The dayI am especially indebted to Mark Pomeroy and his colleagues at the Library of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, for the access provided to materials there and for advice and suggestions. I would also like to thank Viccy Coltman, Brad Feltham, Mark Hallett, Martin Hopkinson, Sarah Monks, Sarah Moulden, Lucy Peltz, Michael Phillips, Jacob Simon, Robin Simon, David Solkin, Greg Sullivan, Sarah V. Turner, Annette Wickham, and Alison Wright. Thanks also to Morris Eaves and Morton D. Paley for their support and advice, and especially to Sarah Jones for her careful editorial work. Any errors that may remain are entirely the responsibility of the author, who would welcome corrections and additions to the biographical records set out here. of William Blake’s formal registration as a student at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, 8 October 1779, has often been taken as marking an important turning point in his biography. The date certainly marked an important juncture, following the end of his apprenticeship as an engraver with James Basire (which, if it followed the normal seven-year term, would have been in August 1779) and taking him into the heart of the art establishment, with its program of elevated art practice centered on the ideality of the classical body and the moral and political commitment of the high-minded artist. Even if Blake’s relationship with the academy has too often been taken as simply oppositional, an idea that endures despite excellent work that has shown to the contrary that he had a more complex relationship with the art establishment and its values and owed quite specific debts to academic idealism in the formation and direction of his art (however unconventional in many respects),Notably Aileen Ward, “‘S^r Joshua and His Gang’: William Blake and the Royal Academy,” Huntington Library Quarterly 52.1 (winter 1989): 75-95. the significance of this date has never really been in doubt. As David Bindman wrote in his seminal study of Blake as a visual artist, “It is difficult to penetrate the obscurity of Blake’s apprentice days, but with his entry into the Royal Academy in 1779 he emerges more clearly; he now became acquainted with more readily identifiable figures and we begin to discern something like a Blake circle.”David Bindman, Blake as an Artist (Oxford: Phaidon, 1977) 19. The date generally provides a neat chapter division in chronological accounts of his life, and a section or section break in exhibition presentations.For example, Peter Ackroyd, Blake (London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995) 63; G. E. Bentley, Jr., The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), in a section headed “‘Blake be an Artist,’” 48-55; Bentley, Blake Records, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), in part 2, “From Artisan to Artist,” 18-25; Michael Phillips, William Blake: Apprentice and Master (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2014), section 4, 49-59. The biographical dictionary of Blake’s fellow students that this essay accompanies and glosses is intended to offer the materials for a further illumination of this turning point in Blake’s career, if only in rather indirect or circumstantial ways. It offers a perspective on our understanding of Blake as an academy student by providing a volume of data about his peers at the schools, a collective biography (prosopography) that should deepen our sense of Blake’s social and artistic environment and provide one kind of historical measure against which his personal fortunes and achievements might be tested.

The dictionary provides biographical details (sometimes full, sometimes very sparse) attached to 236 names, probably referring in total to about 233 individuals, allowing for the ambiguities of some of the records, who can be documented as having first attended the Royal Academy schools between 21 March 1774 and 16 December 1785.This survey represents a portion of a larger biographical dictionary encompassing students attending the Royal Academy schools between 1769 and 1830, in preparation for publication under the title “The Talent of Success: Art Students’ Lives in Romantic London, c. 1770–1830.” The present essay draws on certain conclusions from that larger study, while focusing on Blake’s cohort. Students were generally registered at the schools in March–April and in October–November, corresponding to the seasonal openings. The chronology allows for the identification of students who might reasonably be considered as Blake’s close contemporaries at the schools, at one extreme in their final season as students (the normal admission period being at this time six years), or entering the schools when Blake would have been in a similar position. The admissions procedures and the various opportunities and advantages provided for registered students of the academy are well known, and can be summarized briefly here.See Sidney C. Hutchison, “The Royal Academy Schools, 1768–1830,” Volume of the Walpole Society 38 (1960–62): 123-91; also Holger Hoock, The King’s Artists: The Royal Academy of Arts and the Politics of British Culture 1760–1840 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003) 52-62 and passim. The schools were apparently housed until 1779 at Old Somerset House, and comprised a plaster academy, where students had access to plaster casts of mainly antique sculptures, and a life academy, where male and female models sat for two-hour sessions in the evenings (illus. 1, 2).The drawing schools are generally stated to have been held at Old Somerset House from 1771 until the move into new Somerset House in 1780. However, the academy was instructed to vacate the premises by March 1776 (Martin Postle, “The Royal Academy at Somerset House: The Early Years,” British Art Journal 2.2 [winter 2000–01]: 29-35 [31]). Old Somerset House was demolished to make way for the new complex, so it is not clear whether the schools were held in some remaining portion of the building or (more likely) elsewhere. That being the case, the drawing by Burney identified as showing the plaster academy in Old Somerset House (illus. 2 here) may need to be reconsidered. Thank you to Mark Pomeroy and Annette Wickham for their thoughts on this point.

1. Elias Martin? The life school of the Royal Academy, c. 1770. Sheet 45.9 x 32.2 cm. Wellcome Library, London. No. 44427i.

2. Edward Francis Burney. The plaster academy at Old Somerset House, 1779. 33.5 x 48.5 cm. © Royal Academy of Arts, London. Sydney Lee Fund. 03/7485.

In 1780 the schools moved into the academy’s purpose-built rooms in the new Somerset House (illus. 3).

3. Edward Francis Burney. The plaster academy at Somerset House, c. 1780. 33.5 x 48.5 cm. © Royal Academy of Arts, London. Sydney Lee Fund. 03/7484.

The plaster academy was overseen by the keeper of the Royal Academy, in Blake’s time George Michael Moser, succeeded in 1783 by the sculptor Agostino Carlini. The life academy was overseen by academicians, elected to the role of visitor each year; the character and quality of instruction varied greatly according to who was in the post, and often seems to have descended to interference rather than active encouragement or direction. A student would be admitted initially to the schools as a probationer, on showing a drawing to the keeper and providing a letter of recommendation; he would be permitted to draw from the collection of casts of antique sculpture in the plaster academy for three months, being expected to produce a drawing that would then be presented to the council of the Royal Academy together with a letter attesting to his moral character. If the council judged that the student was sufficiently qualified, he would be admitted as a full student, apparently for a term of six years (extended to seven years in 1792, then to ten years in 1800), although attendance and other records indicate that many students continued for longer than the allotted term, at least until the reform of the schools in 1799–1800.That the term of study was six years until 1792 is stated by Hutchison (130) and generally repeated in the modern literature, but appears not to be clearly documented. Hoock may be right in stating that “six years was the period fixed briefly for confirmed students admitted in 1790–2” (53), but even that seems to exaggerate the formality of the situation regarding the length of student attendance, at least until the several campaigns of reform at the schools after 1799. Even after that date, it was clear that there were a surprising number of individuals attending the schools without having been through the formal procedures.In March 1813 the Royal Academy’s council reviewed “a List of persons drawing in the Antique Academy, consisting of 15 Probationers—12 Students & 17 others admitted by the keeper,” these last apparently not registered even as probationary students (Library of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Council Minutes, vol. 5, p. 26 [6 March 1813]). The name of a new student who went through the formal process of admission would be entered in the register, and he would be issued with a ticket granting him privileges: routine access to the collection of casts housed in the plaster academy; the chance to draw from the male or female model if the student was considered sufficiently qualified by the keeper (and was over twenty years old and/or married, in the case of attending class when a female model was sitting); the chance to compete for the silver medals awarded for figure drawing, and the gold medal for history painting or sculpture, and for the three-year scholarship to Rome made intermittently available to gold medal winners; the use of the library, with its reference books and prints; and the right to attend the annual exhibition for free four times each year, the various lectures on painting, anatomy, and perspective, and, most importantly, the annual prize-giving lectures of the president (the Discourses).

Although Blake’s admission to the academy schools has always been an established fact of his biography, we still know really rather little about his time there. Malkin, having talked with Blake in person, provides the most assertive account: “Here he drew with great care, perhaps all, or certainly nearly all the noble antique figures in various views. … He drew a great deal from life, both at the academy and at home.”Benjamin Heath Malkin, A Father’s Memoirs of His Child (London, 1806) xxii. Later biographers, from Gilchrist onwards, have been much more noncommittal. Aileen Ward, carefully weighing the circumstantial evidence, was surely right in suggesting that Blake may in fact have attended through what was the normal term of six years, that is, until 1785.Ward 78-79. We can be more confident in asserting that he did not have an extended attendance record at the schools. While there are several cases where the names of students admitted before 1785 appear in the attendance registers of the plaster and life academies that happen to survive (which date from 1790 and after), Blake’s is not among them. So, while some of his peers did continue to attend the schools until this later date, Blake appears not to have done. Even if we are not sure how long he attended the drawing schools, Blake himself related using the library, where he disputed the aesthetic value of early prints with Moser, so he at least made use of that facility.Bentley, Blake Records 20.

There is scarce material evidence to help decide how much and how seriously Blake studied at the academy; a few drawings survive that may be relevant, although the lack of more of this kind cannot be taken as a reliable indicator of any lack of commitment to academic study, as noted below. Among the scraps of drawings after the antique, that of the legs of the figure of Cincinnatus can reasonably be asserted to have been undertaken in the plaster academy; as Robin Hamlyn notes, that antique figure featured prominently in Edward Francis Burney’s views of the cast room in its old and new settings (illus. 2, 3).Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), cat. no. 104A (verso). Robin Hamlyn, William Blake: Independence and Innovation, exhibition leaflet (London: Tate Gallery, 1993) n. pag. Other studies, apparently of casts, include Butlin nos. 115 (verso) and 178. Of the two important life drawings by Blake in the British Museum, only one appears certain to be an academy drawing, the heavy musculature and anonymized character of the figure drawn from behind corresponding closely with other life school drawings of the period (illus. 4, 5).Butlin nos. 71-72. Butlin notes the records of four lost drawings that may have been academic life studies (nos. 866-69).

4. William Blake. Life drawing, c. 1779–80 (Butlin no. 72). 34.9 x 22.5 cm. © Trustees of the British Museum. 1874,1212.110.

5. Thomas Stothard. Life drawing, c. 1800? 15.4 x 8.6 cm. © Royal Academy of Arts, London. 05/3163.

The other, a slimmer, smooth-limbed figure with an unconventionally individualized visage, has been taken as a drawing of Robert Blake or even as a self-portrait; if it is an academy drawing it features a model whose physique was untypical and cannot be found in other designs (illus. 6).

6. William Blake. Life drawing, c. 1779–80 (Butlin no. 71). 47.9 x 37.0 cm. © Trustees of the British Museum. 1878,0413.34.

Yet academy students must have produced many hundreds, indeed thousands of life studies and drawings from the antique during the early years of the academy. The bankruptcy sale of the London embroiderer Henry Fremont, who was Blake’s contemporary in the schools, having registered in March 1779, included a lot comprising seven portfolios with as many as 150 academy studies, together with multiple other drawings in red chalk that seem similarly to have derived from his time at the academy.Westminster Archives, London, Acc 36/107. J. M. W. Turner apparently attended the plaster academy over 130 times and the life academy over 100 times up to the point he became an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1799.See Ann Chumbley and Ian Warrell, Turner and the Human Figure: Studies of Contemporary Life, exhibition catalogue (London: Tate Gallery, 1989) 12-13. Yet even with a figure of his stature, whose studio contents were so completely preserved, whose dedication to academic study so notable, we have only a handful of drawings that appear to derive from his time at the schools.Eric Shanes, Young Mr. Turner: The First Forty Years, 1775–1815 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016) 33-34. These were, after all, only exercises, discarded as such and rarely preserved in any quantities, when at all.There are exceptions, including groups of academic drawings from this period by John Rubens Smith at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and by J. J. Masquerier at the Wellcome Trust, London; there is a group of life drawings by Thomas Stothard, although dated to around 1800, at the Royal Academy, London, and individual designs by William Artaud, Edward Francis Burney, and Joseph Strutt at the British Museum, London.

Securing entry to the academy schools was an honor. A later student, C. R. Leslie, boasted to family back home in America: “I have lately been made a student in the Academy … I have now access to the library every Monday, besides the privileges of wearing my hat in the Academy, & coming in with a greater swagger than before.”Letter of 4 April 1813. Tate Archive, London, 9613.1.3.1. Blake arrived at the school at an auspicious moment in the academy’s history. In December 1779, just two months after he registered, the first official event took place in the new Somerset House.Postle 31. The academy had triumphed, and was without a real challenger as an exhibiting body and teaching institution for many years. Accordingly, many former students made much of their association with this esteemed body. Drawing masters’ advertisements routinely stated when an artist had studied in the academy, and the affiliation appears to have counted as much in Boston as in Bolton. At a later date, the Kent-born artist Thomas Sidney Cooper, who ventured to London without connections in the metropolis and secured a place at the academy, was called home almost immediately following the death of his father; nonetheless, his ivory ticket was sent to him and, although he never actually attended the schools as a student, he immediately had a trade card printed that stated his association with the academy.T. Sidney Cooper, My Life, new ed. (London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1891) 86. Sometimes the point was rather strained, with artists’ being named “Royal Academician” in newspaper notices on the basis only that they studied there, rather than being elected members, and there were a few cases where artists advertised provincially as former students where there is no evidence that they were. Then there is the striking case of Faithful Christopher Pack, a contemporary of Blake’s at the schools, who throughout his life claimed to be a student of Reynolds and assiduous student at the academy, a point gently denied by the president himself: “If all those whom I have endeavoured to help forward by lending them pictures and telling them their faults should do me the honour of calling themselves my scholars, I should have the greatest school that any Painter had.”John Ingamells and John Edgcumbe, eds., The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000) 135. For Pack and others, merely attending the schools was valuable, above and beyond the practical training that was provided, as it implied an intimacy with the art establishment, even with Sir Joshua himself, that might not have actually existed.

The schools were a convivial setting, which itself fostered a certain sense of community that must previously have been lacking among students. Earlier drawing schools had been set up by artists for themselves and their pupils, whereas the academy schools were open to all (male) comers who could demonstrate their interest and talent. A remarkable anonymous sketchbook at the academy, tentatively but plausibly attributed to Edward Francis Burney, shows students (sometimes named) lolling around, posing for one another (illus. 7).Thanks to Annette Wickham for sharing her unpublished catalogue notes on the sketchbook with me.

7. Edward Francis Burney? Students of the Royal Academy, c. 1779–80. 15.8 x 19.6 cm.
© Royal Academy of Arts, London. 09/1808.

Although the sketchbook is dated precisely to Blake’s time on the basis of the students identified by inscriptions, our artist does not, sadly, seem to make an appearance. The setting implied by these designs would not appear to be the drawing rooms themselves, but perhaps other rooms at the academy (there was once a directive from the council forbidding students from lounging around and drinking in the foyer) or, more likely, a nearby tavern or even one of the students’ lodgings. There are several references among the students’ personal accounts to their drinking and eating together after evening study, or routinely walking to or from the academy together—notably James Northcote’s attempts to avoid walking out with a fellow student, James Roberts, whom he took a dislike to (“But he sticks to me as a limpet does to a Rock and most commonly goes with me from the academy if I do not make hast[e] to get out or join some of those who I do like”).Library of the Royal Academy, NOR/6. There are, certainly, records of student misbehavior. Thomas Burgess, a mature student and already established as a drawing master, was in 1773 ordered to apologize publicly for some perceived slight to the visitor.Library of the Royal Academy, Council Minutes, vol. 1 (9 November 1773): “Agostino Carlini Esq made a complaint that Thomas Burgess one of the Students had grossly insulted him in the execution of his Office as Visitor on the 4^th Instant & the same being confirmed by Messrs Grignion & Sherwin (two of the Students).” There are anecdotal stories of plaster casts being broken, of tomfoolery, and of arguments over seating arrangements (particularly in the plaster schools, where movable wooden boxes were employed and where getting good sight of the casts in the crowded and rather poorly lit room was not always easy). There is, also, the evidence of the admissions books, one of which includes an appended, rather stern notice: “This book being examined occasionally, it is expected, that the Students do enter their Names legibly—and not tear or blot it.”Admission book for the plaster academy, 23 March-19 October 1795 (Library of the Royal Academy, RAA/KEE/2/1/8). Such direction was evidently necessary. A number of students would choose to sign in cheekily with the designation “RA,” while a fellow student altered the signature of the engraver John Hogg, “John Hogg alias Pig” (11 October 1791), and the sculptor William Coffee’s autograph was supplemented more extensively, “W Coffee sold here wholesale & retail tea &c &c &c &c &c &c” (3 December 1791). It seems unlikely that such drollery was restricted to the moment in the 1790s when the attendance registers happen to have survived, and we might hope that the author of An Island in the Moon had his moment, too, when he put his name down.

Blake clearly did socialize with fellow students. It was one fellow student, Thomas Trotter, who introduced him to Thomas Stothard, whom Trotter must have known through the calico printing trade in which both served. There were other figures who feature in Blake’s biography. John Flaxman and George Cumberland had registered at an earlier date, and William Lock of Norbury was apparently admitted to the life academy in 1785, from a note in the council minutes “that Mr Lock Junr be allowed to draw after the Female Model.”Library of the Royal Academy, Council Minutes (7 March 1785). Fellow apprentices from Basire’s workshop would have been known to him—James Parker, who became his business partner, was a contemporary at the schools. G. E. Bentley, Jr., dates to around September 1780 or 1781 a sketching trip on the Medway with Stothard and “Mr. Ogleby,” apparently an older man, or “Parkes an Engraver pupil with Blake & Basire,” who has reasonably been identified as Parker, but who might also be Thomas Park, later notable as an antiquarian, who had registered as a student (“engraver”) in 1777.Bentley, “Blake’s First Arrest, at Upnor Castle,” Blake 31.3 (winter 1997–98): 82-84; Blake Records 24, quoting a description of an impression of the print after Stothard at the British Museum. With Britain at war, they were suspected of being spies taking an interest in nearby Chatham Docks, and briefly arrested. They were released by intercession of the Royal Academy, quite certainly not because the academy testified to their “carrying out a student assignment,”As suggested by Bentley, “Blake’s First Arrest” 83. something that was unheard of at this time, but rather by virtue of their being students and therefore of sound moral (and political) character. The same took place a few years later, in what were surely rather more serious circumstances relating to a student, John Ramsay, who had been imprisoned in enemy France in 1804: “We voted a Certificate to John Ramsay, a prisoner at Verdun, declaring Him to be a Student of the Royal Academy.”The fortress of Verdun was used to house Britons still in France at the resumption of war in 1803; they were said to number about 800 by the beginning of 1804 (James Forbes, Letters from France, Written in the Years 1803 and 1804. Including a Particular Account of Verdun, and the Situation of the British Captives in That City, 2 vols. [London: J. White, 1806] 2: 220). I have not been able to establish Ramsay’s fate after this date. For Blake around 1780, and (perhaps) for Ramsay in 1804, the association with the academy meant that they had the authority of the British state to protect them.On the academy as a state institution, see Hoock; see also Patrick Joyce, The State of Freedom: A Social History of the British State since 1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) 205.

So, quite aside from the practical opportunities, in terms of access to casts and models and prints and reference books, as well as instruction, study at the Royal Academy evidently provided status by association, a guarantee of moral character and sound political principles, and, to some degree at least, a form of corporate identity as well as a social network. Study at the academy mattered to the more than two hundred students recorded here, in ways that are complex and manifold.One measure would be membership of the academy itself, on which point Ward calculated that twenty-seven of the ARAs elected from 1786 to 1805 were former students, about one in fifteen—“more than one man a year” from the student intake (89n22). I hope that the short biographies in the survey will provide matter of interest in detail and as a basis for comparison with Blake. Given the scale of the record, the biographies will, largely, have to speak for themselves, but we can take a more abstracted overview of Blake’s contemporaries at the academy schools, with reference to the basic data about geographical origin and social background summarized in the two appendices below.

