Search Results

[Rudolf]

(b Stollberg, Saxony, April 20, 1764; d Finchley, London, March 30, 1834).

English publisher and patron of German birth. He trained as a carriage designer in Paris and moved to England between 1783 and 1786. He established his own business as a carriage maker, undertaking major commissions in London and Dublin. In 1804 he designed Pius VII’s carriage for the coronation of Napoleon and in 1805 the funeral carriage of Horatio, Viscount Nelson. By 1800 Ackermann had built up a unique business at 101 The Strand, London, known as ‘The Repository of Arts’. This encompassed a drawing school with 80 pupils, the sale and loan of Old Master paintings and watercolour drawings, the publication of decorative prints and illustrated books and the manufacture of watercolour paints including a number of new chemical pigments.

In the early 19th century, Ackermann was an important and regular patron of English watercolour painters, employing William Henry Pyne, Augustus Charles Pugin, Thomas Heaphy, Frederick Mackenzie (1787–1854...

Austrian family of publishers of Italian descent. The family originally came from Blevio, near Como, in northern Italy, and in the mid-18th century worked as itinerant art dealers in Germany and Austria, offering an extensive range of English and French prints to the public. Francesco Artaria (b Blevio, 1744; d Vienna, 1808) and his cousin Carlo Artaria (b Blevio, 1747; d Vienna, 1808) settled in Vienna in the 1760s, establishing the firm Artaria & Co. in 1770. In 1774 they took over a subsidiary firm based in Mainz that had been founded in 1765 by their uncle Giovanni Casimiro Artaria (1725–97). Shortly after 1793, however, this branch relocated to Mannheim, where it eventually became Artaria & Fontaine. In Vienna, Artaria & Co. established its headquarters in the Kohlmarkt and began to specialize in the publication of prints. In 1775–6 it published its first large volume of copper engravings, ...

(fl 1748–73).

French critic and poet . He was one of the earliest Salon critics, publishing between 1748 and 1757 his commentaries on the exhibitions of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture—often anonymously, because of harsh censorship. An abiding principle in his sometimes contradictory stance is that artists should base their work on nature rather than slavishly following Classical antiquity or the Old Masters: in this he sided with his immediate precursor, the Abbé Jean-Bernard Le Blanc, against the founder of French art criticism, Etienne La Font de Saint-Yenne. He believed that critics should develop an understanding of artists’ techniques and problems, here anticipating Denis Diderot and parting company with Le Blanc. He devoted as much attention to developing a critical methodology, often by attacking fellow critics, as to analysing works of art on exhibition; in this he was typical of his time. He particularly admired Jean-Siméon Chardin, Maurice-Quentin de Latour, Claude-Joseph Vernet and Jean-Baptiste Oudry, none of them an exponent of history painting, the genre that stood highest in the traditional academic hierarchy. He became increasingly ready to criticize adversely, but his comments on individual works tend to be banal, whether he is praising or blaming. He praised the efforts of the Direction des Bâtiments du Roi (the French government’s arts administration) to promote the visual arts through regular exhibitions and generous commissions, and he exhorted wealthy individuals similarly to provide worthwhile work for artists....

(b Belluno, Jan 7, 1724; d Venice, July 28, 1787).

Italian printmaker . A highly prolific engraver and etcher, he frequented the Venetian workshop of the engraver and print publisher Joseph Wagner (1708–80), later succeeding Giuliano Giampiccoli as the head of the Remondini workshop at Bassano. Gifted with considerable technical ability, Baratti had a part in illustrating a great number of costly publications, mostly Venetian, and he engraved almost one thousand plates for the Livorno edition of the Encyclopédie (1770–79). His most famous prints are the four sheets illustrating the celebrations held in Venice in 1782 to honour the visit of the Comte and Comtesse du Nord (Grand Duke Paul and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna of Russia). He collaborated with other artists on the Via Crucis published by Wagner in 1779, engraved numerous portraits of artists and scholars and also executed religious subjects after Guido Reni, Veronese, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and Francesco Vanni, genre subjects after Giorgio Giacoboni (...

(b Dublin, 1728 or 1732; d London, May 29, 1784).

Irish painter . The son of a tailor, he first trained as a staymaker but then found work colouring prints for Silcock, a publisher in Dublin. In 1747 he was awarded first prize at the Dublin Society’s School, where he studied under Robert West. Among Barret’s earliest works is a group of landscapes (Dublin, N.G.) painted for Joseph Leeson, later 1st Earl of Miltown, in the 1740s and 1750s as architectural decorations for Russborough House, Co. Wicklow, built in 1742–55 by Richard Castle. They are rather stiff Italianate views, with somewhat contrived compositions. In the 1750s, perhaps through the influence of Edmund Burke, Barret embarked on a series of topographical paintings of the Dargle Valley, Powerscourt, Castletown and other locations around Dublin. These works established his reputation, and he moved to London in 1763. The following year he won a 50-guinea premium for a painting exhibited at the Free Society of Artists, and he was soon taken up by English patrons. In ...

