Chronological Table of the More Important Engravers Belonging to the British School of Engraving
Foreign Engravers practising in England are marked with an asterisk.
b. stands for born; d., died; fl., flourished; c., about.
16th Cent.
Raynalde, Thomas.
Published in 1540 a book called “The Birth of Mankind,” illustrated by copperplate engravings.
Geminus, Thomas.
Published in 1545 a translation of “Vesalius’ Anatomy,” written and illustrated with copperplates engraved by himself.
*Hogenberg, Francis.
Engraved in line a portrait of Queen Mary I. of England, bearing date 1555. (There are doubts as to the correctness of this date.)
*Hogenberg, Remigius.
(Brother of above.)
Engraved in line portrait of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, bearing date 1573.
Rogers, William.
b. London c. 1545. Engraved in line a fine whole-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth, afterwards republished and reduced in size.
17th Cent.
*De Passe, Crispin.
b. Utrecht c. 1560. Line. Engraved and drew from life.
*De Passe, Magdalen.
(Daughter of above.)
b. Utrecht 1583. Line.
*De Passe, William.
(Son of above.)
b. Utrecht c. 1590; fl. 1620ndash;27. Line.
*De Passe, Simon.
(Son of above.)
b. Utrecht 1591; d. c. 1644. Line. His earliest work in England dated 1613.
Delaram, Francis.
fl. c. 1620. Line.
Elstracke, Reginald.
fl. c. 1620. Line.
Peake, Sir Robert.
b. c. 1592; d. 1645. Line. Also painted portraits in miniature. Master of engraver Faithorne and painter Dobson.
*Hollar, Wenceslaus.
b. Prague 1607; d. London 1677. Etcher, finishing, when necessary, with fine graver.
*Lombart, Peter.
b. Paris 1612; came to England c. 1653, remaining for considerable number of years; d. Paris. Line. Engraved series of twelve portraits called “The Countesses.”
Faithorne, William.
(Pupil of Sir Robert Peake.)
b. London 1616; d. London 1691. Line.
*Vanderbank, Peter.
(Pupil of De Poilly.) Line.
b. Paris; of Dutch extraction; came to England c. 1674; d. Bradfield 1697.
Barlow, Francis.
b. Lincolnshire 1626; d. London 1702. Etcher, line engraver, and animal painter.
Gaywood, Robert.
(Pupil of Hollar.)
b. c. 1630; d. c. 1711. Etcher and line engraver, chiefly of animal subjects.
*Loggan, David.
(Pupil of Simon de Passe.)
b. Dantzic c. 1630; d. London 1693. Line. Portrait and architectural engraver and painter.
Rupert, Prince.
b. 1619; d. 1682. Introduced mezzotint into England, and engraved some fine prints in the method, which were probably executed abroad.
Sherwin, William.
b. c. 1650; d. c. 1714. Engraved portrait of Charles II. 1669, the earliest dated print in mezzotint authentically engraved in England.
Oliver, John.
(Nephew and pupil of Peter Oliver, miniature painter and etcher.)
b. 1616; d. 1701. Glass painter; also engraved in mezzotint.
Place, Francis.
b. c. 1640; d. 1728. Mezzotint, line, etching.
Tompson, Richard. fl. 1670. A good many early mezzotint prints bear these two names, but only as publishers (excudit not sculpsit), and there is great doubt if any were actually engraved by them. Browne wrote the “Ars Pictoria” in 1669, in which “The Manner or Way of Mezo Tinto” is described; published by himself, Tompson, and another.
Browne, Alexander.
*Blootelingh, Abraham.
(Pupil of Cornelius Visscher.)
b. Amsterdam 1634; d. c. 1695. Line and mezzotint. Came to England for a few years 1673.
*Valck, Gerard.
(Pupil of Blootelingh.)
b. Amsterdam c. 1626; d. c. 1720. Mezzotint and line. Accompanied Blootelingh to England, not leaving until after 1680.
White, Robert.
(Pupil of David Loggan.)
b. London 1645; d. London 1704. Line. Portrait draughtsman from life.
*Vandervaart, John.
b. Haarlem 1647; d. London 1721. Mezzotinter and painter. Came to England 1674.
*Van Somer, Paul.
(Pupil of John Van Somer, probably his brother.)
b. Amsterdam 1649; d. London 1694. Mezzotint.
Faithorne, William, junr.
(Son of William Faithorne.)
b. London 1656; d. London 1686. Mezzotint.
Luttrell, E.
(Said to have learnt method of mezzotint from Blois, ground layer to Blootelingh.)
b. Dublin c. 1650; d. c. 1710. Mezzotinter and crayon portraitist.
Beckett, Isaac.
(Attracted by Luttrell’s works, learnt the method of mezzotint from Lloyd, a printseller, who is said to have obtained the secret from Blois, ground layer to Blootelingh.)
b. Kent 1653; d. 1719. Mezzotint. Prints all dated between 1681ndash;88.
Smith, John.
(Pupil of Beckett and Vandervaart.)
b. Daventry 1652; d. Northampton 1742. Mezzotint.
Williams, R.
b. Wales. Mezzotint. Prints dated c. 1680 to 1704.
*Dorigny, Sir Nicholas.
b. Paris 1657; d. Paris 1746. Line. Settled in London 1711ndash;24. Knighted by George I. for his set of Raphael’s cartoons.
Lens, Bernard.
b. London 1659; d. 1725. Mezzotint.
*Gribelin, Simon.
b. Blois 1661; d. England 1733. Line. Came to England 1680; engraved first complete set of Raphael’s cartoons.
Lumley, George.
(Friend of Francis Place.)
b. York latter part of 17th century. Mezzotint.
White, George.
(Son and pupil of Robert White.).
b. 1671; d. 1731ndash;2. Mezzotint. Introduced slight etching into the method. Engraved also in line, and painted portraits
18th Cent.
*Simon, John (or Jean).
b. Normandy 1675; d. London c. 1755. First engraved in line, then came to England and devoted himself to mezzotint.
