Lerpinière House, an immaculately presented six bedroom Grade II Listed Georgian town house on Kennington Road, built in 1744 and named after its most famous resident – the Royal engraver Daniel Lerpinière, whose works hung on the walls of the house until 1990 and also found their way into the Royal collections of the British and Russian ruling dynasties; it is available to let via leading London estate agent DEXTERS.

Arranged over lower ground, ground and two upper floors, the detached three storey Georgian family house has been extended and refurbished to a high specification and provides over 4,621.7 square feet (429.4 sqm) of living space including six bedrooms, three bathrooms, four reception rooms and a beautiful private garden.

From its six-panelled front door to its leafy enclosed back garden, the double fronted house is six windows across, with the beautiful interiors providing residents with traditionally elegant living spaces which are within hearing distance of Westminster’s Big Ben.

Known for his beautiful and meticulously detailed engravings of Royal palaces, stately homes and naval battles, some of which now reside in the Crown’s Royal Collection, Daniel Lerpinière (1745-1785) was born in London to parents of French origin at a time when tensions between Britain and France were running high. Lerpinière was trained in the art of engraving by François Vivares, a French artist who also resided in London.

Engraving was a key part of the printing process at the time and its ability to reproduce and inexpensively create artworks meant that it made paintings and visual representations more accessible to a wider public.

Lerpinière married Mary Levy in 1758 and started his career in engraving in the early 1760s, working mostly for John Boydell (1720-1804), the renowned British publisher, originally an engraver himself, who reproduced and framed engravings to be hung on the walls of wealthy houses, public buildings and gallerys. Using works from engravers including Lerpinière, Boydell published a series of immensely successful collections of prints such as A Collection of Prints, Engraved after the most Capital Paintings in England (1769). Many of these prints were hung in the salons of townhouses in Mayfair, Belgravia and Marylebone.

Such was the prestige of Boydell’s prints that he frequently found himself employed by and socialising in Royal circles. In 1789 George, The Prince Regent (later King George IV), toasted him as “an English tradesman who patronizes art better than the Grand Monarque, Alderman Boydell, the Commercial Maecenas”.

Thanks to Boydell Lerpinière’s work found a wide and prestigious audience. He was particularly well-known for his naval scenes, especially engravings of Richard Paton’s stirring paintings of sea battles. These well-known works, which included The Moonlight Battle off Cape St Vincent (c. 1783) often, fittingly enough, celebrated victories over the French. Lerpinière also enjoyed depicting English landscapes as well as more exotic locations, including a famous depiction of Caribbean scenery in Three views from Jamaica and ancient ruins in Antiquities of Athens.

He worked for British aristocrats such as George Walpole, the 3rd Earl of Orford, the grandson of the former Prime Minister, and Henry Herbert, the 1st Earl of Carnarvon, the founder of the Highclere Castle dynasty of Downtown Abbey fame. Many of Boydell’s collections that he contributed towards were commissioned by the Prince of Wales and other members of the British royal family, and Lerpinière’s work now forms part of the famed Royal Collection. Arguably the height of his career was when he was one of a select number of artists employed by Boydell to make prints of the paintings in the collection of Catherine the Great, a collection which was published after Lerpinière’s death in 1785 and was dedicated to the Russian Empress herself.

Lerpinière’s commercial success enabled him to purchase in 1774 the large detached townhouse on Kennington Road, without doubt its elegance and beautiful detailing attracted him. It is here that he lived with his wife Mary and entertained patrons such as John Boyell and the Earls of Orford and Carnarvon. He also used the house to teach pupils such as artists Frederick Topping and John Peltro the art of engraving. Lerpinière lived in the house until his death in 1785 and his widow stayed there until 1803 when it was sold to Mr Harvey, a banker who was a client of Lerpinière.

The Harvey family purchased 12 of Lerpinière’s engravings from Mary Lerpinière and these remained hung at Lerpinière House up until 1990 when the Harvey family sold the property and the engravings were also sold for record prices at auction.

Fast forward to the modern day and Lerpinière’s house still retains all the elegance of its Georgian origins, seen in the symmetrical and ornamentally restrained style of an era obsessed with classical ideals of beauty and harmony. The lower ground floor’s impressive 10 × 6 metre reception room, is stylishly furnished and offers high ceilings, bespoke timber flooring and access to a patio. Adjoining are a secondary modern kitchen, extra WC and one double bedroom and bathroom, perfect for a nanny or guest to stay.

On the ground floor are two reception rooms and study, all of which benefit from high ceilings and antique wall features and fireplaces. The open plan kitchen features two chandeliers, marble worktop and an impressive kitchen island capable of seating ten people at a time. This opens onto the generous and beautifully verdant rear garden, maintained by a professional gardener. The generous tree canopy creates a private space where residents can relax just metres away from the bustle of central London.

The first floor is home to the principal bedroom suite, which offers high ceilings, a feature fireplace and a stunning bathroom with a roll top bath and space to double as a day room, lit by generous square windows and feature chandelier. The rest of the first and second floors are taken up by the remaining four bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Oliver Simcox, Lettings Manager at DEXTERS (Vauxhall) says: “With its beautiful Georgian façade Lerpinière House is like something out of an 18th Century engraving, something Daniel Lerpinière, the Royal engraver who gave the house its name, might have been commissioned to capture in one of his artworks. Between 1774 and 1990 the house maintained significant links with Daniel Lerpinière, first as his home and later when the Harvey family owned and displayed many of his engravings in the house. It’s fitting that a house this beautiful has a proud place in British art history.”

Located in the heart of Lambeth, Kennington Road is close to the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Palace and a short walk to Lambeth North Station (Bakerloo Line). Westminster, Waterloo and the River Thames are less than a mile away. The street itself was finished in 1751, part of the growth of London following the construction of Westminster Bridge the year before.