(b Sion Hill, Worcs, Jan 28, 1706; d Birmingham, Jan 8, 1775).

English printer and publisher . He developed skills in calligraphy and monumental inscription–cutting apparently without an apprenticeship. Aged 19 he went to Birmingham to teach writing and bookkeeping and also to cut tombstones. Around 1740 he entered into business as a manufacturer of japanned goods, at which he proved highly successful. The proceeds enabled him to purchase a large house outside Birmingham and to start experimenting with type-founding c. 1750. Baskerville entered into partnership with the London bookseller Robert Dodsley (1733–64), and he published an edition of the works of Virgil as his first book in 1757; it met with praise but also with the criticism that was to follow him throughout much of his career: the print was too dazzling, the strokes too narrow and the paper too glossy. Baskerville’s types achieved their effect by his modification of the stress nearer the vertical; the transition between thick and thin strokes was more pronounced than in previous types, and the general effect was of greater precision. He may not have set up his own paper mill, as has been suggested, but he certainly exploited the properties of the newly developed wove paper and pressed it to achieve a crisp finish (...

French family of printmakers and print-publishers. Jacques-Firmin Beauvarlet (b Abbeville, 25 Sept 1731; d Paris, 7 Dec 1797) was an etcher, engraver and print-publisher. He came to Paris in 1750 and trained in turn with Robert Hecquet (1693–1775), Charles Dupuis and Laurent Cars. In 1762 he was appointed Graveur du Roi and in the same year was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale, although he was not made a member (reçu) until 1776; his morceau de réception was a portrait of Edme Bouchardon after the painting by François-Hubert Drouais (Paris, Louvre). In 1761 Beauvarlet married Catherine-Françoise Deschamps (b Paris, 1737; d Paris, 7 July 1769), an engraver and etcher. Her small body of work (around 15 pieces) was mostly published by her husband between 1761 and 1769. She engraved genre scenes after Greuze, such as the Coal Merchant and the ...

(b Paris, 1736; d Saint-Mandé, nr Paris, Oct 20, 1793).

French engraver and publisher. He came from a family of artisans and owed his training in engraving to his brother-in-law, the engraver Louis Legrand (1723–1808). Through Legrand, Bonnet became the pupil of Jean-Charles François in 1756, a year before the latter discovered the Crayon manner technique of engraving, designed to reproduce the effect of a coloured-chalk drawing. Around the end of 1757 Bonnet used the new technique to engrave a Cupid (see Hérold, no. 2A) after François Eisen. Gilles Demarteau, a rival of Jean-Charles François, enticed Bonnet to join his workshop and learnt the technique from him.

Bonnet engraved some 15 plates for Demarteau, and in 1760 he set up his own shop. During this period he strove to perfect the crayon manner by producing prints using several different plates, each inked with a different colour. Initially, he tried to reproduce drawings executed in black and white chalk on blue or buff paper; to do this he had to make a white ink that would not yellow with age. He was the first to use points of reference to print several plates one on top of the other. In ...

(b London, c. 1758; d Byfleet, Surrey, June 4, 1834).

Miniature painter and publisher. He was originally self-taught and then a pupil of John Smart (1741–1811), whose work he copied and whose style he imitated: between 1783 and 1828 he was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy, being appointed in 1789 painter in watercolours to George III and miniature painter to Queen Charlotte (1744–1818). He was a keen promoter of history painting and in 1792 launched a prospectus for an edition of David Hume’s History of England, to be ‘superbly embellished’ with illustrations engraved after historical paintings by leading artists, including Benjamin West, Robert Smirke, Francis Wheatley and Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg. Bowyer also published the Historic Gallery, which, until its failure, with great financial loss, in 1806, provided substantial patronage to history painters and fostered a taste for national history paintings, especially of medieval subjects. The five folios that appeared contained, in addition to engravings of historical paintings, engraved portraits, manuscripts and antiquarian material. Bowyer also published ...

(b 1676; d London, ?Sept 13, 1729).

Scottish architect and writer. He was the key propagandist for the Palladian revival in early 18th-century England (see Palladianism). First as an architectural publisher and then as an architect, he did as much as any contemporary to determine the lines of development of secular architecture for a generation.

Campbell was a nephew of Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor, Nairnshire, and his first career was as an advocate in Edinburgh, where he began to establish a reputation at the outset of the 18th century. Between c. 1708 and 1712 Campbell abandoned his legal practice to begin a career as an architect in London. By December 1708 he was in London hoping to become Master of the [Royal] Works in Scotland. This post, then unpaid, was currently held by James Smith, an architect by whom Campbell was to be significantly influenced. It is known that Campbell had been abroad before ...