Vertue, George.
b. London 1684; d. London 1756. Line; antiquary, wrote notes on the history of arts and artists in England. Manuscripts now in the British Museum.
*Van Bleeck, Peter.
b. Flanders; d. 1764. Came to England 1723 Mezzotint.
*Faber, John, sen.
b. Holland; d. Bristol 1721. Mezzotint; also miniature painter. Came to England in 1687 with his son.
*Faber, John, jun.
(Son and pupil of above.)
b. Holland 1684; d. London 1746. Mezzotint. Amongst others, engraved Kit Cat Club and Hampton Court Beauties.
Hogarth, William.
(First apprenticed to silversmith.)
b. St. Bees, Durham, 1697; d. London 1764. Line engraver and painter.
Sullivan, Luke.
b. co. Louth, Ireland, 1705; d. London 1771. Line. Assistant to Hogarth, and engraved some of his pictures.
*Baron, Bernard.
(Pupil of Tardieu, the French engraver.)
b. Paris c. 1700; d. London 1762. Line. Came to England in 1712. Employed by Hogarth.
Worlidge, Thomas.
b. 1700; d. Hammersmith 1766. Etcher and portrait painter. Chiefly resided at Bath.
Bickham, George.
d. 1769. Line and etching, draughtsman. Published “The Universal Penman;” father of George, also an engraver and draughtsman.
*Ravenet, François Simon, A.E.
(Pupil of Le Bas.)
b. Paris 1706; d. Hampstead Road 1774. Line. Came to England a little before 1745, and settled in London.
Frye, Thomas.
b. near Dublin 1710; d. London 1760. Mezzotinter and portrait painter, chiefly lifesize.
Brooks, John.
b. Ireland; d. London. Line and mezzotint. Master of McArdell and R. Houston. Left Dublin c. 1747, and set up a china manufactory at Battersea.
McArdell, James.
(Pupil of John Brooks, Dublin.)
b. Dublin c. 1729; d. London 1765. Mezzotint. First made use of deep etching to give effect to the method.
*Canot, Peter Charles, A.E.
b. France 1710; d. London 1777. Line; chiefly sea views. Came to England 1740, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Chatelaine, John Baptiste Claude.
b. London 1710; d. London 1771. Line and draughtsman. Of French Protestant parentage. Master of Vivares, for whom also he worked later on.
*Vivares, Francis.
(Pupil of Chatelaine.)
b. France 1709; d. London 1780. Line; landscape engraver. Came to London at the age of eighteen.
Tinney, John.
d. 1761. Practised in London 1740ndash;50, in line and mezzotint; chiefly known as master of Woollett, Anthony Walker, and John Browne.
Major, Thomas, A.E.
b. 1720; d. London 1799. Line. First Associate engraver of the Royal Academy.
Cooper, Richard.
b. Yorkshire; d. Edinburgh 1764. Line and mezzotint. Practised in Edinburgh in 1730, and was the master of Strange.
Strange, Sir Robert.
(Pupil of Richard Cooper, of Edinburgh.)
b. Pomona, Orkney, 1721; d. London 1792. Line.
Houston, Richard.
(Pupil of John Brooks, of Dublin.)
b. Ireland 1721; d. London 1775. Mezzotint.
Baillie, William, Captain.
b. Ireland 1723; d. 1810. Etching and mezzotint. Came to London 1741. Some years in the army.
*Bartolozzi, Francis, R.A.
(Pupil of Joseph Wagner, of Venice.)
b. Florence 1725; d. Lisbon 1815. Stipple and line. Came to England 1764, remaining here till 1802.
Ogborne, John.
(Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
b. London c. 1725; d. c. 1795. Stipple and line.
Walker, Anthony.
(Pupil of Tinney.)
b. Salisbury 1726; d. London 1765. Line and etching.
Walker, William.
(Pupil of his brother Anthony.)
b. Thirsk 1729; d. Clerkenwell 1793. Line; introduced the process of rebiting into the practice of etching.
*Cunego, Domenico.
b. Verona 1727; d. Rome 1794. Line. Came to England and engraved some plates for the Boydells.
Greenwood, John.
b. Boston, America, 1729; d. Margate 1792. Mezzotint, etching, and painter. Afterwards became an auctioneer.
Spilsbury, John.
b. 1730; d. London 1795. Mezzotint. Portrait painter. Gained premiums for mezzotint 1761 and 1763 from Society of Arts; also printseller.
Dawe, Philip.
d. c. 1802. Mezzotint and painter, said to have worked under Hogarth. Was a pupil of the painter Henry Morland.
Basire, James.
(Pupil of Richd. Dalton, a draughtsman and engraver of moderate note.)
b. 1730; d. London 1802. Line. His father Isaac, his son James, and his grandson James, were also engravers.
Taylor, Isaac.
b. Worcester 1730; d. 1807. Line. His son Isaac was also an engraver.
Fisher, Edward.
b. Ireland 1730; d. London c. 1785. Mezzotint.
Finlayson, John.
b. c. 1730; d. c. 1776. Mezzotint. Resided in London. Gained premiums from Society of Arts 1764 and 1773.
*Haid, Johann Gottfried.
(Pupil of his father, J. Jacob Haid.)
b. Wurtemburg 1730; d. 1776. Mezzotint. Came to England when young, and worked for Boydell, afterwards returning to Germany. His father, Johann Jacob, and his brother, Johann Elias, were also good mezzotinters.
*Jacobe, Johann.
b. Vienna 1733; d. 1797. Came to London to learn mezzotint, engraved some fine plates, 1779ndash;80, and then returned to Vienna.
Pether, William.
(Pupil of Thomas Frye.)
b. Carlisle 1731; d. 1821. Mezzotint. Painter in oil and miniature draughtsman.
Woollett, William.
(Pupil of Tinney.)
b. Maidstone 1735; d. London 1785. Line.
Watts, John.
Mezzotint. Engraved in London 1770ndash;86; also a printseller.