It has proved possible to establish geographical origins for 169 students, over 70% of the total. Of these, 79 were born in London, a third of the total, and almost half of those whose birthplace is documented. Another 51 were from England, meaning that 55% of the whole were English born, with a very strong metropolitan bias. There was a reasonably large Irish contingent of 10 students (although there were doubtless more born in England to Irish parents), but relatively few Scottish students, and only 2 from Wales. As Holger Hoock has noted, drawing on a sketchier survey of students across the period 1769–1829, “The apparent dearth of Scottish RA students at least before 1800 can in part be explained by the existence of indigenous art institutions and a tradition of Scottish students being educated on the Continent.”Hoock 61. Hoock was able to establish birthplaces for about a third of the 223 students he sampled. Strikingly, there were more American-born students than either Scottish or Welsh, a sharp reminder that London was (until 1783) still, in the phrase helpfully foregrounded by the historian Julie Flavell, “capital of America.”Julie Flavell, When London Was Capital of America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011). Blake’s student contemporaries were as transatlantic in their makeup as they were British in the broad sense. They were also cosmopolitan, in that there were at least 18 students born in Europe, as well as many others who were born in England to continental European parents. So around 10% of students were born outside the British Isles.In the famously globalized present day, 80.8% of students in higher education in the UK are from the UK, 5.6% are from the EU, and 13.6% from the rest of the world. Figures for 2015–16, provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs, <https://​institutions.​ukcisa.​org.​uk/​Info-​for-​universities-​colleges--​schools/​Policy-​research--​statistics/​Research--​statistics/​International-​students-​in-​UK-​HE/​#International-​students-​in-​UK-​HE-​by-​domicile,-​level-​and-​mode,​<br>-​European-​Union-​(EU)-​(excluding-UK)-​and-​non-​EU,-​2014-15>. For a moment, at least, the Royal Academy must have seemed like a thrilling entrepôt, a European, even global, center of art study. Given the relatively belated foundation of the Royal Academy compared to many countries on the Continent, it is striking that the schools attracted academically trained artists from Europe, including two Russian students sent over with court funding in 1773, one of whom, Gavriil Ivanovich Skorodumov, reported in 1777: Here the arts flourish and artists are highly esteemed and greatly encouraged. English gentlemen are great connoisseurs and have their own collections, filled with the works of the Old Masters. Apart from the Royal Academy, there are a great number of schools where drawing and other skills are taught.Quoted in A. G. Cross, “By the Banks of the Thames”: Russians in Eighteenth Century Britain (Newtonville: Oriental Research Partners, 1980) 213. Skorodumov’s report was, doubtless, on the optimistic side (he was applying for continued funding from his homeland), and there is, on the contrary, a record of students complaining about the poor quality of the facilities at the schools.See Rhodri Windsor Liscombe, “The ‘Diffusion of Knowledge and Taste’: John Flaxman and the Improvement of the Study Facilities at the Royal Academy,” Volume of the Walpole Society 53 (1987): 226-38. This, together with external events, seems to have led to a temporary decline in student numbers in general, but more enduringly of foreign students in particular.Hoock tracks declining student numbers through the later 1770s and 1780s, which picked up only intermittently after 1790 (35, fig. 1). In the event, non-British students declined in number after 1785, even with the momentary influx of émigrés in the 1790s. The composition of the student body changed decisively after Blake’s time, and numbers of non-British students did not pick up, even after the conclusion of the long French wars in 1815.Of the 302 students joining the schools in the period 1821–30, only 4 (or 1.3%) were born outside the British Isles (2 French and 2 American). Myrone, “The Talent of Success” (forthcoming).

Such a sweeping survey has pitfalls, of course, but the general pattern is clear, and the evidence fairly robust. Establishing social origins is a more treacherous matter, given the slippery nature of social rank and even occupation in the eighteenth century. But an attempt has been made here to identify family backgrounds, based on paternal occupation, using categories derived from the social tables of Gregory King (for 1688), Joseph Massie (for 1759), and Patrick Colquhoun (for 1801–03), as revised and streamlined influentially by Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson in 1982.Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey G. Williamson, “Revising England’s Social Tables 1688–1812,” Explorations in Economic History 19 (1982): 385-408. Although evidently intended to suggest a rough social ranking (lords at the top, vagrants at the bottom), these tables indicate occupational sectors rather than status or income in a strict way; the income ranges provided by Massie and Colquhoun make it clear that there were many clergymen who were poorer than tailors, who ranked below them in the social table, for instance. Reducing a family background to parental occupation in this way is, obviously, reductive, particularly as so many people in the eighteenth century pursued multiple careers and drew wealth from investments and property. Nonetheless, we can tentatively draw some conclusions, based on the 57% of the student body where it has proved possible to establish parental occupation.

First, the relatively high social status of the student cohort is striking. A total of 47 students, 20% of the total or 35% of that portion where the father’s occupation has been established, were from the top-ranking “titles and professions.” The number is doubtless skewed, as artists and musicians were counted by both Massie and Colquhoun among that top rank, but it is also the case that at least 21 were from more securely genteel backgrounds, with fathers who were property-owning gentlemen, “Esquires,” professionals, or office holders. A larger number, 83 (over 35% of the total), were from trade and commerce, which could, however, range from wealthy merchant to lowly tailor. Within those groups there is, surely predictably, a strong representation of the design-oriented crafts (goldsmiths, jewelers, housepainters, and carvers and gilders) and the building trades (including masons). Taking these together with the artists and sculptors ranked among the “professions,” about a quarter of the total number of students came from family backgrounds already connected with the visual arts, pointing to quite a strong tendency to occupational inheritance. Not so predictable, but rather intriguing, given Blake’s family background, is the strong showing of tradesmen connected with textiles: a total of 7 linen drapers, hatters, and hosiers, compared to 2 butchers and 2 bakers. We may suspect that a business concern with textiles, however mundane, connected the household to the world of art and design more directly than most other trades. Such an idea might also be supported by some notable shortages when this cohort is set against the population of England as a whole. Agriculture is barely represented—1% of the student body—while 14.5% of the population were counted by Colquhoun as farmers and freeholders. The maritime and military are similarly underrepresented (less than 1%, compared to 11% of the population in the Britain at war surveyed by Colquhoun). And there is the complete absence of “Labourers and the Poor,” making up over 35% of the population as a whole. It is perhaps possible that the 43% of students whose family backgrounds have not been documented in this survey were all sons of tin miners or hedgers and ditchers, vagrants or prostitutes. But, on the circumstantial evidence provided in their biographies, and on the basis of the larger survey of academy students (where family backgrounds have been established for a higher proportion of students), this seems highly unlikely.

Putting parental occupation aside, we can note that at least 40 of the students (about 17%) are recorded as having been formally apprenticed to a master, although the accessible records of apprenticeship are far from comprehensive and the actual proportion was doubtless much higher. Within this record we can detect certain concentrations of activity, with some masters in relevant trades training apprentices particularly inclined to academic study. This includes Blake himself, two others documented as apprentices to Basire (John Dawson and James Parker), and one more said to have been his pupil (William Skelton).Another, Thomas Ryder, had apparently registered at the schools in 1772, as “Thomas Ride.” Basire’s workshop was, in fact, notable in producing academy students, along with that of the coach painter Thomas Maxfield (three students from this cohort)Blackmore, Gray, and Minnitt. and the sculptor John Walsh (the same).Braithwaite, Horwell, and Sinnott. All these are, however, rather overshadowed by the stipple engraver Francesco Bartolozzi: at least 11 students from this survey were currently or had been his pupils.Bettelini, William Bond, Fagan, Fielding, Marcuard, Ogborne, Saunders, Edmund Scott, Simon, Sintzenich, and Tomkins. Like Blake, Parker appears to have joined the schools only after his apprenticeship; Dawson would have still been an apprentice, and Skelton was still within the term of his apprenticeship to the engraver John Lodge, unless he had already transferred to Basire. Two of Maxfield’s apprentices would have been students after the seven-year term of apprenticeship, and the third was within term, while all three of Walsh’s apprentices were within their apprenticeship periods while attending the schools. There is evidence that masters could be actively against academic study, as in the case of Richard Westall, later a watercolor painter of some eminence but then an apprentice to a lettering engraver, who “permitted him to draw at the Royal Academy, in the evenings; but for that indulgence he worked a corresponding number of hours in the morning.”Gentleman’s Magazine (February 1837): 213. Overall, however, apprenticeship and academic study were not always mutually exclusive, and some masters were moderately encouraging of, or at least reconciled to, their charges’ attending the schools.

Tracing the professional and personal fortunes of around 233 students is perhaps a matter best covered by the individual biographies, however sketchy they may be. But we can note the four documented suicides (John Alefounder, Filiter Stepanov, Edward Dayes, and Robert Fagan), which, without any reliable source on the suicide rates at this period, nonetheless hardly seem excessive, and also the need for charity by a relatively small number of former students. Of the twelve who applied personally for support from the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution, or whose widows applied, five were engravers, which surely suggests the disproportionate economic vulnerability of that profession. These include Cantlo Bestland, ruined by the commercial failure of his large engraving of Henry Singleton’s group portrait of the Royal Academicians, published along with a key by him in 1802; John William Edy, “his business is nearly extinct having hardly any Sale of his works, repeated Illness, some debts contracted thro’ many unproductive Years, advanced Age & this year a broken arm & other misfortunes”; John Ogborne, “incapable of following his profession from a nervous affection of the head”; John Louis Sailliar, who left his widow with “nothing but her needle to depend upon”; and John Walker, who applied in 1834 complaining that “the abundance of cheap engravings from steel plates, renders it next to impossible for a person of his description to obtain even the most scanty livelihood.”Taken from case records in the Applicants’ Books, archive of the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution, London. Thanks to Brad Feltham for making these records available for me to consult.

How does Blake measure up when set in the context of this larger record of students’ lives? We should note that Blake himself applied, once, for charity from the Royal Academy, receiving £25 in 1822,Bentley, Blake Records 384-85. as did fellow students or their dependents, including Francis Haward and Benedict Van Assen (both, again, engravers), on other occasions. However, he seems never to have applied to the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution (AGBI), nor suffered the absolute poverty and obscurity that we can find in the biographical record as a whole. He lived long, much longer than many of his contemporaries, and was put into the art historical record relatively early: only Hoppner and Morland from among this cohort received biographical treatment along with Blake in Allan Cunningham’s Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters.Allan Cunningham, The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, 6 vols. (London: John Murray, 1829–33). In being a Londoner, with a family in trade, he was typical, in some strictly numerical sense. But he was also part of a distinctly middle-class student body, one that was inclined toward the social elite rather than the economically depressed. If many of the students were sons of tradesmen and artisans, they mixed almost exclusively with the sons of artists, gentlemen, and professionals, rather than laborers or servants. Nor did they generally face much parental disapproval; instead, there is a record of indulgent fathers, who actually encouraged their sons in art, James Blake, the hosier, among them.Malkin recounts that Blake’s father purchased casts and prints for him to draw from (xviii-xix). The life of the artist seems, perhaps rather unexpectedly, to have been something that middle-class parents were comfortable with.

We can see this by taking another perspective, looking only at the intake of students alongside Blake on 8 October 1779. This comprised Thomas Gosse, registered as a painter; Peter Holland, painter; Joseph Toomer, painter; John Willam Edy, painter; John Smith Cranfield, sculptor; and Joseph Cappe, painter. Gosse, aged only fourteen at the date of registration, was from a family of West Country merchants and wool manufacturers; his father held office. After family affairs declined, he was apprenticed to John Raphael Smith and became a professional engraver. Later in life he was a traveling miniature painter. Holland’s family background is unclear, although the Holland family was quite well established in Cheshire, and he appears to have been based mainly in the neighboring city of Liverpool, having lodged in London during his studies. He was active as a portrait and landscape painter, married, and appears to have achieved moderate success. Toomer, aged nineteen, was from a family of bankers and ironmongers in Berkshire, and returned to that life himself, ending up living a peaceful life in retirement in Kent. Edy, aged nineteen, was the son of a Bristol baker, although he may also have been related to a sculptor called Edey; he exhibited at the academy in 1785 and again in 1801 and 1802, and worked as a printmaker and publisher, sometimes of satirical subjects. He may be counted among the casualties of this cohort, receiving charity from the academy in 1823 and applying successfully to the AGBI in 1827. The AGBI also provided support in his final years and assistance to his widow after he died of typhus in 1832. Cranfield, aged about twenty-one, was Irish, the son of a carver and gilder, and returned to Dublin in 1783 to go into business with his father. He died relatively young, in one of the rare occasions of workplace injury in the record. Finally, Cappe, aged nineteen, can be identified as the son of a Unitarian minister; he exhibited a portrait in 1780 but went on to study medicine, dying young in 1791. There is, evidently, social variety here, but there are also some fairly clear parameters. These young men did not come from poverty and were not necessarily destined for poverty themselves. They doubtless had to work, but also had family networks to support them.

There is much more to be done here, but by way of conclusion I would point to a striking, almost entirely overlooked fact, the relevance of which may not immediately be obvious: when Blake exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1800 (“The loaves and fishes”), it was as an “honorary” exhibitor, the designation employed by individuals showing works for their own satisfaction rather than in the expectation of professional gain (whether immediate sale, or attracting new clients or commissions).Bentley, Blake Records 89. Bentley’s explanation (89n) that this was because of reforms at the academy schools in 1799 is misleading. Students were asked to submit drawings in order to demonstrate that they were qualified to continue in the schools, but this did not affect the status of former students or the right of any student to exhibit. Accordingly, Blake did not provide his address; honorary exhibitors were not seeking unsolicited contact from the exhibition’s visitors. Yet it was, as indicated by Bentley’s meticulously composed figures, only at that moment, around 1800, that Blake (largely thanks to the patronage of Thomas Butts) was anywhere near earning as much from his paintings as from commercial printmaking.Bentley, William Blake in the Desolate Market (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014) 105, notes income from painting in the period 1800–09 as £460, compared to £650 from engraving, almost four times as much as it had been in 1790–99 and making up over half of his £825 lifetime earnings in that medium. The point at which Blake could reasonably imagine himself living as a painter of serious religious and literary themes, fulfilling, to some degree at least, the ideal of the history painter promoted by the Royal Academy, was also the moment that he presented himself publicly as what we would think of as an “amateur.”

In his review of William Blake in the Desolate Market, Mark Crosby notes that Bentley has, perhaps rather unwittingly, exposed an important question about Blake’s reputation: The perception of Blake as an otherworldly figure, unconcerned about and far detached from the economic realities of his time, has long permeated Blake studies. … The information that Bentley has marshaled, particularly the amount of money earned over the first twenty-five years or so of Blake’s professional career, suggests a rather different William Blake: a highly skilled engraver frequently attuned to a developing marketplace, who explored numerous commercial opportunities with varying degrees of economic success.Mark Crosby, rev. of William Blake in the Desolate Market, by G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake 50.2 (fall 2016): par. 2. I think we might extend this revision further, and add another dimension to Blake’s identity in light of the social composition of his cohort of academy students. What the academy’s record indicates, even from the period 1774–85 but with greater clarity in the decades that followed, is that the pursuit of art was undertaken by a hugely disproportionate number of individuals from middle-class and even elite backgrounds, to the almost complete exclusion of the bulk of the population further down the social table, the laboring masses. This is not, I think, at all surprising, and could be explained away with reference to any number of strictly utilitarian factors. But it does mean that we might want to recalibrate our sense of Blake’s social profile, and, indeed, the social character of the artist in the Romantic age more generally. If the literature tends to emphasize social aspiration and conflict, bohemianism and radical sentiment, among the artists of those turbulent years, the prosopography points to a rather different picture, in which boys and young men from established trade, commercial, and genteel backgrounds chose to go into art, usually with parental approval. This is not at all to underplay the very real risks involved in an artistic career, perhaps more than ever during those decades of war and unrest. There is plenty of evidence from the lives of Blake’s contemporaries of careers thwarted by neglect or buffeted by a volatile market. It is, however, to suggest that we need to think carefully about who felt able to take such risks and face up to such obstacles.

In surveying the student body at the Royal Academy, I have been struck by the parallel with what Angela McRobbie has observed of her own students in the creative industries as the “middle-classification” of the student body.Angela McRobbie, Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016) 10-12 and passim. McRobbie’s account makes it clear that this restriction in terms of class background accompanies ostensible freedoms, freedoms associated with free-market liberalism. Indeed, she suggests that the freedoms associated particularly with artists’ lives have become exemplary for all working people; they are something for even the established middle classes to aspire to, notwithstanding the risks and perils this pursuit entails. It is, it appears, the established middle classes who feel most able to withstand the travails of living life as a creative individual. Blake’s era was, after all, the era of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and the emergence of the free market as economic, social, and cultural force. It may be, unexpectedly, that Blake, whom we might wish to be a countercultural icon, bohemian, and outsider, and in these regards the exemplary artist, was much more fully part of that process at its earliest stage than we might wish to believe.

A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF STUDENTS OF PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING WHO ATTENDED THE ROYAL ACADEMY SCHOOLS, 1774–85

The Scope of the Dictionary

The following biographical dictionary provides details on around 233 individuals who first attended the Royal Academy schools in London between 21 March 1774 and 16 December 1785, professing that they wished to pursue painting, sculpture, or engraving. Students professing architecture, always in a minority and poorly provided for, are generally omitted, with a few exceptions. Although John Alefounder registered as an architect, his silver medals were for figure drawings and he practiced as an artist, and John Linnell Bond first registered for “Drawing” before being marked as an architect, and also seems to have studied from the figure. Additionally, George Stoddart registered with the dual vocations of architect and painter. The major source of information is the register maintained by the keeper (RAA/KEE/1/1 Register of Admission of Students, 1769–1830), which at this date generally provided the name, age, and date of birth of the student, the art professed, and any medals secured (silver for drawing the figure; gold for history painting and modeling). The original register was organized alphabetically by surname, with additional entries being added each year on the appropriate page. It was published by Sidney C. Hutchison in Volume of the Walpole Society in 1962, and has been a standard source. Hutchison’s transcription is almost entirely faithful, although he does not always transcribe additional notes, such as the annotations indicating that the student had died (this apparently being done before the register stopped being used at the end of 1830). The register marked the date at which the student was formally enrolled and could enjoy access to the plaster academy, to the life academy when considered properly qualified by the keeper (and when of an appropriate age, for classes where a female model was sitting), the library, and the annual exhibition. The registration of students was also marked in the minutes of the Royal Academy’s council meetings, and Hutchison generally notes discrepancies that do occasionally arise between these records, as regards a date of entry to the schools, the spelling of a name, or even whether a student was actually admitted. The council minutes also occasionally provide details of others attending the schools, either as probationary students preparing to apply for full registration, or more informally. Other sources, such as biographies and memoirs, sometimes give indications that individuals attended the schools, although their names do not appear in the register or the council minutes. Given that, at this date, students admitted to the schools as probationers were not routinely recorded, such evidence has been accepted and these individuals are included.

The Form of the Biographies

The name (and variant spellings) and other details of the student as entered in the register, council minutes, or as derived from other primary sources are provided in bold at the head of each entry. The alphabetical ordering of the entries is based on the name as given in the original record. The number provided in Hutchison’s edition of the register is given in parentheses, as an “H” number. The biographical entry that follows provides the name of the student as given in modern sources, life dates, primary occupation or status, and a narrative account of his life. It is skewed toward details of the student’s background, upbringing, and training, and in particular his experience of study at the Royal Academy. Primary source material relating details about student activity is quoted fully, where available. The later life and career of the student is sketched with the intention of giving an evidence-based account of his professional destiny and personal fortunes, without attempting to be exhaustive. Accordingly, the biographies of the lesser-known figures tend to be longer than the most familiar, whose life stories are well established. The sources of quoted material, or of biographical data that may be disputed or novel, are given within the text; key sources specific to the artist are noted at the end of the entry.

Sources and Abbreviations

This list comprises the main published, unpublished, and electronic sources referred to in compiling the student biographies. Specific reference is made to these sources within the biographical texts where they are directly quoted or contradicted, or where they appear to be the sole source of information that does not appear elsewhere. Additional sources, including monographs, newspapers and magazines, and commercial directories, are cited within the biographical entries.

Parochial and civil records providing details of birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial have been accessed via the subscription service <http://​www.​ancestry.​co.​uk>. These key life dates have been checked even where they are available in the standard published sources below; where there are significant factual discrepancies, these are noted within the text. The principle has been to provide sufficient information to allow for repeat searches, without encumbering these short texts with full archival citations. Similarly, insurance records are drawn from the online index of Sun Fire policies at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), and references to court documents and other archival materials are from London Lives, 1690 to 1800 (London Lives) and Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674–1913 (Old Bailey).

