Bibliography on JL Petit

Bibliography on JL Petit (1801-68)

 21st Century

A. 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 his 1851 trip for Architectural Studies in France.

  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. An initial appreciation of Petit’s art, excluding later works.

John Louis Petit – Standing up to the Neo-Gothicists, Ecclesiology Today Issue 55-56 2017. An initial appreciation of his architectural contributions.

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

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). Discusses the import of Petit’s paper to RIBA on Byzantine architecture in contrast to that of two contemporaries.

B. 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 inter alia the Guardian, Country Life (issue 2.11.22 p134 by Huon Mallalieu), and journals eg The Victorian. Endorsement by Andrew Graham-Dixon ‘greatest re-discovery…’.

Petit’s Tours of Old Staffordshire (2019). Groups 150 examples of 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 other media.

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.

C. Other Articles/ Online

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

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

  1. 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. R. Morley (Director of the Friends of Friendless Churches)

St Philip’s Chapel, Caerdeon, (2020) www.buildingconservation.com

  1. Caerdeon Official Listings

CADW Listed Properties, St Philip’s Caerdeon – revised after upgrade to grade 1 in 2018. Also Understanding Listing in Wales (CADW 2018). Caerdeon is used as an example of how buildings can, rarely, get upgraded p22

  1. M. O’Sullivan (a former librarian at Staffordshire archives, Margaret assembled various notes from 1990-2016 when works were acquired by Staffordshire. Later works were not acquired. Her notes stopped in 2018 and were published without review just before she passed.)

John Louis Petit (1801-68) of Lichfield and Longdon, Transactions of the Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, (2020), p141-162.

  1. Sir C. Saumaurez Smith (Former director of NPG and NG)

St Philip Caerdeon (1) and (2). Blog 27th August 2023 and 28th August 2023

Example of a modern appreciation, repeated in many modern guides.

  1. R. Hunt

The East Midlands Paintings of the Rev J L Petit – Review of Exhibition (2026) p15 Rutland Local History & Record Society (there are also reviews of Stafford and Lichfield exhibitions in 2024 and 2025)

  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. An example of Petit being used and quoted in many local historical publications.

D. 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

E. Dictionaries

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2005 and on-line

  1. Braithwaite JL Petit. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (The 2005 published version was substantially revised, and thankfully corrected for numerous errors, online in 2020, but not for an unfortunate derogatory bias carried over from the earlier version. Better Wikipedia or the 1896 version.)

 20th Century

  1. Sir N Pevsner

Some Architectural Writers of the 19th Century, Oxford, 1972. Chapter 12. This, misleadingly, only discusses Petit’s first book. Pevsner criticises Petit’s ‘eclecticism’.

  1. P Lyon

John Louis Petit and the debate on Architectural Style (1977) (MA Thesis, 33 pages, only available at Manchester University Library, not seen).

  1. R. Brown

Mr Jelf’s Proprietary Chapel at a Welsh Watering Place 1994. Journal of the Merioneth Historical and Records Society pp 43-51. Mostly about the dispute concerning the language of service.

Dictionaries

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

19th Century

Comment by Contemporaries

  1. Professor E. A. Freeman, A History of Architecture (Oxford, 1849). Professor Freeman was a leading participant in the architectural debate. In his preface he cites and explains why Petit is one of two architectural writers he rates the most highly (the other: Thomas Hope deceased).
  2. Sir George Gilbert Scott, in Mafsen ed St Mary’s Stafford 1853. Describing the renovation of St Mary’s Stafford, the dispute with Petit, and acknowledging Petit’s influence on principles from that debate.
  3. Sir George Gilbert Scott, Recollections, (1877, 2005 edition by Gavin Stamp.) A personal eulogy p297-298, and p358 acknowledging Petit’s influence on the restoration debate.
  4. Professor Philip Delamotte, The Art of Sketching from Nature (1878). Petit is used as a primary exemplar alongside nine other great watercolourists from that century.
  5. See also the editor’s introduction to the 1890 new edition of Architectural Studies in France.

Obituaries 

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

The Late Rev. J. L. Petit, MA. By A. Hartshorne. Laudatory but factually 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, implying that is what he ended up more widely known for at his death.)

  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.

Published 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 Works by Petit

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

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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