Brookshaw, Richard.
b. 1736; d. c. 1804. Mezzotint. Went to Paris about 1772, where his works were greatly esteemed.
Purcell, Richard.
(Pupil of John Brooks.) Also worked under the names of C. Corbutt and (probably) H. Fowler.
b. Dublin c. 1736; d. London c. 1766. Mezzotint. Came to London c. 1755.
Phillips, Charles.
b. 1737. Mezzotint. Worked chiefly after the old masters.
Ryland, William Wynne.
(Pupil of Ravenet.)
b. London 1738; d. London 1783. Line and stipple; also a printseller. Visited Paris c. 1760, and is said to have studied under Le Bas. Was hanged for forgery.
Green, Valentine, A.E.
b. near Birmingham 1739; d. London 1813. Mezzotint. Engraved over twenty plates from Düsseldorf Gallery.
Hall, John.
(Pupil of Ravenet.)
b. near Colchester 1739; d. London 1797. Line.
Blackmore, Thomas.
b. London c. 1740; d. c. 1780. Mezzotint. Engravings bear date about 1769ndash;71.
Dixon, John.
b. Dublin c. 1740; d. early 19th century. Mezzotint. Practised in London, studied in Dublin under the painter F. West, a draughtsman of great power.
Laurie, Robert.
b. London 1740; d. c. 1804. Mezzotint; also printseller. Gained premium Society of Arts 1771, and one in 1776 for facilitating printing by mezzotint in colours. Spells his name Lowry, Lowery, Lowrie, Lawrie, and finally Laurie.
Okey, Samuel.
fl. 1765ndash;70. Mezzotint. Awarded premiums by Society of Arts in 1765 and 1767. Went to America in 1771, and settled at Rhode Island.
Watson, James.
b. Ireland 1740; d. London 1790. Mezzotint. Father of Caroline Watson.
Browne, John, A.E.
(Pupil of Tinney and Woollett.)
b. Essex 1741; d. Walworth 1801. Line. Landscape engraver.
Watson, Thomas.
(Apprenticed to engraver on plate.)
b. London 1743; d. Bristol 1781. Mezzotint and stipple. Engraved “Windsor Beauties” after Lely; has been stated to be the brother of James W., but no relation; partner with Dickinson as printseller.
*Tassaert, Philip J.
b. Antwerp; d. London 1803. Mezzotint, also line. Came to England very young. Assistant to T. Hudson the painter.
Byrne, William.
(Pupil of his uncle, a heraldic engraver, then of Aliamet and of Wille, at Paris.)
b. London 1743; d. London 1805. Line. Landscape engraver. His son John and daughters Letitia and Elizabeth also engraved, and helped him in his plates.
Earlom, Richard.
b. London 1743; d. London 1822. Mezzotint and stipple. Used etching with vigorous effect. Engraved a few plates under name of H. Birche; some time a pupil of Cipriani.
Dunkarton, Robert.
(Pupil of Pether.)
b. London 1744; d. early part of 19th century. Mezzotint. Engravings bear dates 1770ndash;1811.
Cook, Thomas.
(Pupil of Ravenet.)
b. c. 1744; d. c. 1818. Line. Engraved amongst others Hogarth’s works under title “Hogarth Restored.”
Dickinson, William.
b. London 1746; d. Paris 1823. Mezzotint and stipple. Awarded premium Society of Arts 1767. For some time partner with Thomas Watson as printseller.
Townley, Charles.
b. London 1746. Mezzotint and stipple, also miniature painter. Worked at Berlin 1786ndash;92, then returned to London.
Ryder, Thomas.
(Pupil of Basire.)
b. 1746; d. 1810. Stipple. His son Thomas also engraved.
Walker, James.
(Pupil of Val. Green.)
b. 1748; d. London 1808. Mezzotint. In 1784 went to St. Petersburg, became engraver to Empress of Russia, and returned to England in 1802.
Murphy, John
b. Ireland 1748; d after 1820. Mezzotint and stipple.
*Gaugain, Thomas.
(Pupil of Houston.)
b. Abbeville 1748; d. beginning 19th century. Stipple. Came very young to London.
Holloway, Thomas
b. London 1748; d. 1727. Line. Known chiefly from his series of Raphael’s cartoons.
Collyer, Joseph, A.E.
(Pupil of Anthony Walker.)
b. London 1748; d. 1827. Line and stipple.
Sharp, William.
(Pupil of Barak Longmate, engraver on plate.)
b. London 1749; d. Chiswick 1824. Line.
Sherwin, John Keyse.
(Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
b. Sussex 1749; d. London 1790. Line, stipple, and painter.
Burke, Thomas.
(Pupil of Dixon.)
b. Dublin; d. London 1815. Stipple and mezzotint.
Strutt, Joseph.
(Pupil of W. Wynne Ryland.)
b. Essex 1749; d. London 1802. Stipple. Author of “Dictionary of Engravers,” “Sports and Pastimes of the English,” &c.
Doughty, William
b. York; d. Lisbon 1782. Mezzotinter, also portrait painter. Engravings mostly dated 1779. Was a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sailed for Bengal 1780, but, captured by French and Spanish squadrons, was taken instead to Lisbon.
Hudson, Henry
b. London; d. abroad; fl. 1782ndash;92. Mezzotint.
Dean, John.
(Pupil of Valentine Green.)
b. c. 1750; d. London 1798. Mezzotint. Prints dated 1776ndash;89 at three addresses in Soho, at the last of which a fire destroyed nearly all his plates and stock.
Jones, John
d. 1797. Mezzotint and stipple. Father of George Jones (b. 1786), R.A., the painter.
Parker, James.
(Pupil of Basire.)
b. 1750; d. London 1805. Line. Joined Willaim Blake in keeping a print shop in 1784.
Simon, Peter J.
b. c. 1750; d. c. 1810. Stipple.
*Facius, George Sigmund. Brothers. b. Ratisbon c. 1750. Stipple. Came to London in 1766 at the request of Boydell. *Facius, John Gottlieb.