The Biographical Dictionary

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   O   P   R   S   T   V   W

John Alefounder

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 19 last September; architect (H270) Silver medal 1782, 1784
Marked as “Deceased” in the register

John Alefounder (1757–94). Portrait and miniature painter. Although admitted to study as an architect, he won silver medals for academy figures and established a career as a portrait painter. Born in Greenstead, near Colchester, the son of John Alefounder (1731–87), carpenter, builder, and surveyor, and his wife Sarah (Vaughan). The father was named as “of the parish of Saint Gyles in the Fields in the County of Middlesex Timber Merchant” in a legal contract of 1760 (London Lives) and was bankrupted in 1762, “Carpenter, Surveyor, Dealer and Chapman” (Gazetteer 20 September 1762). In 1774 he was appointed “surveyor” of “the District of Saint Luke Old Street and the Liberty of Glass House,” and died holding that post in 1787. The surname is not common and the family originated in Essex and Suffolk; family members included a pawnbroker, navy surgeon, and carpenters. The elder John Alefounder originated in Colchester. John Alefounder exhibited at the RA from 1777. He married in London in 1784, a Marie Jane Curd or Evans, but subsequently traveled to India, appearing in Calcutta in 1785. He struggled to become established as a portrait painter, and in 1786 advertised that his studio contents were to be put up for sale. In 1788 Thomas Daniell reported that “Alefounder (entre nous) does not get forward, nor ever will here. His unfortunate outset makes against him” (Foster 6), but he struggled on, trying various schemes to make money from his art, before announcing his departure for England in 1793. In November of that year he wrote to his cousin in England: Fortunes in this part of y^e World are not made rapidly as heretofore, although my works (which chiefly is Miniature) are approved, & I have the pleasure to tell you are highly spoken _^^of. The chief part of the inhabitants are poor, and any price is thought too high for the times, 20 Gold Mohurs for a Bracelet or Ring, 25 D^o for a large Locket, & 50 for a Child’s whole length o[r] larger size, had I plenty of employment I should undoubtedly save money, a Gold medal Mohur is near 2£s english. But expences here are very high, and y^e number of Servants every Gentleman is obliged to keep soon devour y^e profits of my labour, when encouragement slackens. (Photocopy at Essex Record Office, online at Alefounder family site, run by Peter Alefounder on RootsWeb) His plans postponed, he died by his own hand in India in December 1794. A contemporary noted, “Poor Alefounder destroyed himself, and (shocking to relate) with a penknife. His head almost cut off. He had been very melancholy for some days” (Foster 7). His will, written before departing for India, was proved 1795, referred to him as “Portrait Painter” of “Bow Street, Covent Garden” (National Archives, PROB 11/1266), and alluded to artist friends William Elmer and John Nash and a brother, George Alefounder. M. J. Alefounder received charity from the RA as “Widow of J. Alefounder, Painter. Student” (CM).
(Alefounder Ancestors, run by Peter Alefounder)

William Alexander

Registered as a student 27 February 1784, aged 18, 10 April next; painter (H451) Noted in the life school register 1 November 1790

William Alexander (1767–1816). Artist and museum curator. Born in Maidstone, Kent, the son of Harry Alexander (d. 1783), a coachbuilder, and his wife, Elizabeth. He attended Maidstone Grammar School before moving to London around 1782. A notice issued by his mother in the local press in 1783 indicated that his father, “Coach and Coach Harness Maker,” had died and “the Business will be continued, for the Benefit of herself and Children, by the same Workmen” (Kentish Gazette 29 November 1783). “He first studied drawing under Mr William Parr, of Fountain court, Strand, and afterwards was placed with Ibbotson, the celebrated Landscape painter” (“Memoir of the Author” in William Alexander, A Journey to Beresford Hall [London, 1841]). Farington heard from former fellow student Henry Edridge that he “continued with Him several years. During that time Ibbetson was much employed by Picture dealers in copying the works of Loutherbourgh &c, which were frequently sold as originals. In this practice He was assisted by Alexander, who continued in the same kind of employ after His engagement with Ibbetson had terminated, and painted much in this way for a picture dealer & Broker of the name of Clarke, who resided in Princes street, Soho Square” (Notebooks 3: 9). In 1792–93 he was junior draftsman on Lord Macartney’s embassy to China, which provided subject matter for his exhibited and published work for the rest of his career. He married, in 1795, Jane Wogan or Wagan, but she died shortly afterwards. In 1808 he was appointed assistant librarian at the British Museum, and became first keeper of the newly formed Department of Prints and Drawings. He died at his uncle’s house in Maidstone in 1816.

Charles Ansell

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 24 next November; painter (H365)

Charles Ansell (1756–active 1799). Animal painter. “Reputed for his drawing of the horse” (Redgrave). Possibly connected with the M. Ansell who exhibited needlework as an honorary exhibitor at the SA 1776–80, latterly from the Boarding School, Tottenham. Charles Ansell exhibited at the RA 1780–81, from 1 Edward Street, Cavendish Square. Probably, therefore, the son of, or otherwise closely related to, Robert Ansell (d. 1789), carver and gilder, and picture dealer, who was based in Edward Street, Cavendish Square, around 1777–82. In 1785 he advertised the publication at 1 Edward Street of an aquatint print of “the celebrated Convent, called The Paraclete, founded by Abelard in the Year 1130 … Engraved by F. Jukes, from the View taken on the Spot by C. Ansell” (Morning Post 24 January 1785). This suggests he had traveled in France. He provided illustrations for an edition of Thomson’s Seasons published in London and Paris in 1792, and designs for social satires until 1799, which seems to be the latest date he is recorded as an artist.

William Arminger

Registered as a student 21 March 1774, aged 21, 22 last November; sculptor (H225) Marked as “Do” [“Decd”] in the register

William Arminger (1751–93). Sculptor. Baptized 17 November 1751, St. Stephen’s, Norwich, the son of John Arminger and his wife Mary. His father is probably the John Arminger, carpenter, who took an apprentice in Norwich in 1754 (National Archives, IR 1/52), and also presumably the “late carpenter” of Norwich who died 1800 (National Archives, PROB 11/1341). Armingers remain engaged in the building trades in Norwich to the present day. He was apprenticed in Norwich to Thomas Rawlins, “carver,” in 1766 (National Archives, IR 1/56). He came to London to study art, and was employed by Nollekens. J. T. Smith said he came to Nollekens stating he was a “cutter of funeral inscriptions come from the City of Norwich, and would be glad of a job.” He died in Paddington in 1793, Smith reporting that he had “what is called a very pretty fortune.” His art collection was sold by auction early in 1794 (Getty Provenance Index).

William Artaud

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 15, 24 March last; painter (H327) Silver medal 1783, Gold medal 1786
Noted in the life school register 30 October 1790
Rome Prize 1795

William Artaud (1763–1823). Portrait and history painter. Born London, the son of Stephen Artaud, a jeweler of Huguenot descent, and his wife, Elizabeth. He won prizes at the Society of Arts 1775–82, and after academic prizes at the academy secured the Rome scholarship in 1795. He was reportedly a political radical, but was initially successful as a history painter on returning to London in 1799. He exhibited at the RA until 1822, and died, apparently unmarried, in London in 1823, “an artist of eminence” (Morning Post 18 February 1823).
(A. C. Sewter, “The Life, Work and Letters of William Artaud 1763–1823,” 2 vols., MA thesis, University of Manchester, 1951; Kim Sloan, “William Artaud: History Painter and ‘Violent Democrat,’” Burlington Magazine 137 [February 1995]: 76-85)

Joseph Baker

Registered as a student 25 March 1779 (CM only) (H341)

Not identified. Foskett notes a J. Baker who advertised as a miniaturist in Chester in 1785, but it is very uncertain that it was this student.

John Baldrey

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 23, 18th inst.; engraver (H386) Noted in the life school register 13 November 1793

John Baldrey (1758–active 1805). Engraver and print publisher. Jeffares asserts he was the son of Andrew Baldrey (d. 1802), general painter of Ipswich, and his wife Mary (1728–1806), and therefore younger brother of Joshua Kirby Baldrey (1754–1828), artist and drawing teacher, although it has previously been suggested that there were two John Baldreys, father and son, or a John Baldrey who was the son of Joshua Kirby Baldrey.

John Baldrey, “engraver in London,” married the daughter of Robert Cole, baker of Ipswich, in 1783 (Ipswich Journal 1 November 1783). Probably the “S. Baldrey” who exhibited stained drawings at the SA in 1780, from “Mr Dibb’s, Green Street, Grosvenor Square,” although that address was also used by Joshua Kirby Baldrey for prints published around that date. The BM notes he was imprisoned in 1792 “for an offensive satire” (information from David Alexander). John and Joshua Kirby Baldrey worked together occasionally but appear to have fallen out by 1805 (Farington, 13 September 1805; noted by BM).

His later career appears to be undocumented. His brother is known to have struggled financially. Mary Jane Baldrey, widow of Joshua Kirby Baldrey, “An Eminent Engraver,” applied to the AGBI in 1834, stating that her husband had died in 1828, leaving her “in a very destitute state, having nothing to support herself and family but the sale of a few prints and drawings,” with seven dependent children (AGBI Applicants’ Book). She was granted £10.

John Banister

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 16 last 12 May; painter (H286)

John Bannister (1760–1836). Comedian. Born Deptford, the son of Charles Bannister (1738?–1804), actor, and his wife Sarah. Noted as a former fellow student by Guy Head (Farington 4: 1380) and as a particular friend of Thomas Rowlandson. He was said to have been a student only a short time, leaving in 1778, and was more occupied in pranks than study: “The more regular students were glad when he left them” (Adolphus 1: 15). Henry Angelo recounted: Bannister having manifested a taste for drawing whilst a school-boy, his father, not wishing to bring him up to the stage, or indeed to thwart his inclinations in the choice of his future profession, procured him early admittance as a student in the Royal Academy. His progress there was flattering, as I have been informed by his coevals; and his love for the study of painting, which has abided by him through life, gave presage of future excellence, had he continued his course. Indeed, it is likely that he would have continued to follow his art in the landscape department, had not a fortuitous circumstance intervened, which entirely changed his future destiny. (1: 263) The “circumstance” related by Angelo was his father’s inability to pay the full apprenticeship fee demanded by Philip James de Loutherbourg. He began his stage career in August 1778, achieving success as a performer and manager.
(John Adoplhus, Memoirs of John Bannister, Comedian, 2 vols. [London, 1839] 1: 13-15; Henry Angelo, Reminiscences, 2 vols. [London, 1828–30] 1: 263-67 and passim)

Thomas Barrow

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 28 years; painter (H287)

Thomas Barrow (1737–1822). Portrait painter. “Probably northern provincial” (Waterhouse). Foskett identifies a Thomas Barrow (1737–1822), son of Matthew Barrow of Great Eccleston, Lancashire, presumably on the basis of the detailed information given by Fishwick. The discrepancy with the birthdate given in the register remains unresolved. The Barrow family were well established in Eccleston, and included shoemakers and carpenters. Thomas Barrow gave his address as 4 Furnival’s Inn Court when he exhibited with the FSA in 1769; William Barrow, “gentleman,” was latterly insured at Furnival’s Inn Court (1808 and 1810) and was presumably connected (LMA). Joseph Charles Barrow (active 1789–1802), who gave drawing lessons at 12 Furnival’s Inn Court after 1792, may possibly have also been connected (although his father has been identified as Charles Barrow, a tradesman in Twickenham; John A. Ramm, “Neglected Master,” Antique Dealer and Collectors’ Guide [February 1992]). Thomas Barrow gave Romney’s address on exhibiting in 1770, so was presumably a pupil or assistant. He continued to exhibit in London 1771–74, giving a York address. He was in London again in 1775. The Thomas Barrow identified by Fishwick “painted the portraits of many people in the Fylde district, and some of them show considerable merit”; he died in 1822 at Great Eccleston. A death notice in the local press suggested incorrectly that he was an RA, and stated that he was “formerly a portrait painter of great eminence in the metropolis,” being 84 years old when he died (Lancaster Gazette 30 November 1822). He is identified as Thomas Barrow, “Gent,” in his will, held at Lancashire Archives (R142/31); a further document at the same location identifies him as portrait painter and Stephen Barrow of Great Eccleston, “gent,” as the sole executor (DDA 292).
(Henry Fishwick, The History of the Parish of St. Michaels-on-Wyre in the County of Lancaster [Manchester, 1891] 199; Josephine Malone, Peter Newby: Friend to All Mankind [Ayleford, 1964] 96-98; Helen Quartermaine, “Thomas Barrow: Portrait Painter, Contemporary and Friend of Romney,” Transactions of the Romney Society 17 [2012]; P. Whittle, The History of the Borough of Preston [Preston, 1837] 2: 246-47)

James Barry

Registered as a student 21 March 1774, aged 18, 6 November last (H226)

James Barry (1756–active 1819). Miniature painter. “Little is known about this artist who painted some excellent miniatures” (Foskett). However, he appears to be “Barry, the miniature painter,” noted by Farington in 1794: “He & the Revd. Dr Barry are sons to an Apothecary of that name who lived at Bristol Hot wells. He married a Miss Brown, daughter of a minor Canon of Bristol, a pretty & good kind of woman.—The Revd. Dr Barry was brought up an Apothecary and not being able to obtain orders in England, went to the Isle of Man, where He was ordained” (1: 265). He must, therefore, be the son of Samuel Barry, doctor in physic, who died in Bristol in 1814, his will benefiting sons, including James Barry, the Rev. Edward Barry, and the Rev. Charles Barry (National Archives, PROB 11/1554). A James Barry was baptized in Bristol 15 December 1756, son of Anna and Samuel, and is probably this individual. Exhibited at the RA from 1784; went to Lisbon in 1788 for health reasons, but resumed his career in London in 1792. An occasional exhibitor up to 1819.

Francis Bartoli

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 16, 4 next November; painter (H387)

Francis Saverio Massimigliano Bartoli (1765–active 1793). Decorative painter. Born in Sproatley, Yorkshire, 4 November 1765, the son of Domenico Bartoli (active c. 1761–1805), Italian-born stuccoist, originally from Livorno. Domenico Bartoli was employed at Burton Constable 1763–66, which explains the birthplace of his son. He had been first recorded in Britain in 1761. The baptism records of further children born in London show that the mother’s first name was Ursula, which may indicate that she too was Italian. Domenico Bartoli was in business with John Augustus Richter in London 1767–77, and is last recorded in 1805. F. Bartoli of 18 Sherrard Street, Golden Square, exhibited at the RA in 1783; as F. Bartoli, Jr., he exhibited with the same body in 1793, from 38 Great Suffolk Street. He, and/or his father, was the “Bartoli” who painted the “beautiful columns of verde antico” at Mrs. Montagu’s great room at her house in Portman Square, London, in 1791 (St. James’s Chronicle, quoted in Peter Meadows, Joseph Bonomi: Architect, 1739–1808 [RIBA, 1988] 20). Ursula Bartoli, presumably his mother, was insured at 15 James Street, Haymarket, in 1800 (LMA), which may suggest that his father was already dead and that the later records noted by the BDSB refer to this student, or another member of the family.

William Bell

Registered as a student 8 April 1778, aged 23 next May; painter (H318)

William Bell (1755–active 1778). Not identified. Foskett suggests that he may be the William Bell who married Mary Ann Ward at St. Marylebone, 16 May 1804, distinguishing him from the William Bell (1735?–c. 1804), miniature and history painter from Newcastle.

John Hodges Benwell

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 17, 6 next May; painter (H342) Silver medal 1782

John Hodges Benwell (1762–85). Draftsman and illustrator. Born Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, in 1762, “where his father was under-steward to the duke of Marlborough” (ODNB). Jeffares notes that “his social standing may have been rather higher than this suggests, as he was the son of Samuel Benwell” who died 1777, whose will “bequested his estate to James Benwell, a well-known sadler of Bartholomew Lane … on trust for his widow Rachel Hodges, to pass to their children on her death,” which occurred in 1788. He studied under Sanders, probably John Sanders (active 1750–83). He exhibited in 1784 at the RA, giving his address as 24 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, and was active as a drawing master in Bath. He died of consumption in London in 1785, his obituary writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine noting him as “miniature and historical painter, of Henrietta-street, Covent-garden.”

Cantlo Bestland

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 16 next April; painter (H343)

Cantelowe or Cantlo Bestland (1763–1842). Miniature painter, engraver, and printseller. He was probably the son of the Cantlo Bestland who was buried at Sturminster Marshall in 1783, aged 56, his will benefiting his widow Amy Thompson Bestland. Presumably also related to Henry Bestland, Esq., who died at Dorchester 16 March 1738 (Gentleman’s Magazine). Exhibited miniatures at the RA from 1783 to 1837, initially from addresses in Tavistock Street. He appears as “limner,” Great Marlborough Street, in Wakefield’s Directory, 1790. He married, in 1810, Elizabeth Longman, at St. Giles Cripplegate. He must be the Cantlo Bestland, “Artist,” said to be aged 83, who appears in the 1841 census in St. Marylebone, with a wife, Elizabeth, and a daughter, Elizabeth, aged 46, and therefore the individual of the same name who died in 1842 and was buried at St. Marylebone in June 1842, although his age was then given as 97 (presumably a simple transposition in the record). In January 1842 he had applied to the AGBI for support, “Painter & Engraver now in the 79^th year of his Age and from very long illness and great bodily infirmity and want of employment, he is at this time reduced to a state of complete want and destitution” with a wife in poor health: Early in life he was induced to undertake the work of the Royal Academy the engraving of which was entirely by his own hand. This work completely failed to answer and he lost a large sum of money by it. (AGBI Applicants’ Book) Bestland’s large engraving of Henry Singleton’s group portrait of the Royal Academicians had been published by him in 1802. He was granted an initial sum of £20 by the AGBI. His widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Bestland, applied to the AGBI in June 1842 and was granted £30.

Peter Bettelini

Registered as a student 12 November 1784, aged 20 last September; engraver (H461) Silver medal 1786

Pietro Bettelini (1763–1829). He “was born at Lugano, in Italy, in 1763, and came over when very young to this country to study under Bartolozzi. He appears … to have been somewhat wild …. Bettelini eventually settled down to work, following the classic style of Raphael Morghen, and achieved a considerable reputation” (Tuer 2: 47-48). He was publishing in Paris in 1784, but exhibited biblical subjects at the RA in 1786, from 7 Coventry Street, and was publishing in Rome in 1793.

William Redmore Bigg

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 24 next January/79; painter (H328)

William Redmore Bigg (1755–1828). Genre painter. Born Felsted, Essex, the son of William Bigg and his wife Grace (Redmore). The Biggs were well established in the area as farmers and landowners, and William Redmore Bigg appears to have inherited property at Felsted. According to Farington, he received a classical education (9: 3211), which would point to a genteel upbringing. In his biographical note, Farington left his reference to his father’s occupation incomplete, but noted that Bigg was at the age of 14 “placed as an Apprentice, with a wine merchant at Colchester, where He remained seven years” (Notebooks 4: 55). His gentlemanly manners were noted in early biographical notices (Bensusan-Butt 192-93). He studied in London under Edward Penny and exhibited 1780–1827. He married, in Colchester in 1784, Martha Frost, the daughter of Samuel Frost of Beaumont-cum-Moze. His genre paintings were initially popular and widely reproduced, but in the 1790s he struggled financially and took to picture dealing and picture restoration. He was made RA in 1814. He died in London.
(John Bensusan-Butt, ed. Shani D’Cruze, Essex in the Age of Enlightenment: Essays in Historical Biography, 2nd ed. [2009] 191-94)

John Lewes Blackmore

Registered as a student 8 April 1778, aged 20 last January; painter (H319)

John Lewis Blackmore (1758–1827). Housepainter. Baptized 14 February 1758, St. Mary’s, Lambeth, the son of John Blackmore and his wife Elizabeth. He may be related to John Blackmore who exhibited at the FSA in 1769, from “at Mr Wilkes opposite Dorset Street Piccadilly,” and Thomas Blackmore (c. 1740–after 1780), mezzotint engraver, who exhibited prints at the SA in 1769 and FSA in 1773 and is known from published works from 1769 to 1771. He was apprenticed to Thomas Maxfield, citizen and painter stainer, in 1773. When he was insured at 6 Hollis Street, Cavendish Square, in 1791, it was as a “painter,” which indicates he had entered the trade (LMA). In his will, which referred to his late wife, Maria, he was identified as “esquire” of Upper Norton Street, suggesting material success (National Archives, PROB 11/1728). He appears to have remarried, to Amelia, “daughter of the late J. Hitchins, Esq, of Garston-Hall, Surrey,” in 1825 (Oxford University and City Herald 12 November 1825). He owned property in London, which was bequeathed to his family but was subject to legal dispute in 1830 (Morning Advertiser 12 February 1829; London Courier 29 December 1830).