[Antoine]

(b Brussels, May 15, 1772; d London, April 16, 1813).

Flemish engraver and print publisher, active in London. The son of Antoine Alexandre Joseph Cardon (1739–1822), a painter and engraver in Brussels, he was persuaded by the troubled times to go to London in 1792. He entered the Royal Academy Schools on 3 November 1792 and was engaged by Paul Colnaghi to engrave, under the direction of Luigi Schiavonetti, three of the Cries of London after Francis Wheatley in 1794–6. Cardon was an enterprising man, soon establishing himself as an independent publisher. He took advantage of the peace of 1801, in that year engraving and publishing in Paris and London Joseph Boze’s painting of The First Consul and General Berthier at the Battle of Marengo (untraced) jointly with the painter. He was known to Joseph Farington, who noted some of his activities, such as his purchase of two paintings by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg for engraving (4 March 1805...

(b Lyon, May 28, 1699; d Paris, April 14, 1771).

French printmaker, print publisher and print-seller. Early in his life his family removed to Paris. His father, Jean-François Cars (1661–1730), an engraver and publisher, was his first teacher. He next studied painting under Joseph Christophe (1662–1748) and François Lemoyne and then completed his studies in engraving under Nicolas-Henry Tardieu. In 1729 he was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale and on 31 December 1733 was received (reçu), on presentation of the engraved portraits of Michel Anguier after Gabriel Revel and of Sébastien Bourdon after Hyacinthe Rigaud. From 1750 he gradually abandoned engraving in favour of print-selling, particularly those of his father’s collection. In 1757 he was appointed a Conseiller. His work included nearly 190 prints; he engraved portraits, historical and mythological subjects after Lemoyne, such as Hercules and Omphale and the Bath of Iris, and genre subjects after Watteau, such as Figures de différents caractères...

(b Blois, March 20, 1680; d Paris, April 15, 1729).

French engraver, print publisher and print-seller. He was the son of a joiner and was trained in Girard Audran’s workshop in Paris. In 1715 he was accepted (agréé) by the Académie Royale and was received (reçu) in 1718 with his engraving after a Self-portrait by Louis Boullogne (i) (Roux, no. 28). In that same year he bought Girard Audran’s business, called Les Deux Piliers d’Or, from his widow, and with it part of its stock of plates. He published chiefly high-quality prints and was one of the first to be interested in engravings after Watteau. He was esteemed as an engraver, even though his oeuvre comprises only 56 finished plates. Although Chéreau engraved some paintings on sacred subjects after such artists as Domenichino, Guido Reni (Crucifixion, r 4) and Raphael (St John the Baptist in the Wilderness, r 2, for the Recueil Crozat), he chiefly engraved portraits, a genre in which, according to Pierre-Jean Mariette, only the Drevet family could rival him. Most of the portraits are engraved after ...

(b Kingston upon Hull, 1770; d London, 12 or March 14, 1812).

English publisher and engraver. He studied in London under Francesco Bartolozzi and engraved a number of book illustrations but was best known as a publisher, issuing the designs by William Blake for Robert Blair’s poem The Grave (London, 1743). In 1805 Cromek commissioned Blake to draw and engrave the designs, but Blake felt betrayed when Cromek engaged Luigi Schiavonetti instead because he saw that Blake’s style of engraving would not please the public (for further discussion see Blake, William). Blake was further annoyed when Cromek commissioned Thomas Stothard to paint the Canterbury Pilgrims (1806; London, Tate; for illustration see Stothard, Thomas), an idea that Blake thought had been stolen from him; in 1809 Blake published a very successful singly issued print of it. Bentley has shown that although Cromek had considerable understanding and sympathy for Blake his treatment of him helped to increase the artist’s isolation....

(b Abbeville, May 18, 1703; d Paris, April 23, 1763).

French printmaker and print publisher. He was a pupil of Robert Hecquet and came to specialize in engraved portraits. In 1735 he met the portrait painter Hyacinthe Rigaud and quickly became his favourite engraver, producing his best work after Rigaud’s portraits. His Comtesse de Caylus and Hyacinthe Rigaud were so admired that he was approved (agréé) and admitted (reçu) by the Académie Royale on the same day, 2 June 1742. He was appointed Graveur du Roi in 1743 and c. 1757 became a member of the academy of Augsburg. From 1753 he engraved many paintings for the Galerie de Dresde, including Quos Ego and the Artist’s Children after Rubens. Between 1748 and 1755 he gradually gave up portraits, to devote himself to mythological and genre scenes, mainly after François Boucher but also after Joseph Vernet, David Teniers the younger, Adam Frans van der Meulen and Jean-François de Troy. Around ...