Morris, Thomas.
(Pupil of Woollett.)
b. c. 1750; fl. 1795. Line. Engraved Views of St. Paul’s and the Monument.
Middiman, Samuel.
(Pupil of Byrne.)
b. 1750; d. London 1831. Line. Landscape engraver.
Saunders, J.
fl. 1772ndash;74. Mezzotint.
*Marchi, Giuseppe Filippo Liberati.
b. Rome 1752; d. London 1808. Mezzotint. Brought to England 1769 by Sir J. Reynolds, who employed him as an assistant.
Smith, John Raphael.
b. Derby 1752; d. Doncaster 1812. Mezzotint and stipple. Painter in miniature and crayons and printseller. Father of Emma Smith the engraver.
Bewick, Thomas.
(Pupil of Beilby, an engraver at Newcastle.)
b. Northumberland 1753; d. Gateshead 1828. Wood engraver; also copperplate. His brother John was likewise a wood engraver.
Nutter, William.
(Pupil of J. R. Smith.)
b. 1754; d. London 1802. Stipple.
Young, John.
(Pupil of J. R. Smith.)
b. 1755; d. London 1825. Mezzotint. Published catalogues with etchings of the Grosvenor (1820), Leigh Court (1822), Angerstein (1823), and Stafford (1826) Galleries.
Grozer, Joseph.
fl. 1786ndash;97. Mezzotint.
Pollard, Robert.
(Pupil of a silversmith.)
b. Newcastle-on-Tyne 1755; d. 1838. Etching, aquatint, and painter; last surviving member of Incorporated Society of Artists; in 1836 gave over to Royal Academy the papers of the Society.
Legat, Francis.
b. Scotland 1755; d. London 1869. Line. Studied under Alex. Runciman, the Edinburgh painter.
Gillray, James.
(Pupil of heraldic engraver.)
b. Lanarkshire 1720; d. London 1815. Etcher and line. Caricaturist.
Heath, James, A.E.
(Pupil of Collyer.)
b. London 1757; d. London 1834. Line. Father of Charles Heath.
Blake, William.
(Pupil of Basire.) 2nd of the name.
b. Broad Street, Golden Square, London, 1757; d. Fountain Court, Strand; buried Bunhill Fields, 1827. Line, stipple, and etching. Poet and painter.
Haward, Francis, A.E.
b. 1759; d. London c. 1797. Mezzotint and stipple.
Thew, Robert.
b. Yorkshire 1758; d. Herts 1802. Stipple.
Smith, Anker, A.E.
(Pupil of James Taylor, who was brother and uncle respectively of the two Isaac Taylors, engravers of some note.)
b. London 1759; d. London 1819. Line.
Sheppeard, George.
b. c. 1760; fl. 1794. Mezzotint and stipple.
Tomkins, P. W.
(Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
b. London 1760; d. 1840. Stipple. Designer.
Park, Thomas.
b. 1760; d. Hampstead 1835. Mezzotint. Author.
Cheeseman, Thomas.
(Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
b. 1760; d. after 1820. Stipple. Draughtsman.
Watson, Caroline.
(Daughter of James Watson.)
b. London 1760; d. Pimlico 1814. Stipple.
Judkins, Elizabeth.
(Said to be pupil of James Watson.)
fl. 1772ndash;75. Mezzotint. Engraved “Mrs. Abingdon” and “Careful Shepherdess,” amongst others, after Sir J. Reynolds.
Keating, George.
(Pupil of William Dickinson.)
b. Ireland 1762; fl. London 1784ndash;97. Mezzotint. Stipple.
*Ramberg, John Henry.
b. Hanover 1763; d. c. 1840. Aquatint, etching, stipple. Painter. Came early in life to England, but is said to have died at Hanover.
*Schiavonetti, Luigi.
b. Bassano 1765; d. Brompton 1810. Line, stipple. Draughtsman. Came to England in 1790, and joined Bartolozzi.
Knight, Charles.
fl. latter part of 18th century. Stipple.
Summerfield, John.
(Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
d. Buckinghamshire 1817. Line.
Skelton, William.
(Pupil of Basire and Sharp.)
b. London 1763; d. Pimlico 1848. Line.
Nugent, Thomas.
b. Drogheda; fl. end of 18th century. Stipple.
Dupont, Gainsborough.
b. 1767; d. London 1797. Mezzotint. Painter. Nephew and pupil of Thomas Gainsborough.
Bromley, William, A.E.
(Pupil of Wooding, a line engraver in London.)
b. Isle of Wight 1769; d. 1842. Line. Father of John Charles, and James Bromley, the mezzotint engravers.
Warren, Charles.
b. London 1767; d. Wandsworth 1823. Line. Perfected a process of engraving on steel plates tried by Raimbach. Awarded gold medal Society of Arts.
Ward, William, A.E.
(Pupil of J. R. Smith.)
b. London 1766; d. London 1826. Mezzotint. Married sister of George Morland, father of William Ward, junior.
19th Cent.
Ward, James, R.A.
(Nine years pupil of his brother William, J. R. Smith.)
b. London 1769; d. 1855. Mezzotint. Animal painter.
Landseer, John, A.E.
(Pupil of William Byrne.)
b. Lincoln 1769; d. 1852. Line. Father of the painters Charles and Sir Edwin, R.A.’s, and of the engraver Thomas.
Say, William.
(Pupil of James Ward.)
b. near Norwich 1768; d. London 1834. Mezzotint. Engraved first successful mezzotint on steel.
Cooper, Robert.
fl. early part of 19th century. Stipple.
Hodges, Charles Howard.
b. England; d. Amsterdam 1837. Mezzotint and painter. Went to Holland c. 1794.
*Cardon, Anthony.
(Pupil of Schiavonetti.)
b. Brussels 1773; d. London 1813. Stipple. Came to England in 1790.
Godby, James.
fl. beginning 19th century. Stipple.