Robert Blake

Registered as a student 2 April 1782, aged 14 last 4 August; engraver (H415)

Traditionally identified as Robert Blake (1762 or 1767–87), the brother of William Blake, therefore born in London, the son of James Blake, hosier, and his wife, Catherine (Wright). The evidence has been weighed by Aileen Ward, who concludes that Robert Blake was probably the son of James and Catherine baptized as Richard Blake in 1762, but is less certain that this is the same individual as the RA student. The identification remains credible, however, given the absence of another clear candidate, the pattern of siblings following each other into the RA schools, and the haphazard character of the register, which often gives birthdates and ages at variance with other records.
(Aileen Ward, “Who Was Robert Blake?” Blake 28.3 (winter 1994–95): 84-89)

William Blake

Registered as a student 8 October 1779, aged 21, 28 last November; engraver (H358)

William Blake (1757–1827). Engraver, poet, and painter. Born in London, the son of James Blake, hosier, and his wife, Catherine (Wright).

John Linnell Bond

Registered as a student 4 December 1783, aged 19, 14 last September; drawing (architect) (H440) Silver medal 1784, Gold medal 1786

John Linnell Bond (1764–1837). Architect. In the register “Drawing” is struck through in favor of “Architect.” Although the ODNB asserts that “of his parents nothing is known,” he was evidently the brother of William Bond, confirmed by the record of baptism at St. James, Westminster, with the same parents, William Bond and Mary (Linnell), October 1764. William Bond is also named as his brother in obituaries (Gentleman’s Magazine; Morning Chronicle 13 November 1837). His father had been apprenticed to William Linnell (d. 1763), carver, in 1753. He must be the J. Bond noted in the life school register 7 October 1790, indicating that he continued to study the figure. He was an executor of John Linnell, the carver, in 1797, and was identified as “Godson and kinsman” in the ensuing legal dispute. See also Pat Kirkham, “The London Furniture Trade, 1700–1870,” Furniture History 24 (1988): 97-98.

William Bond

Registered as a student 4 December 1783, aged 20, 9 last May; sculptor (H441) Noted in the life school register 30 September 1790

William Bond (1763–1842). Engraver. Baptized 21 May 1763 in Westminster, the son of William Bond, carver, and his wife Mary (Linnell). His father had been apprenticed to William Linnell (d. 1763), carver, in 1753. This student is presumably the “Mr William Bond, jun, White-chapel, Pupil to Mr Burgess, sen.” who exhibited at the SA in 1772, though he would have been only 9 years old. Although registered as a sculptor, he was said to have studied stipple engraving under Bartolozzi and appears to have practiced only as a printmaker. He was presumably the “Mr W. Bond. Drawing-Master, from London” who was advertising in Kent in 1786 (Kentish Gazette 21 July 1786). He was prominent as a stipple engraver and was first president of the Society of Engravers on its foundation in 1803. His will referred to several properties in London (National Archives, PROB 11/1965).

Thomas Bonnor/Bonner

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 33 next February; engraver (H329)

Thomas Bonnor (1746–active 1807). Draftsman and engraver. He “was a native of Gloucestershire, and drew and engraved the churches of that county” (Redgrave). There were Bonnors in Gloucestershire in the mid-eighteenth century, including a Thomas Bonnor (d. 1743), a mason, Thomas Bonnor, son of Thomas Bonnor, grocer, made free of the city of Gloucester in 1760, and a Thomas Bonnor (d. 1785), “gentleman” (worth between £600 and £1000 at death), who seem likely to be relatives. He won a premium at the Society of Arts, 1763. He married, in 1768 in Gloucester, a Miss Fry “of the College,” being then described as “an eminent engraver, in New Ormond-street, London” (Bath Chronicle 29 December 1768). Thomas Bonnor exhibited engravings at the SA in 1773, his address given as Great Ormond Street. He exhibited at the RA in 1780 and (assuming it is the same individual) 1807. He was the “Father and original Founder” of the Gloucestershire Society in London in 1770, but latterly lived in Gloucester (Gloucester Journal 27 May 1793; Gloucestershire Chronicle 20 February 1836). The death of his wife was noted in the Bath press in 1790: “After a long illness, Mrs Bonnor, wife of Mr Bonnor, engraver of Glocester [sic],—late of this city” (Bath Chronicle 21 October 1790). He advertised the publication of his topographical “Copper Plate Itinerary” from Gloucester in 1795 (Gloucester Journal 20 July 1795). He was active in 1807 and is said to have died before 1812 (Gloucester Citizen 18 May 1950; ODNB).

Mathias Bordley

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 19, 25 October last; painter (H288)

Matthias Bordley (1757–1828). Plantation owner. Born Maryland, the son of John Beale Bordley (1727–1804), plantation owner, judge, and amateur artist, and his wife Margaret (Chew). He was sent to England with his brother Thomas (1755–71) for their education in 1767, their father consigning them to the care of his half-brother Edmund Jennings, engaging a private tutor, and sending them to preparatory schools and, reportedly, Eton College. He was painted with his brother in a miniature by Charles Willson Peale (Smithsonian), who had been sent to London by their father and other sponsors, and in an oil as archers in van Dyck costume, which was exhibited at the SA in 1768 (illus. McGrath). Another brother, John Beale Bordley (1764–1815), followed them to England in 1773. In 1771 Peale had reported to their guardian, “The Boys draws [sic] very cleverly I wish their master may teach [them] to sketch from Nature, I mean Landscape, it may be very useful, will certainly be a great amusement, one rude line from Nature is worth an hundred from coppys, enlarges the Ideas and makes one see and feel with such sencesations—as are worthy of the author,” which indicates they were getting a preliminary training in drawing (Lillian B. Miller, ed., The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family [New Haven, 1983] 1: 101). The signed card admitting “Mathias Bordley” as a student at the RA, 31 March 1777, is in the University of Pennsylvania Library. He was living at the family estate by around 1781 (Gibson 122). In 1783, Peale, in Philadelphia, wrote to John Beale Bordley, “I have observed with what attention Matthias looks on works of art, and I prognosticate that he will excel if … he is not diverted from the art by other pursuits. I have promised him all the assistance in my power,” subsequent letters referring to his provision of art materials and equipment (Miller 1: 391). Matthias Bordley took on the estates at Wye Island, Maryland, when his father moved to Philadelphia in 1791, but continued as an amateur artist. He married Susan Heath in 1799.
(Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, Biographical Sketches of the Bordley Family of Maryland [Philadelphia, 1865]; Francis Sims McGrath, Pillars of Maryland [Richmond, VA, 1950])

Peter Borgis

Registered as a student 8 April 1778, aged 39; painter (H320)

Peter Maria Borgnis (1743–1814). Printseller, publisher, and drawing master. Born at Craveggia in the Val di Vigezzo, near Domodossola, the son of Giuseppe Maria Borgnis (1701–61), Italian decorative and historical painter. His birthdate is given as 1743 in documentary sources (Croft-Murray). The elder Borgnis came to England around 1751, presumably bringing his family with him. In 1783 the architect Robert Adam referred in a letter to “Mr Peter Bornis” who “paints ornaments & figures. But as there is little encouragement at present for anything of taste, he has taken a shop in Marybone Street where he proposes to sell Drawings, Prints, &c” (quoted in Croft-Murray). His trade card (BM) identifies him as “Drawing Master and Miniature Painter.” He was based in Marylebone Street, Haymarket, where he was insured as “Printseller” in 1786, and later in Oxford Street (LMA). He died in 1814, said to be of St. Marylebone and aged 77, and was buried as a nonconformist in the family grave at Whitefield’s Memorial Church in Camden. His older brother Giovanni Borgnis (1728–active 1783) was also an artist, active in England. The Joseph Borgnis, printseller of Great Portland Street, declared bankrupt in 1801, must have been another relative (Morning Post 2 February 1801). Croft-Murray also notes a T. Borgnis, in business as a colorman in High Holborn in 1818.

John Boultbee

Registered as a student 4 December 1775, aged 22; painter (H255)

John Boultbee (1753–1812). Sporting painter. Baptized Osgathorpe, Leicestershire, 4 June 1753, one of the twin sons of Thomas Boultbee (1724–85) of Stordon Grange, Leicestershire, and his wife Jane (Bage; d. 1789), the other child being his fellow student Thomas Boultbee. The family were well-established landowners in Leicestershire. According to Gilbey, “Both the boys evinced marked artistic talent at an early age, and in course of time became pupils of Sir Joshua Reynolds” (1: 68). Exhibited RA 1776–88, from Oxford Street and then from Loughborough, Leicestershire. Later lived in Chester and finally Edge Hill, Liverpool, where he died in 1812 (Lancaster Gazette 12 December 1812).
(Thomas Pownall Boultbee, The History of the Family of Boultbee [1889], web version by Richard Boultbee)

Thomas Boultbee

Registered as a student 4 December 1775, aged 22; painter (H256)

Thomas Boultbee (1753–1808). Landscape and portrait painter. Baptized Osgathorpe, Leicestershire, 4 June 1753, one of the twin sons of Thomas Boultbee (1724–85) of Stordon Grange, Leicestershire, and his wife Jane (Bage; d. 1789), the other child being his fellow student John Boultbee. The family were well-established landowners in Leicestershire. According to Gilbey, “Both the boys evinced marked artistic talent at an early age, and in course of time became pupils of Sir Joshua Reynolds” (1: 68). “He is said to have given up the professional exercise of painting and his works are not known” (Waterhouse). Exhibited RA 1776–83, from Oxford Street and then Derby. He married in 1792 and lived in Shropshire.
(Thomas Pownall Boultbee, The History of the Family of Boultbee [1889], web version by Richard Boultbee)

Hugh Boyd

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 20, 9 inst.; painter (H388)

Hugh Boyd (1761–active 1781). He must be the Hugh Boyd born Burr Street, Aldgate, 9 March 1761, whose birth was registered as a nonconformist, 6 March 1777, the son of William Boyd and his wife Margaret, daughter of Isaac Saar. His parents had married in 1760, his father then identified as being of Walthamstow, Essex. The occupation of his father has not been established, but the houses on Burr Street were relatively substantial, albeit adjacent to the Red Lion Brewery and the London Docks. Insurance records point to the street being populated by “gentlemen” as well as mariners and tradesmen (LMA). The family history indicates that he was born into an affluent situation. Hugh Boyd appears not to have been active as an artist. He married in 1781, but his wife and twin children died early and he took to religion. He married again and raised a second family, becoming a dissenting minister.
(Smith Family Tree, posted by “anatuana” on <http://www.ancestry.co.uk>, and private information)

W. Braithwaite

Registered as a student 25 March 1776, aged 18 last October 13th; sculptor (H267) Silver medal 1782

William Braithwaite (1757–active 1782). Sculptor. Apprenticed to John Walsh (active 1757–77), statuary of St. George, Hanover Square, in 1776 (National Archives, IR 1/28), but not known other than from his record as a student at the academy. He seems likely to be related to the Braithwaites who were active as cabinetmakers, upholders, and carvers in London in the mid-eighteenth century, including a Samuel Braithwaite (active 1757–1811), also an auctioneer and appraiser, and Ebenezer Braithwaite (active 1757), the sons of Samuel Braithwaite, cheesemonger, of St. Andrew’s, Holborn (Beard & Gilbert).

Thomas Brooks

Registered as a student 30 September 1777, aged 28 last September; painter (H306)

Thomas Brooks (1749–active 1791?). Landscape painter. Apparently from a family of trade painters in London. Perhaps connected to the Thomas Brooks of the Painter Stainers’ Company who died 1743 (National Archives, PROB 11/724) and the Thomas Brooks who was master of the Painter Stainers’ Company in 1775. The Thomas Brooks who had been apprenticed to William Evans, painter stainer, in 1742 may be his father. This student may be the Thomas Brooks described as a liveryman and painter stainer of St. Olave, Southwark, who died in 1794, naming a widow, Jane (National Archives, PROB 11/1247). He exhibited in 1782–83 and then in 1791. Waterhouse suggests that he was a relative of the William Brooks who exhibited landscapes from 1780–1800.

Mather Brown

Registered as a student 7 January 1782, aged 19, 5 last October; painter (H406)

Mather (Byles) Brown (1761–1831). Portrait and history painter. Born Boston, the son of Gawen Brown, a clockmaker, and Elizabeth Byles (d. 1763). His mother was descended from famous Puritan divines, and the family portraits that remained with the Byleses have been identified as an early source of inspiration for Mather Brown. He may have been given art lessons by his aunt, Catherine Byles, who took on a parental role after the early death of his mother. Instructed briefly by Gilbert Stuart in America, he worked as an itinerant miniature painter, saving up enough to travel to Europe in 1780. He was in Paris in 1780, and secured a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin, which he took to England in 1781, gaining him a place in Benjamin West’s studio. By his own account, he “was patronized in early life by Dr Franklin, who recommended him to study at the Louvre and French academy” (BL Add. MS 33397, f. 267). He also had a letter of introduction from Franklin’s grandson, William Temple Franklin, identifying him as “a Young Gentleman from America, who purposes residing sometime in London with a View of perfectioning himself in the Art of Miniature painting—He is a Young Man of good family & of a very amiable character” (Evans 15). He reported drawing in the plaster schools and in the life school (Evans 23-24). He was also painting in oils at the size of life, exhibiting such a work at the RA in 1782. However, he also declared his commitment to history painting: I am oblidged [sic] to keep close to Business as I am convinced I am at the most critical Period of my Life and every moment carries its importance with it; history Painting is what I prefer to all others, as it [is] on a more extensive Plan, and requires the Advantages of Education united with the Luxuriance of a fine Imagination. (Letter of August 1782, quoted in Evans 28) He enjoyed success as a portrait and history painter in the 1780s and early 1790s, and secured royal patronage, but his professional fortunes declined after 1800. In 1808 he moved out of London and took on some teaching at a school in Buckinghamshire. He traveled to Bath, Liverpool, Manchester, and elsewhere, teaching and practicing as an artist. His later years were spent in London, living in a room in the house of the landscape painter Thomas Hofland. He died unmarried in 1831.
(Dorinda Evans, Mather Brown: Early American Artist in England [Middletown, CT, 1982])

Samuel Bunce

Registered as a student 7 March 1785, aged 20, 20 last January; painter (H466) Marked as “Dead” in the register

Samuel Bunce (1765–1802). Architect. Possibly descended from John Bunce, warden and master of the Plaisterers’ Company in London, 1717–18 (Beard), and the Thomas Bunce, plasterer in Spitalfields, active in the 1720s and 1730s (Survey of London). He exhibited architectural designs at the RA 1786–88, initially from “Mr Wyatt’s, Queen Anne Street East,” indicating he was a pupil of the architect. He went to Rome 1788–90, returning to London to practice as an architect. In 1796 he was appointed the first architect to the Admiralty, which post he held until his death. His widow received a navy pension.

Henry Jacob Burch

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 16 last December; engraver (H344) Noted in the life school register 23 October 1790

Henry Jacob Burch (1762–c. 1840). Gem engraver and miniature painter. The son of Edward Burch (1730–1814), gem engraver and RA, and his first wife, Ann (Stockley; d. 1793), and baptized St. Bride, Fleet Street, 30 December 1762. He married, in 1784, Elizabeth Beresford, in St. Marylebone. As “H. Burch junior” he exhibited at the SA in 1790, “8 Macclesfield Street, Soho, going to remove to 28, Gerrard Street”; he exhibited at the RA from 1787 to 1831. A fire destroyed his house in Rathbone Place in 1793. His brother, Edward Burch, Jr., also exhibited, as a medalist, 1789–1804. This student seems likely to be the individual identifying himself as the son of Edward Burch, RA, and aged 67, who was noted in the CM 30 May 1831 asking for charity, as he was “wholly without employment.” He applied to the AGBI in 1839, stating that he was 76 and suffering paralysis; he was granted £20 (AGBI Applicants’ Book).

George Burder

Registered as a student 9 April 1774 (CM only). Compounded with the entry for Stephanoff by Hutchison.

Rev. George Burder (1752–1832). Independent minister. Born London, his birth registered as a nonconformist at Fetter Lane, 18 June 1752, the son of Henry Burder (1718–88), deacon of Fetter Lane Congregational Church, and his wife Sarah (1718–62). His father was identified as “Esquire” in his will (National Archives, PROB 11/1165). Educated at two schools in Hatton Garden, but “having discovered, as my father thought, some partiality for drawing, I was placed under the care of Mr Isaac Taylor, an artist of some eminence” (Burder 8). Taylor (1730–1807) was an engraver, and duties were paid on the apprenticeship in 1766 (National Archives, IR 1/25). He noted in the memoranda of his early life under “1773” (when his seven-year apprenticeship would have ended), “About this time I became a student in the Royal Academy, Somerset House, for improvement in drawing and perspective. I drew from the casts of antique figures. I also attended lectures on anatomy, on architecture, &c” (Burder 20). He recalled falling ill early in 1774, and traveled with his father from May and June that year, so his time at the academy must have been rather limited. Although engravings by him from 1775 to 1777 are in the BM, by his own account he became more committed to spiritual affairs in that earlier year, becoming a subscriber and director of the Evangelical Society in 1776. Writing of the year 1777, he stated: “After prayer, deliberation, and advice, I … entirely laid aside my business as an artist” (Burder 45), becoming minister of the Independent Church in Lancaster. He was prominent in dissenting affairs, being a founding figure of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Religious Tract Society, the London Missionary Society, and editor of the Evangelical Magazine.
(Henry Forster Burder, Memoir of the Rev. George Burder [London, 1833])

Christien Burkhardt

Registered as a student 31 December 1777, aged 15, 24 last October; painter (H312) Silver medal 1780

Christian Borckhardt (1762–1826). Portrait and miniature painter. Born in London, baptized 14 November 1762, St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, the son of John Borkhardt [sic] and his wife Mary. Presumably of Swiss origins; he was apprenticed in 1777 to the Swiss-born enamel painter and founder RA George Michael Moser. C. Borckhardt exhibited miniatures and pastels at the RA 1784–1810, from 59 Little Castle Street, Oxford Market, various other London addresses, and, from 1807, Hampstead. He was insured at 46 Goodge Street in 1790, “portrait painter” (LMA). He married Frances Pritchett (d. 1826) in St. Pancras in 1803, with whom he already had children. He died in Hampstead in 1826.

Edward Francesco Burney

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 16, 17 last September; painter (H289) Silver medal 1780
Noted in the life school register 18 February 1791

Edward Francesco Burney (1760–1848). Illustrator and comic artist. Son of Richard Burney (1723–92) of Barborne Lodge, Worcester, a music master, and his wife Elizabeth (Humphries; c. 1720–71). Nephew of the musicologist Charles Burney, and cousin of Fanny Burney. The connection with Charles Burney ensured privileged attention from Reynolds. In 1779, Charles Burney noted: Sr Jos. Has seen 2 or 3 of my Nephews academy drawings & has lent him Birk’s portrait to Copy—I asked him to send him a picture, & he has kindly desired him to come & chuse—upon seeing the timid Young Man’s drawings—he asked if he had been under Cipriani—said they were in a grand style—& told him he wd lend him a more pleasing Subject next Time—&c—this I know will please you & our Fan, to whom I beg you to tell it, as I have not Time—’tis a modest lad of real merit—I dare not say Genius—but I will say his disposition toward the brush is strong. (Alvaro Ribeiro, The Letters of Dr. Charles Burney: Volume I, 1751–1784 [Oxford, 1991] 290) In September 1784 Charles Burney noted him as “a student in the R. Acad. of Painting & a lad of very great Genius, who has made 3 drawings for my Commemoration account, that the King & Queen have seen, & I was told, were highly delighted with:—but what is still more & better, Sir Jos. Reynolds, Mr Strange, Bartolozzi, Wyatt, & other very eminent artists have said very kind & flattering things of them” (Ribeiro 436). He was prolific as an illustrator until the 1820s, but pursued his art largely privately: “Never would he listen to any representation that anybody made that tended to demand some courage, or even the smallest exertion to bring his merit forward” (Fanny Burney in a letter of 1826, quoted in Patricia Crown, Drawings by E. F. Burney in the Huntington Collection [San Marino, CA, 1982] 3).