(b Liège, Jan 19, 1722; d Paris, July 31, 1776).

French engraver and print publisher. He was descended from a family of gunsmiths. In 1739 he went to Paris to join a brother who had established himself there as a goldsmith. Beginning as an engraver and chaser, in 1746 he obtained the rank of master. As early as 1757 he began to specialize in crayon manner (see Crayon manner §2) using a roulette, a process that brought him success; Jean-Charles François contributed in developing this process, but Demarteau, because of his superior skill, outstripped his rival. At a time when drawing was greatly in vogue, he offered the public faithful reproductions, first of red chalk drawings and then of drawings intended for decoration or teaching, in two or three colours, by contemporary artists. His oeuvre comprises 560 numbered plates, half of them after specially provided drawings by François Boucher (for illustration see Crayon manner) or after drawings owned by collectors such as ...

(b London, 1747; d Paris, 1823).

English engraver and print publisher. He worked first for the painter Robert Edge Pine, exhibiting mezzotints of Pine’s pictures at the Society of Artists between 1769 and 1773. He then began publishing some of his own mezzotints independently: his portrait of Joseph Banks (Chaloner Smith, no. 4), made in 1774, was the first of 22 excellent mezzotints made after Sir Joshua Reynolds, 12 of which appeared during the 1770s. His 100 or so portrait mezzotints were well drawn and finely scraped; their brilliance was often enhanced by the use of warm brown inks. From 1776 to 1781 Dickinson published prints with Thomas Watson from New Bond Street, London; they engraved and published stipples as well as mezzotints and became the principal publishers of humorous stipples after the amateur artist Henry William Bunbury. In the decade after 1783 Dickinson engraved only two mezzotint portraits, while publishing plates by other engravers, such as his pupil ...

French family of typographers, printers, publishers and collectors. The first to settle in Paris was Denis Didot (2nd half of 17th century), whose son François Didot (1689–1759) founded in 1713 the family publishing business. His sons François-Ambroise Didot (1730–1804) and Pierre-François Didot (1731–93) developed the business, adding a type foundry and a paper-mill. The elegance of their publications brought them the patronage of the brothers of Louis XVI: Monsieur (later Louis XVIII) and the Comte d’Artois (later Charles X). The sons of François-Ambroise included Pierre Didot, a publisher, among whose illustrators were some of the most distinguished artists of the day, and Firmin Didot (1764–1836), who designed the Didot typeface for his brother’s use. Firmin Didot’s son Ambroise Firmin-Didot was a notable collector of prints. The cadet branch of the family, Didot Jeune, the descendants of Pierre-François Didot, included Saint Marc Didot, who assembled a fine collection of paintings....

(b Paris, April 1662; d Paris, Jan 6, 1757).

French printmaker, print-seller and print publisher. He was a pupil of Guillaume Vallet (1632–1704). He was appointed Graveur du Roi and accepted (agréé) by the Académie Royale in 1704; he was received (reçu) in 1707 with his portraits, both after Hyacinthe Rigaud, of Charles de La Fosse (Roux, no. 10) and François Girardon (r 9). He enjoyed a considerable reputation: according to Claude-Henri Watelet he was one of the printmakers who were able to produce the softest effects in engraving and who knew how best to suggest the velvety texture of a woman’s skin; in this domain he was often imitated but never equalled. His reproductions of Corregio’s Io (r 8), Leda (r 16) and Danaë (r 33) are among the most celebrated of his works, which are not numerous; only 58 have been identified, probably owing to his activities as a print publisher. He distributed works by Laurent Cars and his family, by Jacques-Philippe Lebas and by the Audran family. He also collaborated with ...

(b Paris, Oct 5, 1733; d Versailles, Sept 3, 1796).

French painter. The son of a copperplate printer, he worked with the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Defernex before entering the Académie Royale in 1754, where he studied under Jean-Baptiste Pierre. After three unsuccessful attempts he won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1757 with Elijah Raising the Shunammite Woman’s Son from the Dead (Paris, Ecole B.-A.). He studied (1757–60) at the Ecole des Elèves Protégés in Paris under Carle Vanloo, afterwards transferring to the Académie de France in Rome. During his time in Rome (1761–4) Durameau completed his artistic education, while also making copies after the Old Masters for Pierre-Jean Mariette and studying antique art for the Abbé de Saint-Non. In addition, he painted the genre work, the Saltpetre Factory (Paris, Louvre), which is one of the first industrial landscapes and in its invention and authority worthy of the finest passages of Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

After his return to Paris Durameau pursued the traditional career of a history painter and was accepted into the Académie Royale in ...