Smith, Benjamin.
(Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
d. London 1833. Stipple.
Clint, George, A.R.A.
b. London 1770; d. Kensington 1854. Mezzotint; also portrait and miniature painter.
Reynolds, Samuel Wm.
(Pupil of Hodges.)
b. 1773; d. Bayswater 1835. Mezzotint, portrait, and water-colour painter. Father of Elizabeth, mezzotint engraver and miniature painter, and Samuel William, mezzotint engraver and portrait painter.
Turner, Charles, A.E.
b. Woodstock 1773; d. London 1857. Mezzotint and stipple.
Scott, John.
(Pupil of Pollard.)
b. Newcastle-on-Tyne 1774; d. Chelsea 1828. Line, animal engraver.
Scriven, Edward.
(Pupil of Thew.)
b. Alcester 1775; d. London 1841. Stipple.
Raimbach, Abraham.
(Pupil of J. Hall.)
b. London 1776; d. Greenwich 1843. Line.
Noble, George.
fl. beginning of 19th century. Line.
Engleheart, Francis.
(Pupil of Collyer.)
b. London 1775; d. 1849. Line.
Nesbitt, Charlton.
(Pupil of Beilby and Bewick.)
b. near Durham 1775; d. Brompton 1838. Wood engraver.
Branston, Robert.
(Pupil of his father, a copperplate engraver.)
b. Lynn 1778; d. Brompton 1827. Wood engraver.
Clennell, Luke.
(Pupil of Bewick.)
b. near Morpeth 1781; d. Newcastle-on-Tyne 1840. Wood engraver, water-colour, and miniature painter.
Cooke, William Bernard.
(Pupil of Angus, an engraver in line of some note.)
b. 1778; d. 1855. Line. Brother of George and uncle of E. W. Cooke, R.A.
Cooke, George.
(Pupil of Basire.)
b. London 1781; d. Barnes 1834. Line. Brother of Wm. Bernard, and father of E. W. Cooke, R.A.
Lewis, Frederick Christian.
b. London 1779; d. Enfield 1856. Stipple or chalk; water-colour painter. Father of J. F. Lewis, R.A., and C. G. Lewis the engraver.
Dawe, George, R.A.
(Son and pupil of Philip Dawe.)
b. London 1781; d. 1829. Mezzotint; painter. Brother of Henry. Painted in Russia for the Emperor 1819ndash;28.
Dawe, Henry.
(Son and pupil of Philip Dawe.)
b. London 1790; d. Windsor 1845. Mezzotint and painter.
Pye, John.
(Pupil of James Heath.)
b. Birmingham 1782; d. London 1874. Line and stipple. Landscape engraver.
Wedgwood, John Taylor.
b. 1783; d. London 1856. Line.
Meyer, Henry.
(Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
b. London c. 1783; d. 1847. Mezzotint; and stipple. Nephew of J. Hoppner, R.A.
| Le Keux, John | Brothers. | b. London 1787; d. 1868. | Line, architectural, and landscape engravers. | |
| Le Keux, Henry | b. London 1783; d. 1846. | |||
| (Pupils of Basire.) | ||||
Armstrong, Cosmo.
fl. early part of 19th century. Line.
Radclyffe, William.
b. Birmingham 1782; d. Birmingham 1855. Line, landscape engraver; practised in Birmingham all his life. Father of Edward, landscape engraver.
Burnet, John, F.R.S.
b. Edinburgh 1784; d. Stoke Newington 1868. Line and mezzotint. Painter and author.
Heath, Charles.
(Son of James Heath.)
b. 1785; d. 1848. Line; excelled in small plates.
Golding, Richard.
(Pupil of J. Parker.)
b. London 1785; d. Lambeth 1865. Line.
Woolnoth, Thomas.
b. 1785; d. c. 1854. Stipple and line. Small theatrical portraits and architectural views.
Thompson, John.
(Pupil of Branston.)
b. London 1785; d. London 1866. Wood engraver. Brother of Charles and Charles Thurston.
Romney, John.
b. 1786; d. Chester 1863. Line.
Thompson, Charles.
(Pupil of Bewick and Branston.)
b. London 1791; d. near Paris 1843. Wood engraver; better known in Paris, where he went in 1816, and introduced the practice of cutting out the end of the wood, then unknown abroad.
Bond, William.
fl. beginning of 19th century. Stipple.
Chapman, J.
(Pupil of Bartolozzi.)
fl. beginning of 19th century. Stipple.
Webb, J.
b. c. 1790; d. 1832. Line. Engraver of animals.
| Finden, Wm. | Brothers. | b. 1792; d. 1857. | Stipple and line. Landscape and book illustrators. | |
| Finden, E. F. | b. 1788; d. 1852. | |||
| (Pupils of J. Mitan, an engraver of some note.) | ||||
Walker, William.
(Pupil of Thomas Woolnoth, and Mitchell and Stewart, two engravers of moderate note.)
b. Midlothian 1791; d. London 1867. Stipple and mezzotint. Married Elizabeth, daughter of S. W. Reynolds.
Lupton, Thomas Goff.
(Pupil of Clint.)
b. Clerkenwell 1791; d. 1873. Mezzotint. Established the use of steel in place of copper in mezzo engraving. Received for this gold Isis medal from Society of Arts in 1822.
Linnell, John.
b. 1792; d. c. 1880. Mezzotint; painter.
Cruikshank, George.
(Son of Isaac, also caricaturist and engraver.)
b. London 1792; d. London 1878. Etcher and caricaturist.
Worthington, Wm. H.
b. c. 1795; d. 1826. Line. Worked in London.
Goodall, Edward.
b. Leeds 1795; d. London 1870. Line. Engraved after J. M. W. Turner, through whose influence he became an engraver. Was self-taught.
Landseer, Thomas, A.E.
(Son and pupil of John Landseer, A.E.)
b. c. 1795; d. 1880. Line. Brother of Sir Edwin.
Hopwood, James.