Thomas Frederick Burney

Registered as a student 7 March 1785, aged 19, 22 January last; engraver (H467)

Thomas Frederick Burney (1765–85). Son of Richard Burney (1723–92) of Barborne Lodge, Worcester, a music master, and his wife Elizabeth (Humphries; c. 1720–71). According to family notes, “at the age of about 15, [he] display’d an uncommon genius for pen & ink drawings” (quoted in Alvaro Ribeiro, The Letters of Dr. Charles Burney: Volume I, 1751–1784 [Oxford, 1991] 436n). In September 1784 his uncle, the musicologist Charles Burney, noted in a letter referring to Charles’s brother Richard at Worcester: “He has a 5^th [son] who lives with him at Worcester, a lad of great Genius, likewise, for drawing, & if you should make an excursion to Worcester, my brother will shew you such a collection of prints & drawings, as would take 2 or 3 days at least to examine” (Ribeiro 436). He exhibited at the RA, a portrait, in 1785, from 79 Long Acre, but died of consumption in October of that year.

Joseph Cappe

Registered as a student 8 October 1779, aged 19, 25 last July; painter (H359) Marked as “Dd” in the register

Joseph Cappe (1760–91). Medical student. The son of the Unitarian minister and preacher Newcome Cappe (1733–1800) and his wife Sarah (Turner). He exhibited, a portrait, at the RA in 1780, from 2 Tavistock Row, Covent Garden. This was noted as “a good likeness of Mr Walker, Lecturer in Philosophy” (A Candid Review of the Exhibition [London, 1780] 26). He studied medicine in Edinburgh and London, getting a degree at Leyden in 1790. He died in York in February 1791, the Gentleman’s Magazine noting, “He had particularly distinguished himself by his knowledge in chemistry and anatomy, and had attained considerable skill in painting.”

William Carr

Registered as a student 7 January 1784, aged 24, 1 last July; painter (H448) Noted in the life school register 13 August 1794

William Carr (1759–active 1792). Portrait painter. Waterhouse notes “a small (and bad) family group” signed W. Carr and dated 1792. He does not appear as an exhibiting artist and is not otherwise recorded.

C. Carter

Registered as a student 8 April 1778

Charles Carter (c. 1760–active 1788). Domestic servant and amateur printmaker. He is identified by Dodd: “An amateur practitioner in etching resided at York at the date 1770—Of his hand we denote the three following portraits” of Edith Pope, Stephen Croft, FAS, and William Mason, MA (BL Add. MS 33398, f. 63). James Grainger identified him as the servant of Mason (Biographical History of England [London, 1824] 336). Mason refers to him in his correspondence with Walpole, noting in March 1778 that “I left him in town to perfect himself in drawing at the Academy” (13 March 1778; The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, <http://​images.​library.​yale.​edu/​hwcorrespondence>). He had referred to him in 1773 as “my boy Charles,” suggesting he was then a youth, so he was probably born c. 1760.

Charles Catton, Junr

Registered as a student 6 March 1775, aged 18, 30th December last; painter (H241)

Charles Catton, Jr. (1756–1819). Landscape and animal painter and illustrator. Born London, the son of Charles Catton (1728–98), coach painter and painter of landscapes and animals. He trained with his father and exhibited at the RA from 1776 to 1800, initially from his father’s address. A reviewer commenting on a dog portrait exhibited in 1780 stated that “this young Artist seems to tread close in his father’s steps” (A Candid Review of the Exhibition [London, 1780] 14). He worked with his father, including on a set of Scottish views published by Francis Jukes in 1793. He emigrated to America around 1802, “where he did not paint professionally” (Waterhouse). Dunlap, who had information from Catton’s daughter, states he had become a widower and was “possessed of property which he supposed would render him independent in the New World, the republican institutions of which were congenial to him.” He purchased a farm in Ulster County, and while he did not pursue art professionally from this point, Dunlap notes landscapes by him and the occasion that he painted a theatrical backdrop during a visit to New York in 1813. He died “at his seat at New Paltz, in the County of Ulster, State of New York … an artist of superior rank and of distinguished merit; but latterly devoted his attention principally to agricultural pursuits; and seldom exercised his pencil, except to gratify personal friendship, or enliven the dull monotony of a rural winter life” (Public Ledger 14 June 1819).

John Chandler

Registered as a student 12 November 1784, aged 21, 1 May; painter (H462)

John Westbrooke Chandler (1762–1807). Portrait painter and poet. The illegitimate son of Frederick Greville, Earl of Warwick (1719–73). He exhibited at the RA in 1787–91, from 110 Strand, 1 Red Lion Square, and in 1791 from Warwick Castle. He was also a published poet (though “rhyming is not the business of my life,” Sir Hubert: An Heroic Ballad [London, 1800] viii). He appears to have been politically radical, and Redgrave alludes to his “freethinking”; he certainly knew the radical writer William Godwin, whose portrait he painted in 1798 (Tate) and with whom he socialized until around 1800. In 1801 he moved to Scotland, where he continued as a portrait painter. He died at Stafford in 1807, declared “an artist of eminence” by an obituary writer, who noted that he had latterly focused on landscape painting (Athenaeum [June 1807]: 658).
(John Bastin and Julie Wieznegger, The Family of Sir Stamford Raffles [Singapore, 2016] 65-69)

Pierre Francois Chenu

Registered as a student 29 October 1784, aged 24, 8 October; sculptor (H453) Silver medal 1785, Gold medal 1786
Noted in the life school register 8 December 1795

Peter Francis Chenu (1760–1834). Sculptor. Born in Paris in Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, the son of Nicolas-François Chenu, a sculptor and an assistant professor and exhibitor at the Académie de Saint-Luc, and his wife Marie-Françoise Marchandon, the daughter of a sculptor. He studied at the Académie Royale in 1778–82 before moving to London. He exhibited at the RA 1788–1822, initially from 28 Great Castle Street, Cavendish Square. He worked in a variety of sculptural genres and probably had a focus on sculptural reproductions. He died in Lambeth in 1834, leaving as much as £4000 in shares, benefiting the widow of his brother and his nephews, suggesting he was unmarried.

The Peter Francis Chenu born 6 January 1760 and baptized 27 January 1760 at St. Anne, Soho, the son of Joshua Chenu, carver, and his wife Elizabeth (Franklin) appears to be a different individual, who died in 1800 (see NPG, British Bronze Sculpture Founders and Plaster Figure Makers, 1800–1980).

John/Peter Chester

Registered as a student 4 December 1783, aged 22, 29 last September; painter (H442)

John Chester (1761–active 1783). Portrait painter. He must be the J. Chester who exhibited at the RA in 1783, a portrait, from Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place. His family background has not been established, and he is not otherwise recorded as an artist.

Henry Cipriani

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 15, 17 last December; painter (H290)

Sir Henry William Joseph Cipriani (1761–1843). Officer of the Yeomen of the Guard. The younger of two sons of G. B. Cipriani (1727–85), Italian history and decorative painter, founder RA, and his wife Ann (Booker), baptized St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, 27 December 1761. Edwards stated of the father, “He married a young lady, with whom he afterwards received a genteel fortune, and by her he had two sons and a daughter: The latter died young. The eldest son possesses an appointment in the Treasury. The youngest began the study of painting, and executed the drawing from Mr Copley’s picture of the Death of Lord Chatham, from which Mr Bartolozzi engraved the print: This drawing, made in water-colours, was a most excellent though a laborious production” (113). Farington noted of G. B. Cipriani, “The second Son, Henry, was brought up to His Father’s profession … He afterwards declined the profession & became an Officer in the Huntingdon Militia” (Notebooks 2: 2). He exhibited a “portrait of a young nobleman” at the RA, 1781, from his father’s address, Hedge Lane. The portrait is declared “childish” by Waterhouse, who notes he “soon abandoned art and was ultimately knighted 13 September 1831 as senior exon of the Yeomen of the Guard.” He was appointed as a corporal of the Yeomen of the Guard in 1791, appointed senior exon in 1831, and knighted at the time of the coronation, 13 September 1831; he stepped down in 1832 (DCO). He was living in Charlton, Kent, for the 1841 census, listed as financially “Independent.” He died in Brighton in 1843; his will, describing him as of Woolwich, Kent, was proved in 1843 (National Archives, PROB 11/1973).

Edmond Coffin, Junr

Registered as a student 14 October 1785, aged 24 last March; sculptor (H471) Silver medal 1795
Noted in the life school register 22 October 1790

Edmond Coffin (1761–1826). Wax modeler. He seems certain to be related to the Edmund Coffin, sculptor of Exeter, active 1759–70, and Thomas Coffin, goldsmith of the same place, made free of the city in 1769. His designation “Junr” may suggest he was the son of the former, but this is not documented. Edmond Coffin exhibited at the RA 1787–1803. By 1793 he had moved to a large house at 4 Mary Street, Tottenham Court Road, where he remained until his death. He worked for the goldsmiths John Wakelin and Robert Garrard in the 1790s, and produced at least one monument. He died in 1826, his will, identifying him as “Sculptor of St. Pancras,” benefiting his widow and referring to extensive properties, mostly in Exeter.

Nicholas Joseph Collibert/Collebert

Registered as a student 29 October 1784, aged 30 April last; engraver (H454)

Nicolas Colibert (c. 1750–1806). Painter and engraver. Born in Paris around 1750, or in London in 1748, according to different sources. Presumably of French origin in either case. He was based in England from about 1782, exhibiting a view of St. James’s Park at the RA in 1785, from 21 Rupert Street, the address of the landscape painter William Tomkins. He returned to Paris in the early 1790s but died in London.

Richard Collins

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 21, 30th last January; painter (H271)

Richard Collins (1755–1831). Miniature painter. Born in Gosport, Hampshire; he must be the Richard Collins, son of James Collins and Sarah, baptized at Holy Trinity, Gosport, on 30 January 1755. His father’s will, proved 1782, identifies him as “gentleman” and includes the substantial bequest of £2900 of stock to his son, named as Richard Collins (National Archives, PROB 11/1089). He was initially apprenticed to a mercer, but became a pupil of Joseph Meyer, RA; Farington stated he was instructed by John Plott and then Ozias Humphry (Notebooks 3: 11). Exhibited from 1777, initially from “Mr Gripp’s, facing Beaufort Buildings, Strand,” becoming successful as a miniature painter. He stopped exhibiting in 1806 and retired to the country in 1811, but later returned to London. Farington stated that “he married advantageously, and had also the good fortune to be recommended to the Royal Family, by whom He was much employed, and was authorised to stile himself Portrait Painter to His Majesty” (Notebooks 3: 11).

William Collins

Registered as a student 14 October 1785, aged 31 October inst.; painter (H472)

William Collins (1754–1819). Landowner and amateur artist. He exhibited crayon portraits at the SA in 1791 as “honorary”; these, portraits of himself and his wife, Sarah (Astill, of Birmingham), reappeared on the art market in 2009 (Jeffares). He died in Greenwich in 1819 (National Archives, PROB 11/1617), his obituary writer noting he was an artist “of no mean skill, and although he merely pursued the art as a recreation, his crayon portraits are striking specimens of bold outline, rich colouring and strong resemblance” (Gentleman’s Magazine [1819]).

Richard Corbould

Registered as a student 21 March 1774, aged 17, 18th last April; painter (H227)

Richard Corbould (1757–1831). Painter and illustrator. Born London, and baptized St. Edmund the King and Martyr, Lombard Street, on 24 April 1757, the son of George Corbould (1725–66) and his wife, Anne (Ramsay). His father was an engraver (“of Allhallows in Lombard Street,” National Archives, PROB 11/926), goldsmith, and banker. He had been apprenticed to Thomas Ramsay, engraver and goldsmith, and married his master’s daughter. The John Corbould, engraver of Foster Lane, who appeared as a witness at City of London Sessions and at the Old Bailey in 1758, must be his uncle (1726–71), whose children were also artists. Richard Corbould was articled to “Mr Maris,” Farington noting (2 April 1807), “He was a pupil of Maris and resided with Him in Glanville Street, in the year 1773 in the House in which I at that time resided” (8: 3001). Maris was a painter trained by Arthur Devis, and married into the Devis family. Corbould exhibited at the FSA in 1776 from 6 Chandos Street, Covent Garden, and at the RA 1777–1811. He appears as one of the students sketched in an anonymous set of drawings of students dating from the late 1770s at the RA. In 1800 Farington was told that “Corbould married Mr Heaths sister. He was first placed under Maris with a fee of £200.—His guardian expended the remainder of his fortune, but He has lately had a fortune worth £10,000 bequeathed to him” (4: 1357). He had married, in 1785, Charlotte Phillipson, sister-in-law of James Heath the engraver, and cousin of Benjamin West. Their children included the engraver George James Corbould (1786–1846) and the landscape painter Henry Corbould (1787–1845). He died in London in 1831.
(George C. B. Poulter, The Corbould Genealogy [Ipswich, 1935])

Lawrence Joseph Cosse

Registered as a student 3 December 1784, aged 26 April 1784 (H464) Silver medal 1788

Laurence Joseph Cossé (1758–1840). Miniature and subject painter. Apparently born in Dusseldorf, according to a notice by the American visitor to London Louis Simond (Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain, 2 vols. [New York, 1815] 1: 42). He began exhibiting at the RA in 1784, initially from “Mr Hedges’, Covent Garden,” and continued to exhibit until 1837. He married, at St. Marylebone in 1803, Sophia Elizabeth Albert. In 1811 he was an unsuccessful candidate for ARA. Said by Foskett to have worked in Dusseldorf and London. He is recorded providing “pictures and frames” to the Cobb family of Margate (Kent History Centre, U1453/C360). He applied to the AGBI in 1837, stating his age as 76, “having lived upwards of fifty years in this country”; “For the [last] three years he has not had a single commission and suffered much from ill health” (AGBI Applicants’ Book). He was granted £20. He must be the Lawrence Joseph Cossé of New Road who was buried at St. Pancras in 1840, his age recorded as 80. His widow was supported by the AGBI in 1841 and 1842.

William Craft

Registered as a student 4 November 1774, aged 39; painter (H236)

William Hopkins Craft (1731–1811). Enamel painter. He is said to have been born in Tottenham, but he seems certain to be the William Hopkins Craft baptized St. Mary at Lambeth, 1731, the son of John Craft, potter of St. John Wapping, and his wife Anne (Logan), whose clandestine marriage was recorded at Fleet in 1730 (the record provides details of John Craft’s address and occupation). Toppin notes that the name was spelled Croft as well as Craft contemporaneously, perhaps deliberately to evoke an association with the more socially distinguished Croft family, but it is unclear whether he was “of middle class origin, or a ‘cadet’ of an ancient family” (18). The identification of his parents suggests, instead, a background in trade. This is implied in the suggestion that he “was probably a relation, perhaps a brother, of Thomas Craft, who was employed at the porcelain works” at Bow (ODNB). He is believed to have worked in Paris before forming a partnership with David Rhodes in London. Together they worked for Wedgwood. He exhibited at the RA from 1774 to 1781, initially from “Mr Turner’s, 100 St. Martin’s Lane.” “He produced some large works in enamel, which were very good in the manipulation of his material, but very weak in art” (Redgrave). He was admitted to the charitable Charter House at the end of his life, a “Poor Brother.” He died there in 1811, the Gentleman’s Magazine noting, “Aged 80, Mr Croft, formerly a Painter, but latterly on the Establishment of the Charter House. He was suddenly taken ill on Clerkenwell Green, and being conveyed home in a coach, expired on entering his apartment.”
(Aubrey J. Toppin, “William Hopkins Craft, Enamel Painter (1730?–1810),” English Ceramic Circle Transactions 3.4 [1959]: 14-18)

John Smyth Cranfield

Registered as a student 8 October 1779, aged 21, 7 February last; sculptor (H360)

John Smith Cranfield (1759–1802). Sculptor. The son of Richard Cranfield (1731–1809), woodcarver and gilder in Dublin. He exhibited at the Society of Artists in Dublin as early as 1769, when he appears to have been only 10 years old, and won a premium for wood carving there in 1772. From around 1783 he was back in Ireland in business with his father. He married, in 1789, Elizabeth, daughter of the builder and stonecutter George Darley. He died in 1802 from “the effects of a wetting while attending to his kiln” (Strickland, quoted in BDSB).

James Cranke

Registered as a student 8 April 1775, aged 27; painter (H248)

James Cranke (1746–1826). Portrait painter and copyist. Born in London, and baptized at St. George’s, Bloomsbury, on 9 March 1746, the son of the landscape painter James Cranke (1707–80) and his wife, Elizabeth (Essex; 1729/30–91), the latter of “a family of some rank” (Gaythorpe 130). The family moved to Urswick, Lancashire, in the 1750s, where the Cranke family had been established for many generations. The young James Cranke is believed to have attended a grammar school there, and presumably had access to his father’s extensive library, including art books (Gaythorpe 134). He traveled in Germany and the Netherlands, where he appears to have produced painted copies of altarpieces, before returning to England by 1773, where he found work as a portrait painter and copyist in Lancashire and Cheshire. He worked in London after that date, but moved to care for his brother John Cranke, vicar of Gainford, from 1798. He continued working as an artist and general painter. After his brother’s death he returned to Urswick and lived with a nephew, dying there in 1826.
(Harper Gaythorpe, “Two ‘Old Masters’—The Crankes of Urswick,” Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 6 [1906]: 128-42)

Robert Crone

c. 1779–84?

Robert Crone (c. 1718–c. 1779). Landscape painter. Born in Dublin, “of unknown parentage” (ODNB). He was trained at the Dublin Society schools and sent to Italy by one of his teachers (and relative), Philip Hussey, in 1755. He was a pupil of Richard Wilson in Rome and was active as an art dealer. He was in London in 1767, exhibiting up to 1778. Noted by J. T. Smith: “Nollekens observed one morning, after he had attended Sir Joshua’s Lecture at the Royal Academy the preceding evening, that he believed all the deformed students in the Academy had assembled together upon one spot, while waiting the opening of the Lecture-room, since he had noticed Ryley, Flaxman, the two Edwards’s, Crone, and Feary.” This would date the incident to the time when Smith was in Nollekens’s studio, 1779–84. Crone suffered from epilepsy and physical deformity, being described as “a little crooked Irishman” (Ingamells). He is not otherwise recorded as a student at the academy, and Smith’s recollection, if at all accurate, may only indicate that he attended Reynolds’s lecture.

James Crook

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 17, 10th last January; painter (H272) Silver medal 1778, 1779

James Crook (1759–active 1781). Portrait and history painter. Known only from his record of exhibition. He exhibited at the RA 1778–81, from “Mr Crook’s, Islington.”

Edward Dampier

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 20 last October; painter (H345)

Edward Dampier (1758–1827). Baptized at Wareham, Dorset, 10 October 1758, the son of John Dampier and his wife Mary. The Dampier family of Wareham and Castle Corfe were prominent locally. His father must be the John Dampier, Esq., of Wareham who died in 1811, aged 78, his will benefiting his sons, including Edward (National Archives, PROB 11/1537), although creditors made a claim on the will in the Court of Chancery (Hampshire Chronicle 22 May 1820). Dampier was an honorary exhibitor of portraits at the RA in 1784–86.

Benjamin Danks/Danker

Registered as a student 11 October 1782 (CM only) (H422) Registered as a student 8 November 1782, aged 17, 24 last July; painter (H429)

Benjamin Danks (1765–active 1790). Painter of domestic subjects. Exhibited at the RA in 1783 and 1790. Said by Waterhouse to be a pupil of Henry Walton, as he exhibited in 1783 from “Mr Walton’s, Half Moon Street,” that artist’s London address in the mid-1780s.

John Dawson

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 15, 25th last April; engraver (H366)

John Dawson (1765–active 1780). Engraver. Son of Richard Dawson of Bagnio Court, Newgate Street, engraver. He was admitted to St. Paul’s School in 1776, said to be aged 9, where his father’s identity is stated (Robert Barlow Gardiner, The Admission Registers of St. Paul’s School from 1748 to 1876 [London, 1884] 164). Apprenticed to James Basire in 1779; the record of apprenticeship also provides the occupation of his father, who paid the premium of £52.10 (ROLLCO).

