2022, p54
  • JL Petit, The Remarks Drawings, Art and Christianity Winter 2022, p18

4. Ian Cooke (A major watercolour collector who bequeathed a large Petit Collection to National Library Wales, approx 170 works). A Collector’s Story (2020) at http://revpetit.com/the-revd-petit-a-collectors-story-by-ian-cooke/

  1. A. Tomkins

The Experience of Bilston in the Cholera Epidemic of 1831-1832. The Historian July 2021 (Using Petit’s pictures to illustrate an historical episode)

 

Booklets

  1. P. Modiano

The Lichfield Series. 2024. With Introductions by Prof. Robin Simon, Rt Revd Bishop Michael Ipgrave

Impressions of Industry. 2025. With introductions by Andrew Graham-Dixon, Prof Malcolm Dick OBE

Dictionaries

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2005

Braithwaite JL Petit. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2005 (Not corrected for errors, see more useful 1896 entry, below)

20th Century

  1. Sir N Pevsner

Some Architectural Writers of the 19th Century, Oxford, 1972. Chapter 12.

  1. P Lyon

John Louis Petit and the debate on Architectural Style (1977) (MA Thesis, 33 pages, available at Manchester).

Dictionaries

  1. Alumni Cantabrigienses, ed John Venn (apparently the source of various errors on dates of parish work, where lived etc). First published 1953.
  2. A History of British Watercolour Painting. H M Cundall (1929)

19th Century

 Obituaries

  1.   The Architect, Jan 2nd 1869, p10.

The Late Rev. J. L. Petit, MA. By A. Hartshorne. Laudatory but accurate too. Re-published in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association.

  1. The Builder Dec 19th 1868

Death of the Rev. J. L. Petit (short)

  1. The Register and Magazine of Biography (March 1869). Follows 1 with inaccuracies.
  2. Proceedings of Society Antiquaries April 23 1869 (short)

 

Dictionaries

(Only 1, is substantive. Of note is that others emphasize Petit’s art above his writing.)

  1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Petit, John Louis (1801-1868). (1896) G. Le G. N.

  1. A Dictionary of Artists, Samuel Redgrave (1873)
  2. A Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Michael Bryan (1889) vol II
  3. Men of the Time, Edward Walford (1862)
  4. Modern English Biography by Frederic Boase vol II (1897) shortened version of 1.
  5. A critical dictionary of English literature and British and American authors, living and deceased, from the earliest accounts to the latter half of the nineteenth century. Ed S. A. Allibone An abbreviated version of above.
  6. The Palatine Notebook (1881)
  7. Dictionary of General Biography, ed W. Cates (1875)
  8. Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica vol IV 1884 Ed J. J. Howard
  9. Alumni Oxienses (1715-1886) by Joseph Foster, vol III 1888.

Works by J. L. Petit

See http://revpetit.com/the-writer/ for lists of books, articles and speeches. A selection only are available in libraries, including the libraries of record. Best selection is at the Bodleian followed by the British Library

Reviews of Petit’s Publications

The major books Remarks on Church Architecture (1841), and Architectural Studies in France (1854, and 1890) were widely reviewed, see esp Gentleman’s Magazine and The Ecclesiologist. The smaller publications occasionally received reviews.

See also editor’s introduction to 1890 edition of Architectural Studies in France.

Letters

Major caches of letters by Petit are at

  • Northampton Archives (letters to C. Hartshorne)
  • John Ryland Library, Manchester (letters to E. Freeman)

Letters to The Builder especially in Feb-Apr 1856 are significant.

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