(Son of James; also an engraver, self-taught, but helped by Heath.)
b. 1795. Stipple.
Rolls, Charles.
fl. early part of 19th century. Line.
Bromley, John Charles.
(Son of Wm. Bromley, A.E.)
b. Chelsea 1795; d. 1839. Mezzzotint. His son Frederick was also an engraver.
Harvey, William.
(Pupil of Thomas Bewick and B. R. Haydon.)
b. Newcastle-on-Tyne 1796; d. Richmond 1866. Wood engraver and designer. Cut one of the largest English wood-cuts.
Robinson, John. Henry, R.A.
(Pupil of James Heath.)
b. Bolton 1796; d. Petworth 1871. Line.
Graves, Robert, A.E.
(Pupil of John Romney.)
b. London 1798; d. Highgate 1873. Line.
Watt, James Henry.
(Pupil of Charles Heath.)
b. London 1799; d. 1867. Line.
Bromley, James.
(Son of William Bromley, A.E.)
b. 1800; d. 1838. Mezzotint.
Ward, William, junior.
(Son of William Ward, A.E.)
b. c. 1800; d. 1840. Mezzotint.
Willmore, James Tibbetts, A.E.
(Seven years pupil of W. Radclyffe, and three years of C. Heath.)
b. Erdington, Staffordshire, 1800; d. London 1863. Line. Engraved after J. M. W. Turner.
Raddon, W.
fl. 1830. Line.
Hodgetts, J.
fl. 1830. Mezzotint.
Jackson, John.
(Pupil of Bewick and Harvey.)
b. Ovingham 1801; d. 1848. Wood engraver. Published with Chatto “A Treatise on Wood Engraving,” 1838.
Gibbon, Benjamin Phelps.
(Pupil of J. H. Robinson and Scriven).
b. 1802; d. London 1851. Line.
Shenton, Henry Chawner.
(Pupil of Charles Warren.)
b. Winchester 1803; d. London 1866. Line.
Giller, W.
fl. 1835. Mezzotint.
Brandard, Robert.
(Pupil of E. Goodall.)
b. Birmingham 1805; d. 1852. Line, landscape engraver. Came to London 1824. Engraved after J. M. W. Turner.
Lewis, Charles George.
b. 1807; d. 1880. Line, etching.
Lucas, John.
(Pupil of S. W. Reynolds.)
b. London 1807; d. London 1874. Mezzotint; portrait painter.
Radclyffe, Edward.
(Son and pupil of William Radclyffe.)
b. Birmingham 1809; d. London 1863. Line.
Joubert, Jean Ferdinand.
b. 1810; d. 1884. Line.
Zobel, George.
b. c. 1815; d. London 1881. Mezzotint.
Jeens, Charles Henry.
b. 1817; d. 1879. Stipple. Miniature book illustrations.
Jackson, John Richardson.
(Pupil of R. Graves, A.E.)
b. Portsmouth 1819; d. Southsea 1877. Mezzotint and line.
Cousins, Henry.
(Brother of Saml. Cousins, R.A.)
fl. 1840. Mezzotint.
Ward, George Raphael.
(Son of James Ward.)
fl. 1840. Mezzotint.
There are still living three engravers eminently representative of the old schools:—
Doo, George, R.A., F.R.S.
b. c. 1800. Line.
Posselwhite, J.
Stipple.
Cousins, Samuel, R.A.
b. 1801. Mezzotint. The present T. L. Atkinson was a pupil of Cousins.
Footnotes
1 At the present day line engravers sometimes work on steel plates, as they are capable of supplying without damage a much greater number of proofs than can be printed from copper plates. It more frequently happens that a copper plate is coated with steel before being submitted to the action of the press, in order to preserve it, and to increase the number of copies without taking off the edge of the workmanship. That is to say, that by means of “electrotyping” a thin coat of metal is superimposed, which, since it considerably increases the power of endurance, increases the productiveness of the plate and the number of proofs that can be taken.
2 Papillon, “Traité de la Gravure en Bois,” 1766, vol. i., ch. 1.
3 Pliny, “Hist. Nat.,” xxxv., c. 2.
4 “Materiali per servire alla Storia dell’ Incisione,” &c., p. 83 and following.
5 That is the “Treatises on Latin Syntax” by Ælius Donatus, a grammarian of the fourth century. In the Middle Ages these treatises were much used in schools.
6 Published by John Koelhoff under the name of “Cronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen,” p. 31 and after.
7 “Essai historique et critique sur l’Invention de l’Imprimerie.” Lille, 1859.
8 This, at any rate, is what we feel tempted to do as regards the “Biblia Pauperum,” a book containing xylographic illustrations, whose date has been variously estimated, and which we are disposed to believe even older than the first edition of the “Speculum.” Heinecken, as usual, claims for Germany the production of this precious collection, which Ottley, with more appearance of reason, regards as the work of an artist of the Low Countries, who worked about 1420. In this way Germany would only have the right to claim the plates added in the German editions published forty years later, and which are far less perfect in point of style and arrangement than those of the original edition.
9 The Dutch word coster means churchwarden, or beadle.
10 “Ideé générale d’une Collection d’Estampes, 1771,” p. 305.
11 “Discours Historique sur la Gravure.” Paris, 1808.
12 See in “L’Artiste,” 1839, an article entitled “La plus ancienne Gravure du Cabinet des Estampes de la Bibliothèque royale est-elle ancienne?”
13 “Notice sur deux Estampes de 1406, et sur les Commencements de la Gravure en Criblé.” “Gazette des Beaux-arts,” t. I^{er}, 2^e période, 1869.
14 “Le Peintre-Graveur,” Leipzig, 1860, vol. i., p. 84.
15 “Une Passion de 1446. Suite de Gravures au Burin, les premières avec Date.” Montpellier, 1857.
16 “Archiv für die Zeichnenden Künste,” 1858.