Edward Dayes

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 17, 6 last August; painter (H367)

Edward Dayes (1763–1804). Watercolor painter and writer. Born London, the son of Samuel Dayes (1720–74), turner, and his wife Mary Ann (Williams). His father was apparently impoverished and perhaps in poor mental health at the end of his life. Edward Dayes was apprenticed to the engraver and miniature painter William Pether. Edwards states: “In the early part of his life he painted miniature, and also scraped mezzotinto, but afterwards practised the drawing of landscapes” (285-86). He married, in 1786, Sarah Parker. He also started exhibiting at the RA in that year, and had ambitions as a painter in watercolors of historical subjects. He struggled professionally and died by his own hand in 1804. His written “Works” were published in 1805, for the benefit of his widow.
(Tim Marshall, “Edward Dayes: His Ancestors, Family and Descendants,” British Art Journal 8.3 [winter 2007–08]: 31-38)

John Deare

Registered as a student 31 December 1777, aged 18, 26 October last; sculptor (H313) Gold medal 1780
Rome Prize 1785
Marked as “dead” in the register

John Deare (1759–98). Sculptor. Born Liverpool, the son of Thomas Deare (active 1757–89), jeweler and artist in hair, and his wife Esther (Molyneaux). He was apprenticed in 1776 to the carver Thomas Carter in London. At the end of his apprenticeship in 1783 he worked independently, producing several ambitious reliefs, before securing the Rome scholarship in 1785. He traveled to Italy with his fellow student John Charles Felix Rossi, obtaining several important commissions for classical subjects. He married in or before 1796, but died in Rome in 1798, reportedly from a chill caught while sleeping on a cold block of marble seeking inspiration.
(Peggy Fogelmann, Peter Fosco, and Simon Stock, “John Deare (1759–1798): A British Neoclassical Sculptor in Rome,” Sculpture Journal 4 [2000]: 85-126)

John De Bruijn/Bruyn

Registered as a student 11 October 1782, aged 18, 9 last September; painter (H423) Marked as “dead” in the register

John de Bruyn (1763–active 1782). Son of Theodore de Bruyn (1730–1804), Dutch decorative and history painter, who came to England around 1768 and who had himself entered the RA schools as a mature student in 1773. A brother, Henry, entered the RA schools in 1792. Redgrave notes of their father, “He died in London, in the early part of 1804, leaving a son, who was then a student at the Academy, and was afterwards two or three times an exhibitor.” Edwards notes of Theodore de Bruyn, “He left a son who for some time practised the art, and was a student in the Royal Academy, but has lately become a land-surveyor” (284); from later press references this would appear to be Henry de Bruyn rather than this student.

James De Maria

Registered as a student 14 October 1785, aged 17, 27 April last; painter (H473)

James de Maria or Demaria (1768–1851). Scene painter. Perhaps the son of John de Maria of Edinburgh. Active as a scene painter at Covent Garden from 1793, and the new Drury Lane from 1794 to 1799. In 1800 he was working at the Birmingham Theatre, but was back in London c. 1811–14. The death of “Mrs James De Maria, wife of the Artist, of a decline much regretted by all who knew her” was noted in the London press in 1807 (Morning Post 18 February 1807). In a letter of 1814 he indicated that he was intending to retire (Highfill). He seems likely to be the James Demaria, aged around 70, living in Norfolk Street, Marylebone, at the time of the 1841 census, “Independent,” but living with two men in their twenties identified as artists, presumably assistants or pupils. He died in London in 1851, described as of 51 Marylebone Street, “son of John de Maria of Edinboro’ deceased.” John de Maria is recorded as an advocate in Edinburgh in the 1830s, and may be a relative. The surname occurs in Edinburgh, but also in London, within the relevant timeframe. A John de Maria, “a native of Italy,” died aged 85 in Edinburgh in 1818 (Edinburgh Advertiser 29 December 1818); he seems likely to be related.

Peter Denys

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 16 last June; engraver (H273)

Peter Denys (1760–1816). Drawing master. Son of a Swiss musician and teacher who may also have had an interest in art, if he is the “Dennys” who exhibited at the FSA in 1764, “A landscape, ornamented with coraline, etc.,” from Mr. Hawthorne’s, Meard’s Court, Wardour Street. Peter Denys exhibited “A dog” in crayons at the RA, 1779. Farington heard about his circumstances from Fuseli in 1794, recalling Lord Pomfret (1722–85) and his children: Peter Denyss, a young man, who had been recommended by Mr Moser, of the Royal Academy, to Ld. Pomfret was then at Easton, employed in Teaching the young people to draw.—Peter was the son of a Swiss settled in England, as a language master.—Peters younger Brother was bred a musician, and his sister kept a boarding school situated on the other side of Blackfryars Bridge.—After the death of Lord Pomfret Peter married Lady C, his daughter, with the consent of her mother & two young Brothers. She has £4000, a year in her own right … Peter is very plain in person and near sighted. (1: 273)

By virtue of this marriage Denys inherited part of the Pomfret estates and became socially established; he was sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1812. In 1811 Fuseli again recounted what he knew of Denys to Farington: He spoke of Peter Denyss who married the daugr of the late Earl of Pomfret, Lady Charlotte Fermor. Denyss is the Son of a native of Geneva, who was a Fidler, & Fuseli believes played on the Fiddle at the English Opera House. He had several Children, & Mr Moser, the first keeper of the Royal Academy, was acquainted with him, which caused P. Denyss the son, to be entered a Student in the Royal Academy. While he was in this situation the Earl of Pomfret applied to Moser to recommend to Him a Young Artist capable of giving instruction in drawing to His Lordship’s Children. Moser recommended Denyss who went to Easton Neston His Lordship’s seat in Northamptonshire. Here he continued subject to many caprices of His Lordship till the latter died, & not [long] after that He married Lady Charlotte with the consent of Her Mother, a Woman who had as well as Her Lord much tendency to derangement of mind. Eventually Lady Charlotte inherited £4000 a year besides other property, all of which Denyss enjoys. He is vigilant in looking after His money concerns, and has much improved Lord Pomfrets estates particularly lead mines in Yorkshire. He has several Children by Lady Charlotte who is of a gloomy turn of mind. His eldest son has married a Miss Hill against the consent of Denyss, who will not at present acknowledge Him. Denyss is a Performer on the Violin, & often gives expensive musical entertainments. He bought the House build by Holland, the Architect, near Sloane st. & has a House at Bath. (11: 3937-38) A daughter, Charlotte, of Peter Denys, Esq., and Lady Charlotte Denys of Hans Place, Chelsea, died at the age of 14 and was buried in the family vault at Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, in 1816 (Northampton Mercury 20 July 1816). A son, George William Denys, was equerry to the Duke of Sussex and became an MP, receiving a baronetcy in 1813 (HoP).

Thomas Denys

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 15, 16 last November; painter (H331)

Rev. Thomas Denys (1763–1842). Clergyman. The younger brother of Peter Denys, “bred a musician,” according to Farington’s notes (1: 273). Their father was apparently a Swiss musician and teacher. He was admitted to Magdalene Hall, Oxford, in 1788, aged 25, getting his BA in 1793 and MA in 1796. He held an appointment at Easton Neston, presumably by virtue of his brother’s marriage into the Fermor family. He went on to become vicar of Bourne, Lincolnshire, and died in 1842 (British Magazine [1842]: 348).

Arthur Devis, Junr

Registered as a student 31 December 1774, aged 12 August last; painter (H239)

Arthur William Devis (1762–1822). Portrait and history painter. Born London, son of Arthur Devis (c. 1711–87), portrait painter. Studied under his father, and exhibited at the FSA 1775–80 as “Master Devis,” giving his father’s Great Queen Street address in 1779–80. Traveled to India 1782, spending time in China before establishing a successful practice in India 1785–95. Returned to England but “he was financially feckless in his later years and was mainly supported by John Biddulph of Ledbury” (Waterhouse). His widow, Isobel Devis, applied to the RA for charity in 1822 (CM); she also went to the AGBI, “being left intirely destitute through his property having been sold for the benefit of his Creditors. She has neither age or infirmities to plead but trusts that with the donation rec’d from the Royal Academy, and what this Institution may be pleased to bestow, she shall not only be shielded from immediate want, but enabled to place herself in a situation of respectability” (AGBI Applicants’ Book). She was granted £7.

John Dixey

Registered as a student 29 October 1784, aged 21, 19 last August; painter (H455)

John Dixey (1762–1820). Sculptor. Born Dublin, “came to London at an early age, and studied at the Royal Academy” (Redgrave). “Of his parents, nothing is known” (ODNB). He exhibited in London in 1788, but went to America in 1789, where he remained until his death in 1820, having achieved moderate success in his profession. Dunlap states that he had been selected for the Rome Prize but chose instead to go to the US (1: 329).

James Dorrington

Registered as a student 4 December 1775, aged 29; painter (H258)

James Dorrington (c. 1746–active 1775). Possibly connected with the “Master Dorrington” described as “Pupil to Miss Williams” who exhibited “a drawing in chalks from plaister, first attempt” at the FSA in 1773. This student would have been 26 or 27 in that year, according to the age given in the register, so is unlikely to have been described as “Master.”

William Doughty

Registered as a student 8 April 1775, aged 17 last July; painter (H249) Marked as “died” in the register

William Doughty (1757–82). Portrait painter and mezzotint engraver. Born York, and baptized at St. Michael le Belfrey, 14 August 1757, the son of John Doughty, the keeper of a fishing-tackle shop, and his wife, Anne (Kirby). A protégé of William Mason, who sent him to London to study art, where he was a pupil of Reynolds, joining his household. He married, in 1777, Margaret Joy, one of Reynolds’s servants. He visited Ireland in 1778, and returned to London, gaining a reputation as a mezzotint engraver. He set out for India in 1780 but died en route in 1782, at Lisbon (Waterhouse). His widow continued to India, and died there shortly afterwards.

Benjamin Dransfield

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 22, 21 last September; painter (H389) Marked as “dead” in the register

Benjamin Dransfield (1758–1817). Born Kent, baptized in Bromley 13 October 1758, the son of Benjamin Dransfield and his wife Elizabeth. His father must be the Benjamin Dransfield recorded as an innholder at Sevenoaks, Kent (records at Lambeth Palace). He is probably the Benjamin Dransfield apprenticed in December 1773 to William Williams, “Citizen and Toyman.” He died in Bermondsey in 1817, said to be aged 58, and was buried in the independent Colliers Rents, Southwark.

William Dunlap

Admitted as a probationer 1784

William Dunlap (1766–1839). Miniature painter, art historian and writer, and theatrical manager. Born Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the son of Samuel Dunlap, an Irish-born former soldier and merchant, and his wife Margaret Sargent Dunlap. The father was a loyalist, and the family moved to New York for their safety after the outbreak of war. Despite his loyalty, his father apparently retained his property and built up his business after the end of the war. Dunlap was in London 1783–87, training as an artist with Benjamin West. Although he is not recorded as a student, his autobiography indicates that, with West’s support, he was admitted as a probationer: Mr West offered his casts for my practice when I should be ready to draw …. I sat down to draw in black and white chalks from the bust of Cicero; and having mastered that, in every point of view, I drew from the Fighting Gladiator (so called),—and my drawing gained me permission to enter the Academy at Somerset House. I know not why—perhaps, because I was too timid to ask Mr West to introduce me, or too bashful and awkward to introduce myself; but I never made use of the permission.
I had an awe of distinguished men that caused many weaknesses in my conduct; a bashfulness that required encouraging, at the same time that I was the first of the boldest among my companions—but so it was; I went with my porfolio, port-crayon, chalks and paper, and delivered them to the porter, made some excuse for not going in, and walked off; I never entered the school or saw my portfolio again. He nonetheless continued to study with West and became a friend of Raphael West. By his own account his studies were desultory, and he was recalled to New York in 1787 by his father. He made some attempt to establish himself as a portrait painter, but “by degrees my employers became fewer, my efforts were unsatisfactory to myself. I sought a refuge in literature, and after a year or two abandoned painting, and joined my father in mercantile business.” He continued as a painter, theatrical manager, and writer, producing most importantly his History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States (1834), based on personal observation and personal information solicited from living artists.
(Maura Lyons, William Dunlap and the Construction of an American Art History [Amherst, 2005])

Gainsborough Dupont

Registered as a student 6 March 1775, aged 20, 24 December last; painter (H242) Marked as “dead” in the register

Gainsborough Dupont (1754–97). Portrait and landscape painter. Born Sudbury, and baptized St. Peter’s Sudbury, the son of Philip Dupont (c. 1722–88), carpenter, and his wife Sarah (Gainsborough). He was the nephew of Thomas Gainsborough, to whom he was apprenticed in Bath in 1772. He became his uncle’s studio assistant and imitator. He continued in Gainsborough’s studio after the latter’s death in 1788, until 1793, and achieved moderate independent success as a portrait painter.

John Eames/Emes

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 17, 30 December last; engraver (H368)

John Emes (1762–1808). Landscape painter, engraver, and silversmith. The son of William Emes (1729/30–1803), landscape gardener of Bowbridge Fields, Mackworth, Derbyshire, and his wife Mary (Innocent; d. 1789). He was apprenticed to William Woollett, the engraver, in London in 1778. Exhibited at the RA in 1790–91, from 1 North Street, Upper Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place. He was insured at that address in 1786, “engraver and printseller” (LMA). He must be John Emes, the engraver who was taken as a partner in Thomas Chawner’s silversmithing firm in 1796, subsequently becoming the sole owner of the firm before his death in 1808. His widow, Rebecca (d. 1828?), continued the business after his death.

Henry Edridge

Registered as a student 7 January 1784, aged 15, 12 October last; engraver (H444) Silver medal 1786
Noted in the life school register 14 December 1790

Henry Edridge (1768–1821). Miniature painter and watercolor painter. Born Paddington, and baptized at St. James’s, Paddington, on 3 October 1768, the son of Henry Edridge, “a tradesman in St. James’s” (ODNB), and his wife, Sarah (Brett). He was educated at home and at a school in Acton. Farington heard in 1808 that “he had raised Himself by His merit & prudence. His Father was a Butcher in St. James’s Market, and died while His children were young. Edridge indicated a disposition to drawing. Edmonds, the Upholsterer, being a friend of the family happening to pass through the Strand saw a paper at a window …” (9: 3128). Farington’s note is incomplete but the suggestion is that the young Edridge was put to a master who was advertising for an apprentice, and he is known to have been apprenticed to William Pether, the mezzotint engraver, at the age of 14. It seems likely, taking into account Farington’s comments, that his father was the William Henry Edridge, butcher, who was imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea in 1761 (London Gazette 18-21 April 1761) and died in St. James’s Market in 1773 (St. James’s Chronicle 21-23 September 1773). Henry Edridge took up miniature painting after studying at the academy and gaining the notice of Reynolds. He exhibited at the academy from 1786, initially giving Pether’s address. He achieved success as a portrait miniaturist and also produced landscape watercolors. He died in London in 1821, leaving a substantial fortune of £12,000 to his widow.

Edwards

Attended the schools c. 1779–84?

Noted by J. T. Smith: “Nollekens observed one morning, after he had attended Sir Joshua’s Lecture at the Royal Academy the preceding evening, that he believed all the deformed students in the Academy had assembled together upon one spot, while waiting the opening of the Lecture-room, since he had noticed Ryley, Flaxman, the two Edwards’s, Crone, and Feary.” This would date the incident to the time when Smith was in Nollekens’s studio, 1779–84. One Edwards is certainly Edward Edwards; Whitten (ed. of Smith) suggests the other is the botanical illustrator Sydenham Teak Edwards (1768–1819), born Usk, the son of a schoolmaster.

John William Edy

Registered as a student 8 October 1779, aged 19, 7 last March; painter (H361)

John William Edy (1760–1832). Printmaker and publisher. He must be the John William Edy baptized as a nonconformist, son of Francis and Sarah Edy, born 6 March 1760, Christmas Street, Bristol. His father seems likely to be the Francis Edy, baker of Bristol, who paid duties on an apprentice in 1769. However, he may also have been related to the Edey, sculptor, known only from his widow’s successful application for charity from the RA in June 1769. He exhibited at the RA in 1785, from New Store Street, Bedford Square, and again in 1801–02. Henry Angelo recalled him among “the list of clerical caricaturists”: “He was the author of a few political plates; but his favourite subjects were ludicrous, and highly humorous” (1: 427). The “Mr Edy” given charity by the RA in 1823 appears to be this former student (CM). Mr. J. M. Edy applied to the AGBI in 1827: Painter, Engraver & Draughtsman, has been in the Royal Academy 47 years, his business is nearly extinct having hardly any Sale of his works, repeated Illness, some debts contracted thro’ many unproductive Years, advanced Age & this year a broken arm & other misfortunes, has, with a family of Girls reduced me to the very earth. (AGBI Applicants’ Book) He was granted £5. In a subsequent application of 1828 he stated he was 67 years old, “having been in the Royal Academy 48 Years & has hitherto lived in a respectable manner.” His wife applied to the AGBI on his behalf in 1832, his having been struck down by “the Typhus Fever, during the Thunder storm on the 11^th June.” She applied again in January 1833, having been widowed.
(Henry Angelo, Reminiscences, 2 vols. [London, 1828–30])

William Elmer

Registered as a student 11 October 1782, aged 21, 6 January next; painter (H424)

William Elmer (1759?–1836?). He seems likely to be the William, son of John Elmer, who was baptized St. Andrew, Farnham, 26 January 1759, although this year is different from the birth year suggested in the register. He was more certainly a nephew of Stephen Elmer (c. 1715–96), still-life painter of Farnham, Surrey (although Redgrave notes of Stephen Elmer that “his son was an artist,” and it has often been assumed that this was his relationship with William Elmer). The Elmers were established as limners in Farnham since the beginning of the eighteenth century, and while he is said to have trained with his successful uncle, Stephen, a brother of that artist, John, probably this student’s father, was also mentioned in records of payments for painting from the local church, suggesting that he also followed the trade. Stephen Elmer was critically and materially successful, and able to purchase property later in life, including a brewery, which has led to his being identified, apparently mistakenly, as a maltster. William Elmer exhibited at the SA in 1778 and 1780, latterly giving his uncle’s addresses (“Farnham and 44 Watling Street”). When he first exhibited at the RA, in 1783, it was from “Mr Flaxman’s, 420 Strand”—that is, the plaster figure maker John Flaxman, Sr. He exhibited at the academy again in 1784, 1797, and 1799. Stephen Elmer’s will benefited various nephews, including William Elmer (National Archives, PROB 11/1280). Edwards notes that a nephew inherited Elmer’s collection of paintings and exhibited it in London in 1799 (232). He has been said to have died in 1799, although he also appears to have benefited from the insurance claim made after his uncle’s stock of paintings was destroyed by fire in 1801. He may in fact be the William Elmer who died Badwell Ask, Suffolk, in 1836, aged 78.
(Ann Sumner, Stephen Elmer (c. 1715–1796) [Museum of Farnham, 1993])

Henry Elouis/Edwin

Registered as a student 29 October 1784, aged 29, 20 January last; painter (H456) Silver medal 1786

John-Pierre-Henry Elouis (1753–1840). Portrait painter and miniaturist. Born Caen, France. A pupil of Restout in Paris. Came to London 1784 and practiced in England briefly before moving to America c. 1787, where he worked in several cities before settling in Philadelphia in 1792. In 1793 he wrote to George Washington pleading for support: “I have Experienced great troubles Since four years; I had the good fortune to Conquer all difficulties, but So many have fallen upon me all at once, that I do not know how to extricate myself, if not helped” (20 July 1793; Founders Online). He returned to France c. 1807 and was curator at the Museum at Caen from 1814 (Waterhouse). The register notes by his name: “N.B.—a Silver Medal was given in 1786 to Hen. Edwin. whose Name is not entered as Admitted,” which seems clearly to suggest that it was this student.

James Evans

Registered as a student 21 June 1781, aged 21 last October; painter (H397)

James Evans (1759–active 1781). “Nothing is known of his work” (Waterhouse), a situation confirmed by the assiduous Jeffares (“Nothing is known of this pastellist”). The latter notes a dated pastel of 1779 that may be associated with him. He may be the J. Evans, “then a pupil of C Knight,” that Dodd notes for a stipple engraving of 1787 (BL Add. MS 33398, f. 280).

Robert Fagan

Registered as a student 21 June 1781, aged 20 last 5 March; painter (H398) Marked as “Decd” in the register

Robert Fagan (1761–1816). Portrait and history painter and art dealer. Probably born in London, the son of Michael Fagan (1728–83), originally from Cork but established with a bakery business in Long Acre. A pupil of Bartolozzi. Traveled to Italy in 1781, settling in Rome. He remained in Italy for the rest of his life, although visiting England. Active as an art dealer as well as a portrait painter. Appointed consul general for Sicily and Malta in 1809, moving to Palermo. He died by his own hand in 1816, beset by financial problems.

Thomas Fielding

Registered as a student 7 January 1784, aged 21, 18 January 1784; engraver (H445)

Thomas Fielding (1763–active 1798). Engraver. His family background has not been established, and the age in the register varies from the date of 1758 usually given in biographical sources. Dodd notes him as “an obscure practitioner in engraving of whom we trace nothing more on record” than two prints, one after Kauffman and a portrait of Thomas Taylor of Lloyd’s Coffee House (BL Add. MS 33400, f. 460). He may be related to the John Fielding, engraver of Panton Street, who was a subscriber to John Warburton’s Vallum Romanum (1753) and Samuel Boyce’s Poems on Several Occasions (1757). Thomas Fielding studied under Bartolozzi and worked extensively for William Wynne Ryland (Tuer 2: 50). The BM notes him as a stipple engraver and publisher, still active in 1798, who worked in partnership with William Palmer and John Walker.

James Fittler

Registered as a student 8 April 1778, aged 22 next October; engraver (H322)

James Fittler (1758–1835). Engraver. Exhibited at the FSA in 1776, giving the address as “at Mr Fittler’s, Wells Street, near Germain Street, St. James’s.” It is likely that the William Fittler “of Wells Street in the Parish of Saint James” described as “taylor” in a legal document of September 1787 was his father, if not another close relative (London Lives). William Fittler, tailor, was listed at 7 Wells Street, Jermyn Street, in a commercial directory of 1790 (Wakefield’s).

He married Elizabeth Johnson (d. 1847) in 1781. James Fittler was insured as an engraver at Tottenham Court Road from 1783, and subsequently at Charlotte Street (LMA). He paid duties on taking as apprentices William Miller in 1791, John G. Guignon in 1799, and William Smart in 1807 (National Archives, IR 1/38). The William Fittler, Esq., listed in Holden’s, 1805–07, at the same address may be his father living with him. He exhibited at the RA 1788–1814, and was made ARA in 1800.

Fittler was appointed marine engraver to George III by 1790. He may be the same as the J. Fidler noted by Waterhouse as a topographical artist, active 1796–1803. He died in Chiswick in 1835, his will proved 1836, benefiting his widow and referring to copyhold estate at Twickenham (National Archives, PROB 11/1856). Raimbach asserts that he died “in impoverished circumstances” (36). In the 1841 census his widow, Eliza, was still living in Chiswick and described as financially “Independent.”
(Abraham Raimbach, Memoirs and Recollections of the Late Abraham Raimbach, Esq., Engraver [London, 1843])

Carlo Fontanelli

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 21 last August; painter (H274) Marked as “dead” in the register

Charles Fontanella (1755–83). Portrait painter. Presumably Italian in origin, although there are a number of individuals named Fontanella recorded in mid-eighteenth century England, and he may have been born in Britain. As Carlo Fontanella he exhibited at the FSA, “Portrait of a lady; small whole length,” in 1779, giving his address as John Street, Adelphi. He was lodging with the decorative painter Zucchi at 25 Air Street, Piccadilly, when he exhibited at the RA in 1780, suggesting he was a pupil or assistant. He married, in 1782, Sarah Dean, at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster. There is no later record of him as an artist, so he is most likely the Charles Fontanella who was buried in St. Marylebone in February 1783 (although another Charles Fontanella was buried in St. Marylebone in 1805).

William Franks

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 16, 23 last July; drawing (H291)

William Franks (1760–98?). The unusual designation of “Drawing” as profession on registration may indicate an amateur interest in the art. However, he exhibited “A Cupid; done in human hair” at the SA in 1776, from “Mr Clinton’s, Jeweller, Salisbury Street, Strand,” and this may indicate that he was an apprentice or assistant there. He has been identified with the William Franks who was active as a miniature painter in New York from 1796 until his death in 1798.
(Carrie Rebora Barratt and Lori Zabar, American Portrait Miniatures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art [New Haven, 2010] 84)

Robert Freebairn

Registered as a student 2 April 1782, aged 18, 16 last March; painter (H416) Noted in the life school register 1 October 1792
Marked as “Decd” in the register

Robert Freebairn (1764–1808). Landscape painter. Farington records he “was born Febry 1764 in Scotland, near the Tweed, but was brought to London when only 6 months old” (Notebooks 3: 25). Briefly a pupil of Richard Wilson, going on to study with Philip Reinagle. In 1807 Farington heard from the sculptor Rossi: Freebairn’s father was a Chymist in Gooch street, but died when Freebairn was only 14 years old, leaving two other Sons. Freebairn after His Father’s death having a strong inclination to painting placed Himself under Reinagle & gave Him £100. After leaving Reinagle He went to Italy & on His return married a Young Woman who He became acquainted with while He was at Reinagle’s she being the Nursery maid. (8: 3132) His father must then be the George Freebairn listed in directories at 37 Goodge Street from around 1774–82. Robert Freebairn exhibited at the RA 1782–1807, giving his address initially as at “Mr Reinagle’s, Great Castle Street, Cavendish Square.” He does not, however, appear to have been materially successful. He moved out to Paddington in 1806 and died in January 1808 (Farington, Notebooks 3: 25, 1: 20). He died in financial distress, leaving a widow and sons, who turned to the academy for charity. A son, Samuel Freebairn, died aged 14 in 1813, after a schoolboy prank (Caledonian Mercury 26 April 1813); another son became a student of the academy and an engraver.

Thomas Freeman

Registered as a student 25 November 1776, aged 19, 15 October last; painter (H280) Silver medal 1779
Noted in the life school register 20 November 1790

Thomas Freeman (1756–active 1790). He must be the Thomas Freeman born 15 October 1756 and baptized 1 November 1756 at St. Sepulchre, Holborn, the son of Charles Freeman and his wife Elizabeth. The surname is common and his father’s occupation has not been established. Exhibited at the RA from Windsor in 1780, and from 8 Margaret Street, Westminster, in 1784. His Fuselian Satan Leaving the Court of Chaos is at the Ackland Art Gallery. He is not recorded as an artist after being named in the life register and seems likely to have died young.

Henry Fremont

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 20, 20 last June; painter (H346)

Henry-James Fremont (1759–89?). Embroiderer. He seems certain to be the Henry Fremont of 9 Broad Street, Golden Square, embroiderer, who was bankrupted in 1783. The catalogue of his household and stock put up for auction by order of the assignees included drawing materials, prints, and drawings, mostly more obviously connected with his trade, including “A book of drawings, by Mr Fremont, with sundry pricked patterns, his own designs.” As embroiderers were reckoned generally dependent on others for designs, Fremont was perhaps unusual in originating his own (see R. Campbell, London Tradesman [1747]). More notably still, the auction included drawings, indicating that he had pursued academic studies, including “Seven port folios, and 150 drawings of academy figures” and “Venus de Medicis, and 20 others in red,” probably indicating red chalk drawings after the antique (Westminster Archives, Acc 36/107). A receipt in the same place refers to rent being paid on his house in Berkeley Square. He is therefore the Henry Fremont, aged 22, who married in 1781, Ann Pridden; one son, Henry James, was baptized in Westminster in 1782, and another son, John Fremont, was baptized at St. Bride, Fleet Street, in 1784, when it is noted of the father that he was “late of Berkeley Sq (my brother in law).” He may be the Henry Fremont whose death in St. James’s, Westminster, is recorded in 1789.

He seems likely to be related to John Fremont (d. 1774), weaver of Spitalfields, noted in commercial directories and other sources in the 1770s, although his will referred only to a son, John, with whom he had been in business. He may also be connected to the etcher Philip Richard Fremont, active c. 1734. The surname suggests a French Huguenot origin.

George Garrard

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 18, 31 May last; painter (H332)

George Garrard (1760–1826). Animal painter and sculptor. Born London, and baptized at St. Lawrence Jewry, 31 May 1760, the son of Robert Hazlewood (Haselfoot) Garrard and his wife Marian (Richards). His father must be the Robert Haselfoot Garrard, linen draper, who appears at 127 Cheapside in Kent’s Directory, 1774, and the individual of the same name buried at All Saints, Edmonton, in April 1793. According to Gilbey, “He came from a family of artists, tracing his descent to Marcus Garrard who came from Bruges to England in 1580, and became painter to Queen Elizabeth” (176). Gilbey states he studied “under Joseph Simpson, a famous drawing master” (177). He was then a pupil of Sawrey Gilpin, whose daughter he married. He exhibited at the RA from 1781, initially from “Mr Gilpin’s, Knightsbridge.” He became established as an animal painter and sculptor in the late 1780s, enjoying sustained patronage from the brewer Samuel Whitbread (1720–96) and his son, also Samuel (1764–1815), and becoming ARA in 1800. He worked in a range of media, Nollekens dismissing him as a “Jack of all trades.” Despite his success, he left little and his widow turned to the RA for charity.

Peter Gaugain

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 16, 4 November last; painter (H347)

Peter John Gaugain (1762–1813). Engraver and printseller. Born London, baptized at St. Anne, Soho, the son of Philip John Gaugain and his wife Mary Anne (Malherbe). He was therefore the younger brother of the engraver Thomas Gaugain, who was baptized with the same parents in 1756 (see his entry in the ODNB). The family included jewelers and engravers. Married Jane Lecointe, a minor, with the permission of her father, at St. Ann’s, Westminster, in 1787. He was in partnership with his brother Thomas as a printseller and publisher. Peter John Gaugain, printseller, copperplate engraver, and stationer, was insured at 4 Little Compton Street between at least 1785 and 1804 (LMA). He died in Enfield in 1813, aged 51, his house being auctioned the following year: “A neat, comfortable cottage, in good repair, large garden &c” (Morning Post 20 August 1814).

James Gillray

Registered as a student 8 April 1778, aged 21 next August; engraver (H323)

James Gillray (1756–1815). Caricaturist. Born in Chelsea, the son of the Scottish-born James Gillray (1720–99) and his wife Jane (Coleman). His father had been a blacksmith and served in the Queen’s Dragoons, losing an arm at the Battle of Fontenoy (1745). He became a pensioner of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, in 1748. James Gillray was apprenticed to Henry Ashby, lettering engraver, but emerged as a political printmaker in 1775, working for William Humphrey of Soho. Although he initially sought work as a reproductive engraver and produced miniatures, he found celebrity from the 1780s as a caricaturist. He worked for several publishers before, from 1791, working exclusively for Hannah Humphrey (d. 1818), lodging with her in Old Bond Street and then St. James’s Street. He suffered a mental and physical breakdown in 1807 and was unable to produce new work from 1809.

John Gladwin

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 25, 24 last October; painter (H292)

John Gladwin (1751–active 1777). Known only from his record as a student (Waterhouse). Several John Gladwins appear in the London records, including a publican, a porter, and a miller (London Lives).

Augustus Temple Goodman

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 26, 9 last April; painter (H369)

Augustus Temple Goodman (1754–1820). Painter. Born Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, and baptized 16 April 1754 at St. Bride’s, the son of Augustus Goodman (c. 1720–c. 1770) and his wife Charlotte. His father’s trade or occupation is unknown, but Augustus Temple Goodman was listed as a “gentleman,” Market Street, in the Westminster poll book as early as 1774, suggesting the family was materially secure. He married Mary Jane Fullmer in 1776, and they began a family. He was listed as a portrait painter, 35 Tufton Street, in 1788–90, and with the same occupation in Palmer’s Village, 1796 (London Lives). He must be the Augustus T. Goodman, “wheelwright,” St. James’s, who took an apprentice in 1799 (National Archives, IR 1/37).

He was living in Walworth by at least 1801, and had the position of “Money Porter” in the Tellers’ Office at the Exchequer by 1811. He married for a second time in 1815 and died at Carlisle Lane, Lambeth, in 1820. His will, describing him as of the “Tellers Office Exchequer Westminster of Saint Mary Lambeth, Surrey,” was proved 1820, and refers to family portraits in oil and miniatures painted by him (National Archives, PROB 11/1633).
(Roger Varrow Family Tree, on <http://www.ancestry.co.uk>)

Thomas Gosse

Registered as a student 8 October 1779, aged 14, 6 last July; painter (H362)

Thomas Gosse (1765–1844). Mezzotint engraver and miniature painter. Born in 1765, the son of William Gosse (1714–84) of Ringwood, Hampshire, and his wife, Elizabeth (Corbin; 1723–89). The Gosse family was well established as landowners, weavers, and merchants. His father, “who had served, by virtue of some Welsh estates, as high sheriff of Radnorshire, was a cloth manufacturer on a considerable scale, but he was ruined by the introduction of machinery into the woollen trade. In the days of his prosperity he was a patron of the fine arts in the quiet mode of those days” (Edmund Gosse 141). Thomas Gosse wrote that the family lived “in credit and good repute and shared in that genteel liberal ease that appertains to such a condition, amidst a due attention to business and the main chance” (quoted in Fayette Gosse 13). His autobiography of around 1799 provides a detailed account of his childhood interest in art and progress at the academy. “I always had an inclination for drawing” and, though he was sent to school, his interest in art prevailed, and in 1777 “my school education was resigned for the practice of drawing at home” (Edmund Gosse 141). He recounts going to London for the first time in the summer of 1779, where a letter of recommendation from “Mr Compton, the Bistern squire” to Edward Penny secured him entry to the RA: “Here I drew from plaster-casts of human figures after the antique, and was aided therein by the book of anatomical figures which my father bought for me before he returned to Ringwood” (Edmund Gosse 142). He returned home for the winter of 1779–80, but was back in London to continue studies by June 1780, competing unsuccessfully for the silver medal and attending lectures. He recalls: After staying half a year at home, I am sent again to London, to improve in drawing at the Royal Academy; & reside <1780> at Mr Wilmot’s—no relation of my Uncle’s—living in Wood Street near Cheapside. It was soon after the riots which were headed in London by Lord George Gordon <June 2 1780> … In my walks after breakfast to the Royal Academy to draw; I meet again that horribly, diabolically looking man that I before mentioned. The Academy now is at the new range of building close to the Strand, a magnificent edifice; whereas before it was the antiquated mansion Somerset House. … During all September <1780> at the Royal Academy, I cease to draw there; it was then vacation-time, & not the only vacation neither in the year: for the months of April & May were exhibition-time, & then I ceased to draw there likewise: but as a student I had the privilege of visiting the Exhibition for the sight of the pictures four times gratis. At other times, I went to the Library—belonging to the Academy—on the Monday forenoon; either to look over folio books of fine engravings from the master-pieces of painting, or to read those volumes whose subjects were connected with painting.—On Monday evenings, I attended now—(the middle of autumn)—Dr Hunter’s lectures on the <superficial> anatomy of the human body, with the view to the instruction of the students in the drawing of the human figure. The lecture-room was in the attic-story of the edifice.—Medals are proposed, in a framed sheet of paper for the students to inspect, to be given for the best three drawings of an academy figure. I was once a candidate or competitor: but was unsuccessful. These were silver medals. But the gold medals were to be won by the best historical painting from a given & specified subject; & by the best historical piece of modelling—which is to sculpture what design or drawing is to painting; & there was for the best design of such & such a subject in architecture. A little before Xmas, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who is the President of the Royal Academy, delivers a lecture on the subject, at the distribution of the prizes, the several medals.—I had also gone to hear lectures on perspective at Mr Wale’s. (BL Add. MS 89020/6) He returned to Ringwood once more in 1781–82, then back to London for study, which continued until the death of his father in February 1784. “I continue drawing at the Academy day by day as usual: hear the lectures, keep the vacations, & go to the anniversary Exhibition, as before.” The family moved out of Ringwood, and “it was now resolved to put me to the business of engraving” (Edmund Gosse 143). He was apprenticed to John Raphael Smith, but ran away to Hampshire with “Hodges, another youth,” who must be Charles Howard Hodges. In 1785 he was sent back to London and became the pupil of the mezzotint engraver William Ward. He found work as a mezzotint engraver from around 1788, but around 1799 he gave up engraving for miniature painting, which he pursued mainly in the west of England. He advertised in Birmingham in 1804: “T. Gosse, from the Royal Academy, London … takes the correctest Likenesses in Miniature, at three and four Guineas each” (Aris’s Birmingham Gazette 6 August 1804). He married, in Worcester in 1807, Hannah Best (1780–1860), “the daughter of a Worcestershire yeoman.” His itinerant lifestyle continued, now with a young family, but in 1812 he settled in Poole. He died in London in 1844, in a house provided by his son, the successful natural historian Philip Henry Gosse.
(Edmund Gosse, “Fragments of the Autobiography of Thomas Gosse,” Burlington Magazine 27, no. 148 [July 1915]: 141-50; Fayette Gosse, The Gosses: An Anglo-Australian Family [Canberra, 1981])

George Graham

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 16, 23 last November; painter (H370)

George Graham (1764–active 1813). Engraver and painter. He has been identified as Scottish, perhaps only on the basis of his surname. He may perhaps be connected with the George Graham, stationer and bookseller, insured at Craven Street, Strand, in 1777 (LMA), dying in 1791 (National Archives, PROB 11/1204). Possibly the George Graham apprenticed to James Cope (c. 1728–99), citizen and coachmaker of London, in 1781 (when this student would have been 16 or 17). He exhibited as an honorary exhibitor in 1783, and Thomas Gosse referred to him as “my fellow-pupil at Ward’s” (149 [article by Edmund Gosse under Gosse, above]), that is, the mezzotint engraver William Ward. Gosse’s memoir indicates that he and Graham went together from Ward’s to Hodges’s in 1788. The BM notes him as a painter, illustrator, and engraver in stipple and mezzotint, active c. 1786–1813. He may be the same George Graham who was in America from at least 1812, the engraver of a mezzotint after Gilbert Stuart of George Washington.

John Graham

Registered as a student 10 March 1783, aged 28, 17 March inst.; painter (H431)

John Graham (1755–1817). History and portrait painter. His family background has not been established; he is said to have been born in the north of Scotland. Trained as a coach painter in Edinburgh, being apprenticed to George MacFarquhar (active 1763–99). He came to London, where he was based in the 1780s and 1790s, at first pursuing coach painting before his studies at the academy. Exhibited at the SA in 1783 and at the FSA 1782–83, producing quite ambitious history paintings. He was appointed master of the Trustees’ Academy, Edinburgh, in 1798, and was influential as a teacher, encouraging academic principles of study based on copying the antique. He died in Edinburgh in 1817.

Thomas Gray

Registered as a student 30 September 1777, aged 25 last July; painter (H307)

Thomas Gray (1752–active 1783). The son of John Gray, shopkeeper of St. Andrew’s, Holborn. He was apprenticed to Thomas Maxfield, citizen and painter stainer, in 1767, which record provides details of his father. Probably the Gray who exhibited animal paintings at the FSA in 1783, from King’s Road, Bedford Row. He is not further recorded as an artist.

John Hippesley Green

Registered as a student 21 March 1774, aged 20, 30 June last; sculptor (H228) Silver medal 1780
Noted in the life school register 19 November 1792

John Hippisley Green (1753–1832). Sculptor and landscape painter. The son, out of wedlock, of Jane Hippisley (1719–91), later Mrs. Green, prominent as an actor. He was an assistant to the sculptor Joseph Nollekens, and exhibited at the RA 1775–1820. After 1800 he focused on landscape painting. He died in Hampstead in 1832, said to be in his 80th year, when it was noted that he was “one of the eldest students of the Royal Academy” (Evening Mail 29 February 1832).

John Guard

Registered as a student 4 December 1775, aged 18, 19th this December; painter (H259) Marked as “dead” in the register

John Guard (1757–active 1775). Very likely the John Guard born 29 December 1757, baptized 8 January 1758, St. James, Westminster, the son of William Guard and his wife Susanna. His father must be the William Guard recorded as a carpenter in the poll books at Leicester Street, St. James Piccadilly, and Covent Garden, 1774–88, who died in 1788, his will benefiting his widow, Susanna, daughters, and a son-in-law, without naming a son (National Archives, PROB 11/1164). This may simply indicate that John Guard predeceased him. John Guard is not recorded as active as an artist.