17 The “Pax” is a metal plate which, at high mass and during the singing of the “Agnus Dei,” the officiating priest gives to be kissed by the clergy and the devout, addressing to each of them these words: “Pax tecum.” The “Pax” made by Finiguerra for the Baptistery of St. John has been removed from thence to the Uffizi, where it still is.
18 It is useless to adduce the fine “Profile of a Woman,” discovered a few years ago at Bologna, and now the property of the Berlin Museum, as an argument against the poverty we are trying to prove. This very important document is not only of uncertain date, but, as we have remarked elsewhere, the nature of its execution and style forbid one to look upon it as the work of any Florentine artist.
19 Martin Schongauer was born at Colmar, in which town his father had settled as a goldsmith; there he passed the greatest part of his life, and there he died in 1488. Vasari sometimes speaks of him as “Antwerp Martin,” or “Martin the Fleming.” This is easily explained: a German or Flemish artist would be all one in the eyes of a Tuscan of the fifteenth century, as strangers were all barbarians to the ancient Romans.
20 This is by no means universally admitted to be a genuine work by Martin Schongauer.
21 He had no fewer than eighteen children; Albert was the third.
22 Herr Moriz Thausing has treated this question exhaustively in his important work on Albert Dürer.
23 The oldest known dated engraving by Marc Antonio, the “Pyramus and Thisbe,” bears the date of 1505. If Marc Antonio, as we have reason to think, was born about 1480, he must have been already over twenty when he published this extremely commonplace print.
24 Michael Huber (“Manuel des Curieux et des Amateurs de l’Art,” t. iii.) says, word for word: “All that is wanted in these prints is a richer handling and that general aspect which we admire in the subjects engraved from Rubens.” One might as well say that Petrarch’s style would be improved by being Ariosto’s.
25 Agostino Caracci, who deserves to be numbered amongst the cleverest engravers of the end of the sixteenth century, did not blush to devote his talents to a similar publication, serious in style, but of most obscene intention. The Bolognese artist, like his celebrated countryman, seems to have wished to display at once his science and his shamelessness. The one only serves to make the other more inexcusable, and it is even still more difficult to tolerate this austere immodesty than the licentiousness, without æsthetic pretension, which characterises the little French prints sold under the rose in the eighteenth century.
26 Passavant: “Le Peintre-Graveur,” iii. 5.
27 “Les Maîtres d’Autrefois,” p. 165.
28 In the National Library at Paris a collection of over a hundred trial proofs, retouched by Rubens himself, exists to bear witness to the careful attention with which he overlooked the work of his engravers.
29 At the time of Callot’s birth Lorraine was not yet French territory; but as it was during his life that Nancy was taken by the king’s army, we have a right to include him among French artists.
30 He was in all twelve years in Italy: three in Rome, and nine in Florence.
31 William Faithorne, the first line engraver worth mentioning in the history of English art, did not even begin to be known till after Charles I. After the king’s fall, Faithorne, who was a Royalist, went to France, where, under Nanteuil, he perfected himself in his art, and did not finally settle in England till near the end of 1650.
32 Hollar is not merely one of the most distinguished of German engravers. There are few artists in any country who have handled the needle with so much skill and intelligence; there is probably none who has so greatly excelled in rendering the details of apparel and of the daintiest objects. His achievement numbers more than 2,000 prints, which, in spite of their small size, and the generally trifling nature of the subjects, deserve to be classed amongst the most remarkable etched work of the seventeenth century.
33 His first plates are sometimes signed “De Leeuw,” sometimes “Tomaes de Leu,” which has led many writers—M. Robert-Dumesnil among them—to suppose that he migrated to Paris from a town in Flanders.
34 It represents a “Holy Family,” with this inscription on a stone, to the right: “R. Nanteuil Philosophiæ Auditor Sculpebat Rhemis An^o dni 1645.”
35 These flights were not Nanteuil’s last. There is extant a sort of petition in verse, which he one day presented to Louis XIV. to excuse himself for not having finished in time a portrait ordered by the king. These rhymes, quoted by the Abbé Lambert in his “Histoire Littéraire du Règne de Louis XIV.,” and some others composed by Nanteuil in praise of Mlle. de Scudéry, are not such to make us regret that he did not more frequently lay aside the graver for the pen.
36 The greater part of Nanteuil’s drawings are in three crayons, made out in places with light tints in pastel. The colour is sober and delicate, and offers a good deal of resemblance to the charming French crayons of the sixteenth century. Nanteuil doubtless produced many portraits which he never engraved, but he engraved very few that he had not previously produced. It must also be remarked, that in his achievement, which is composed of more than two hundred and thirty pieces, there are not more than eighteen subject pictures or illustrations. It is worthy, too, of special note that there are only eight portraits in which the hands are seen, and in six of these only one hand is shown.
37 “Édit de Saint Jean-de-Luz,” 1660.
38 Claude, it is true, was still alive in 1667; but after his second installation in Rome (1627), he never saw France again.
39 Vitet: “Eustache Lesueur.”
40 It is said that Lebrun one day proclaimed that Audran had “improved his pictures.” It is possible he may have said, “that he had not spoilt them.” Such an expression in the mouth of such a man is quite modest enough; but it is difficult to imagine Lebrun so far humbling himself in public.
41 We said that Edelinck was born at Antwerp; but as he was very young when he took up his abode in France, and as he never returned to his native country, we may be allowed to include him in the French school with as much right as his countryman, Philippe de Champaigne.
42 Amongst Audran’s most distinguished scholars, we need only mention the following names: Gaspard Duchange; Dorigny, summoned to London by Queen Anne; Louis Desplaces; and Nicolas Henri Tardieu, founder of a family of clever engravers, the last of whom died in 1844, worthy of the name he bore.
43 Engraver of the “Assumption” of Philippe de Champaigne. He must not be confused with another Bartholomew Kilian, his ancestor, and the head of a family in which there are no less than twenty engravers.
44 Some of these little unpretentious amateur prints are not without charm; some even show a certain amount of talent in the execution, and the portraits drawn and engraved by Carmontelle, the author of the “Proverbes,” deserve, amongst others, to be mentioned on that account.
45 In his landscapes, Woollett makes use of etching, line, and the dry-point, all three. Philippe Le Bas was the first to make use of dry-point to render the misty tones of distances and the clearness of skies. This mode of engraving, improved by Vivarès, was carried to its highest perfection by Woollett. Certain English artists of the same period tried to apply the process of mezzotint to landscape engraving; but the landscapes engraved in this way by Watson and Brookshaw, after the German Kobell, will not bear comparison with Woollett’s.
46 In a work dedicated to Pitt, “On the Origin of Trade and its History to the Present Times” (London, 1790), we read that the prints exported from England at that time were, as compared with those imported from France, in the proportion of “five hundred to one by the most exact computation,” and that the trade in English engravings, far from being restricted to one or two countries, extended all over Europe.
47 The credit of the invention is really due to Jean Charles François, born at Nancy in 1717. But the application that François made of his discovery was—if we consider the improvements introduced soon afterwards by Demarteau—still so incomplete that it seems only fair to attribute to the latter a principal share in the original success.
48 “Lettre de Cochin, Secrétaire perpétuel de l’Académie, au Sieur François,” 26th November, 1757.
49 Before giving himself up almost exclusively to the practice of aquatint, Debucourt produced a large number of engravings in colour: “Le Jardin” and “La Galerie de Bois au Palais Royal,” the “Promenade aux Tuileries,” “L’Escalade,” and so forth. We know the ardour, verging on mania, with which these prints, albeit of little value from an artistic point of view, are now collected.
50 This important publication contains, in four sections, the most remarkable pictures and sculptures of the Louvre, as it existed after Napoleon had enriched it with masterpieces from every school. Begun in 1802, it was continued till 1811.
51 This fine cathedral, burnt with so many other churches in the great fire, was 690 feet in length, 130 feet broad, and 520 feet high at the top of the spire.
52 The tear-shaped pieces of glass (Lachrimæ Vitreæ), which resist hard blows applied at the thick end, yet fly to pieces the moment a fragment is broken off the fine end, were first brought to England by Prince Rupert, and are called popularly “Prince Rupert’s drops.”
53 This print represents a tall, powerful-looking man, standing with naked sword in one hand, and holding up in the other the head of St. John the Baptist.
54 Other names given to mezzotint out of England are: Schwarzkunst, black art; La manière anglaise, L’incisione a foggia nera, engraving in black fashion or manner.
55 This engraver must not be confused with John Keyse Sherwin, whose line engravings produced a century later are well known.
56 This Club was instituted in 1703, the year after the accession of Queen Anne, to promote the Protestant succession, the members meeting at the “Cat and Fiddle” in Shire Lane, Fleet Street, kept by Christopher Kat, from whom it took the name. The particular size known amongst artists as Kit-cat, just below the waist and not quite three-quarter length, also acquired its name from this series of portraits, which were painted their particular length to suit the walls of Tonson’s villa at Barn Elms.
57 John Riley, Jonathan Richardson, Michael Dahl, John Closterman, John Vanderbank, and Thomas Hudson.
58 The date of McArdell’s birth is often erroneously given as 1710 instead of 1728ndash;9 according to the above authority.
59 James Walker must not be confused either with Anthony and his brother William, or with the stipple and mezzotint engraver William Walker of the present century. James Walker’s prints are not numerous, a great number of his plates and prints having been lost from the foundering of the vessel which was bringing them back to England from Russia, where Walker had lived for seventeen years, having been appointed in 1784 engraver to the Empress Catherine.
60 A painter more generally known as Langen Jan, born at Munster in 1610, the correct name being John or Johann van Bockhorst; the name, however, appears as above in the engraving.
61 On the foundation of the Royal Academy in 1768, Bartolozzi, to the exclusion of Strange and Woollett, was admitted one of the first forty members with full membership; all engravers afterwards up to the year 1855 could only be elected as associate members.
62 This engraver was in no way related to the better-known stipple and historical engraver of the same name who flourished in the present century.
63 Woollett was buried in Old St. Pancras Churchyard; on a plain
tombstone which marks the spot were found one day written in pencil
the two lines—
“Here Woollett rests, expecting to be sav’d
He graved well, but is not well engrav’d.”
Shortly afterwards a subscription was raised, to which Benjamin West and John Boydell contributed, for the purpose of erecting the above-mentioned tablet which now stands in the West Cloister.
64 Opie painted a life-size head of S. W. Reynolds, and of his daughter Elizabeth as “Red Riding Hood” (exhibited at the winter exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1876); this portrait of herself Elizabeth engraved in mezzotint at the age of fourteen.
65 Father of the late E. W. Cooke, R.A.
66 Walker engraved the portrait of Raeburn with the special purpose of proving the contrary.
67 John Lucas, the well-known portrait painter and also engraver in mezzotint, was likewise a pupil of Reynolds.
68 The plate of Salisbury Cathedral was engraved at Constable’s expense and published in 1837 by Messrs. Hodgson, Graves and Co., for the painter. After his sudden death in the same year it was sold at Foster’s, Pall Mall, in 1838, and bought in for eighty guineas, hardly the price of two proofs at the present time.
Through the kindness of Mr. Algernon Graves, the writer has had access to many manuscript notes written by David Lucas.
69 Brother of Samuel Cousins, R.A.
70 Better known in France, where he settled in 1816, he died in the neighbourhood of Paris in 1843, and introduced there the mode of cutting on the end of the grain instead of with the grain as was before the practice.
71 First introduced in 1840, although not in general practice until some years later.
72 On the principle of that which is known as “engine turning,” as seen on the back of watch-cases.
73 It is also necessary to point out that no impression damaged from course of time or printed from a worn-out plate can give any idea of the original engraving as a work of art. Other things being equal, proofs are primâ facie likely to be the best impressions, but a good print (that is a later impression), if in good condition, is far more valuable than a damaged or rubbed proof, however early the state may be.