Thomas Guest

Registered as a student 31 March 1777 (CM only) (H293)

Thomas Robert Guest (1754–1818). Artist, art teacher, and merchant. Jeffares speculates he may have been related to Thomas Guest, a tailor of Bath, who was the father of Mary Jane Guest (c. 1762–1846), piano teacher to the Princesses Amelia and Charlotte. He first carried on business in the West Country and London. In 1779 he married Margaret Douglass in Plymouth; in 1788 he was advertising in Bath as “Miniature and Portrait Painter (late from Italy)” (cited by Jeffares). In 1801 he was granted a patent for a design of paintbox, and was then stated to be of Plymouth and 82 Pall Mall, London. At the latter address he was in business as a colorman with Thomas Rowney, a perfumer. The partnership was dissolved in 1802 and Guest removed to Salisbury. There he went into business as a drawing master, picture restorer, and artists’ supplier. His son, Thomas Douglas Guest (1781–1855), registered at the RA schools in 1801 and pursued a controversial career as a history painter. In 1807 the elder Thomas Guest published A New Pocket Sketch Book Containing an Easy Measure of Drawing from Nature. That year Farington noted that the Rev. Mr. Davis from Salisbury reported that “the Father of Douglas Guest is a Portrait Painter. He sometime ago came to Salisbury a stranger, and finding out that Mr and Mrs Davis were people well known requested them to allow their eldest son to sit to Him—which he did —& the likeness being approved, He obtained a great deal of business.—He also made some copies of a picture of Corregio, which he sold for 80 guineas each” (8: 2947). As well as his artistic pursuits, he ran the circulating library and sold snuff and fishing tackle; Farington heard reference to him in 1810 as a “watchmaker.” In 1810 he exhibited in London a painting of Stonehenge, and in 1814 he executed a group of archaeological still lifes recording finds at an excavation in Winterslow, Wiltshire (see Sam Smiles, “Thomas Guest and Paul Nash in Wiltshire: Two Episodes in the Artistic Approach to British Antiquity,” Sam Smiles and Stephanie Moser, eds., Envisioning the Past: Art and Archaeology [Oxford, 2004]). In 1801 Andrew Robertson, a contemporary of Thomas Douglas Guest at the RA schools, noted: “His father was an artist and student in London. Turned merchant and made £50,000. This is his only son, he sent him to Rome, France, Spain and Portugal.” The record of Thomas Robert Guest’s various business and artistic enterprises suggests less concrete success than is indicated here, and there is other evidence that the younger Guest could be liberal with the truth. Thomas Robert Guest died in Salisbury in 1818.

Silvester Harding

Registered as a student 25 November 1776, aged 25, 5 August last; painter (H281)

Sylvester Harding (1745/1751–1809). Miniature painter, engraver, and print publisher. Born Stafford, the son of Sylvester Harding and Mary, who apparently married only after his birth (ODNB). According to Rupert Sims (Bibliotheca Staffordiensis [Lichfield, 1894] 209), his father was a coach builder. “He was born at Newcastle-under-Lyme, July 25, 1745. Sent to an uncle in London at the age of 10 years, he was placed by him to a trade which he disliked—it is said to a hair-dresser—and at 14 he ran away and was not heard of for several years. He had joined a company of strolling players” (Redgrave). The date of birth given by Redgrave conflicts with the register, but the birthplace in Staffordshire may be correct, as it can be noted that a Sylvester Harding was baptized at St. Mary, Stafford, in 1723, and may be related to this student. A Thomas Harding, son of Sylvester Harding and his wife Mary, was baptized at St. Mary, Stafford, in January 1752, although his birthdate is too close to Sylvester Harding’s (as provided in the register) for him to be a brother. Sylvester came to London with another brother, Edward (1755–1840), and together they opened a print and bookseller’s shop in Fleet Street. Sylvester Harding exhibited at the FSA in 1776, from 5 George’s Court, Bennet Hill, Doctors’ Commons, and at the RA, 1777–1802, initially from 83 Fleet Street. He had married Sarah Perfect, a daughter of William Perfect, MD, of Kent; at the death of a son in 1796, he was noted as “an eminent portrait painter and engraver” (Gentleman’s Magazine). The business partnership with Edward Harding ended in 1797; Sylvester continued in business in Pall Mall. He died in Pall Mall, London, in 1809, said to be 64 years old.
(Jane Roberts, “Edward Harding and Queen Charlotte,” Diana Dethloff et al., eds., Burning Bright: Essays in Honour of David Bindman [UCL Press, 2015])

John/James Hardy

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 27 last Xmas; engraver (H390)

John Hardy (1752–active 1781). Engraver. Born Derbyshire, the son of William Hardy (d. 1765), miner and writer on mining, and his wife Mary (Allen). Redgrave notes a J. Hardy who was a portrait painter in London “toward the end of the 18^th century,” and Foskett a James and Jonathan Hardy active as miniature painters in the early nineteenth century. Alan Davison identifies him as John Hardy, the brother of Thomas Hardy who had registered as a student in 1778, although the family record states his birthdate as 24 January 1752, which conflicts with the register.
(Alan Davison, “New Light on the Painter and Engraver Thomas Hardy (1757–1804),” British Art Journal 12.1 [summer 2011]: 37-41)

Thomas Hardy

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 21 last June; painter (H333)

Thomas Hardy (1757–1804). Portrait painter. Born Derbyshire, the son of William Hardy (d. 1765), miner and writer on mining, and his wife Mary (Allen). Previously mistakenly identified with the political radical of the same name; Alan Davison has established his family background and career. He may have trained with Joseph Wright of Derby. He exhibited at the RA 1778–98, initially from Portland Street and in 1783 from Chatsworth, where he was working for the Duke of Devonshire, who may also have provided further support. His clientele included musicians as well as Derbyshire sitters. He died in Stafford in 1804. His widow, Ann, applied for the post of housekeeper at the RA. Farington noted that “he died aged 47 in consequence of a cold caught at the Academy while painting Copies of the King & Queen for Lawrence” (quoted Davison 38). Their sons Charles and John were students at the academy.
(Alan Davison, “New Light on the Painter and Engraver Thomas Hardy (1757–1804),” British Art Journal 12.1 [summer 2011]: 37-41)

John Harrison

Registered as a student 30 September 1777, aged 17, 12 December 1776; painter (H308)

John Harrison (1759–active 1794). Foskett suggests he is the miniature painter who exhibited at the RA 1784–93, initially from 3 New Ormond Street. He seems likely to be the John Harrison insured opposite the Windmill in Vauxhall Road, “painter,” in 1794 (LMA). The name is commonplace and it has not proved possible to identify him more fully.

Francis Haward

Registered as a student 25 March 1776, aged 17, 19th next April; engraver (H268) Marked as “dead” in the register

Francis Haward (1759–97). Engraver. Although the ODNB asserts that nothing is known of his family background, he must be the Francis Haward baptized at St. Mary, Lambeth, 27 April 1759, son of Searle Edward Haward and his wife Anne. His father was described as a “gentleman” in his will of 1767, and apparently owned property (National Archives, PROB 11/928). Francis Haward is named among their six children in the legal record of a later dispute over his father’s property (Morning Advertiser 21 January 1818). His widow, Mary Haward, received RA charity in 1799 (CM).

Henry Haworth

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 16, 14 September last; sculptor (H294)

Henry Haworth (1760–81). Woodcarver. The son of Samuel Haworth (d. 1779), who ran an extensive woodcarving business in Denmark Street, St. Giles in the Fields. He was appointed the resident woodcarver of the Carron Company of Scotland in 1779, but died young of pneumonia.

William Haworth

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 17, 21st June/76; sculptor (H295)

William Haworth (1759–1838). Woodcarver. The son of Samuel Haworth (d. 1779), who ran an extensive woodcarving business in Denmark Street, St. Giles in the Fields. He joined the RA schools on the same day as his brother, Henry. He exhibited at the RA in 1781, and took over from his brother as resident carver of the Carron Company of Scotland on the latter’s death in 1781. He remained at the company for the rest of his life.

Joseph Haynes

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 18, 23 last February; painter (H348)

Joseph Haynes (1761–1829). Printmaker and drawing master. Baptized at St. Mary, Shrewsbury, 20 February 1761, son of Thomas Haynes and his wife Margaret (Mills). The occupation of his father is not known; the poll book for Shrewsbury for 1796 includes a number of Hayneses, variously carpenters, laborers, and gardeners, as well as this Joseph Haynes, “artist.” He moved to London in his youth and studied under John Hamilton Mortimer, producing prints of his works after his death. According to the ODNB, “The later part of Haynes’s life was spent in Shrewsbury and Chester, working as a drawing-master, although it is reputed that he lived for a while in Jamaica.” He died in Chester in 1829, apparently unmarried, described as “Drawing Master” by his obituary writer, who suggests that he was sent to London to study under Mortimer by his “friends,” which implies a sponsorship arrangement (Gentleman’s Magazine [1830]: 379).

Guy Head

Registered as a student 8 April 1778, aged 16, 4 June next; painter (H324) Marked as “Decd” in the register

Guy Head (1762–1800). History painter and copyist. Born Carlisle, the son of Thomas Head, a butcher, and his wife, Isabella. He exhibited from “Mr Warwick’s, Snow Hill” at the SA in 1780, and at the RA 1779–80, “48 Snow Hill.” This must have been Guy Warwick, grocer, of Snow Hill, whose will was proved 1801 (National Archives, PROB 11/1358). He married, in 1781, Jane Lewthwaite, the daughter of a Carlisle businessman and an amateur artist. He went to Holland in 1786, with letters of introduction to the Hope family of merchants from Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Hopes supported Head in Italy, where he achieved academic success. He died shortly after returning to London in 1800.

M. Henard

Noted in CM, 1785

Charles Hénard (1757–active 1808). Miniature painter. Born Bourg-en-Bresse. A pupil of Taraval and a student at the Académie Royale in Paris, 1778. Noted in CM in March 1785: “Mons M Henard an eminent Artist a foreigner, having applied for leave to draw from the Plaister. Order’d, on the above account that the keeper permit him to draw from the Plaister only.” He exhibited at the RA in 1785, 1799, and 1800, and at the Paris Salon 1791–1808. Basil Long, cited by Foskett, gave the initial as “M,” which matches the record in the CM and the name as given at the RA exhibitions, but biographical sources identify him as Charles.

William Higgins

Registered as a student 29 October 1784, aged 25, 15 September last; painter (H457)Silver medal 1785

William Higgins (1761–active 1811?). Portrait painter. Waterhouse identifies him with the “W. Higgin” who exhibited a “Portrait of a lady” at the RA, 1786, from 11 Holborn Bars. Two portraits of members of the Agar family are in York Art Gallery, one dated 1808. Probably also the “W. Higgins” who exhibited a portrait at the RA in 1811, from 71 Newman Street.

William Hincks

Registered as a student 27 October 1780, aged 28; painter (H381)

William Hincks (1752–1808?). Irish-born painter in crayons, oils, and miniatures (Waterhouse), also an engraver. Reportedly the son of a blacksmith (Warburton, History of the City of Dublin [1818], quoted by Jeffares), although the earlier account from Pasquin states only that he was “born in Waterford, and apprenticed to a Blacksmith; this ingenious and indefatigable gentleman is self taught” (44). He exhibited in Dublin 1773–80 and married there. He exhibited at the RA 1781–97, initially from 16 Old Compton Street, Soho, and at the FSA in 1782. Hincks, “Miniature Painter and Engraver,” was a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; in 1787 he presented a portrait of its founder, William Shipley. Jeffares speculates that he may be the William Hincks recorded as being buried at St. Anne’s, Soho, in 1808.

Charles Howard Hodges

Registered as a student 8 March 1782, aged 17, 23 last July; engraver (H410) Silver medal 1784

Charles Howard Hodges (1764–1837). Portrait painter and mezzotint engraver. Born London, the son of the miniature painter Charles Hodges. He was trained by his father and at the age of 15 went to work in the studio of the printseller William Humphrey, a family friend; he was said to have spent time in Reynolds’s studio, and was also a pupil of John Raphael Smith, the mezzotint engraver. Exhibited at the SA in 1783, from 15 Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road. He married, in London in 1784, Margaret Harmar (b. 1759). After visiting the Netherlands in 1788, he and his family moved to The Hague in 1792; he became a citizen of The Hague in 1793 and joined the academy there. He established a successful career as a portrait painter in the Netherlands, moving to Amsterdam in 1797. He was also active as an art dealer. Failing eyesight and poor health forced his retirement from art, and he died in Amsterdam in 1837. “He was an admirable painter and engraver, and a man of most excellent private character” (Public Ledger 27 July 1837).
(A. C. A. W. Baron van der Felz, Charles Howard Hodges 1764–1837 [Assen, 1982])

James Hogg

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 19 last January 28; engraver (H371) Noted in the life school register 5 November 1790

James Hogg (1761–active 1793). Engraver. Said to be Scottish, presumably on the basis of his surname. Waterhouse identifies him with the “James Hog” who exhibited pastels at the FSA in 1773, when he was described as a pupil of the engraver James Caldwell. He is known from stipple engravings dating from 1785 to 1793, latterly published by him from 52 Berwick Street. Dodd notes: “A reputable engraver in the stipple method—We however have but very few examples of his practice” (BL Add. MS 33402, f. 30).

Peter Holland

Registered as a student 8 October 1779, aged 22, 1 March inst.; painter (H363) Silver medal 1781

Peter Holland (1757–1823). Portrait and landscape painter. Perhaps a member of the well-established Holland family who owned property in Cheshire and Lancashire; Peter was a favored name in that context. He exhibited at the RA in 1781–82, from “Mr Finney’s, 56 Frith Street, Soho.” This must be John Finney, dealer in turnery, who was insured at 57 Frith Street in 1806 (LMA). He married Elizabeth Chapman (1762–1837). Active in Liverpool from around 1784, exhibiting firstly from London (“Portrait of an Artist”). When he exhibited in London in 1793 it was from Liverpool. He was first vice-president of the Liverpool Academy in 1810. He exhibited in Liverpool until 1812. He died in Liverpool in 1823 and was buried at Holy Trinity, a gravestone providing details of his family (<http://​www.​findagrave.​com>). William Beulow Gould, born William Holland in Liverpool 1801 and transported 1827, has been identified as his son (Isabella Mead, “William Beulow Gould,” Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 93 [1959]).

John Hoppnar

Registered as a student 6 March 1775, aged 17, 25 April next; painter (H243) Silver medal 1778, Gold medal 1782
Noted in the life school register 21 October 1790
Marked as “dead” in the register

John Hoppner (1758–1810). Portrait painter. Born in London, perhaps at St. James’s Palace, the son of John Hoppner, a surgeon, and his wife Mary Anne, both German. In 1795 he told Farington of his background and progress: Hoppner told me, that His Father & Mother were Germans. His Father was a Surgeon. Hoppner was recommended to the King as a Lad of Genius, and the King had him placed to board with Mr Chamberlains family. Mr Chamberlain who is now in the Kings Library, and was one of the pages.—He was acquainted with Mrs Hoppner (the daugr. of Mrs Wright the modeller in wax), several years before they were married.—Hoppner has been married upwards of 12 years.—On his marriage being known, He recd. a message from the King that His Majestys allowance wd. be withdrawn. Hoppner was during several years subjected to great difficulties.—He had Lodgings, a two pair of stairs floor, in Cockspur street. When He took a House in Charles St., St. James’s Square, He painted three quarter portraits for 8 guineas a head. In this time He contracted a heavy debt, & had relatives besides his wife & children to provide for.—During some years while in Charles St. He did not get near £400 a year.—Lord Hampden, has been a continued friend.—He had bad health owing to a weakness of the bowels … Mrs Hoppner assisted in all her power to relieve him in his difficulties. She made herself his cloaths as well as those of the Children. (2: 286-87) He had married in 1781 Phoebe Wright, daughter of the wax sculptor Patience Wright and sister of fellow student Joseph Wright. He had begun exhibiting in 1780 and achieved success as a portrait painter, being seen as the successor to Reynolds. He was also active as an art critic. He suffered poor health in the 1800s and died in 1810.

Thomas/J. Horsley

Registered as a student 8 April 1778, aged 24, 2nd November next; painter (H325)

Horsley (1754–active 1778). Waterhouse conjectures that he may be the “Master Horsley” who exhibited at the FSA in 1774, from James Street, Covent Garden, although the age of this student based on that given in the register makes this unlikely. Foskett notes a T. J. Horsley who exhibited at the RA 1820–33.

Charles Horwell

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 23, 1 April/77; sculptor (H296) Silver medal 1784, Gold medal 1788
Noted in the life school register 1 October 1790
Marked as “dead” in the register

Charles Horwell (1754–1830). Sculptor. He was apprenticed to John Walsh (active 1757–77), statuary of St. George, Hanover Square, in 1776. He exhibited at the RA 1785–1807, initially from 3 Tottenham Court Road. He gave that address on winning a premium at the Society of Arts in 1788, and appeared as “statuary,” Store Street, Tottenham Court Road, in the Universal British Directory, 1791. Redgrave notes that after he exhibited a design for Nelson’s monument in 1807, “the trace of his art is lost.” He apparently came into money, for in 1815 “Charles Horwell, a sculptor” purchased a property in Hemel Hempstead for £650, which he bequeathed to Henry Horwell and Ann Woodward on his death in 1830; the legitimacy of the purchase was subsequently disputed in Rolls Court (Morning Post 27 April 1843).

Henry Hudson

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 18 next 26 March; engraver (H372)

Henry Hudson (1763–95). Mezzotint engraver and pastelist. He is likely the Henry Hudson, son of Henry Hudson and his wife Sarah of Gray’s Inn Lane, baptized at St. Andrew’s, Holborn, on 22 April 1763. The will of Henry Hudson of St. Andrew’s, Holborn, proved 1776, likely that of his father, provides no details as to occupation and refers to nieces but no son (National Archives, PROB 11/1025). Probably the Hudson who was an honorary exhibitor of a portrait at the RA in 1781. His published works in mezzotint date from 1782 to 1791, mainly reproducing works by contemporary artists. He moved to India around 1793, establishing his own printing press in Calcutta. A contemporary there referred to his success as an engraver, and that “he has also set out in painting small crayon portraits at sicca rupees 100 each, which are very clever, and I daresay he will do well” (Foster 50). However, he died of illness in India in July 1795.

Ralph Charles Hurter

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 13, 25 March inst.; painter (H391)

Charles Ralph Hurter (1768–active 1791). Miniature painter. The son of Johann Heinrich von Hurter (1734–99), born Schaffhausen, miniature and enamel painter who traveled extensively in Europe. J. H. Hurter was active in Bern 1768–70, and Charles Ralph Hurter was probably born there. The elder Hurter was based in England and exhibited as John Henry Hurter at the RA 1779–81, from 2 Tavistock Row, Covent Garden, and 53 Great Marlborough Street. Charles Hurter exhibited at the RA in 1787 and 1789, from 53 Great Marlborough Street.

James Irvine

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 20, 18 March last; painter (H297)

James Irvine (1759–1831). Painter and art dealer. Born in Scotland, 18 March 1759 (contrary to the register), the third son of Alexander Irvine, seventeenth Laird of Drum (1711–61), and his wife Mary (Ogilvie). He exhibited at the RA in 1787 and 1794, being based in Italy from 1791 and again 1797–98. He was initially ambitious as a history painter, described in 1786 as “a Painter, a young Scotsman, who has been here 7 years, a very decent modest young Man who seems to colour very well” (journal of Henry Quin, quoted in Ingamells). He became, however, primarily an art dealer of some prominence, returning to Italy again in 1800–06. He “married the widow of Manley, an artist, an Italian lady, by whom he had no issue” (Douglas Wimberley, A Short Account of the Family of Irvine of Drum [Inverness, 1893] 47). This artist must be George Manley (d. 1794), who had been in business as a picture dealer with Irvine in Rome (Ingamells).

Daniel Jenkins

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 24 last October; engraver (H349)

Daniel Jenkins (1754–active 1786?). Printmaker. Redgrave notes him as an engraver: “There are two plates by him of horse races, dated 1786.” He appears as one of the students sketched in an anonymous set of drawings of RA students dating from the late 1770s at the RA. He also produced a stipple of a nymph kneeling beside a pool, published by Thomas Macklin in 1781 (Dodd notes the print, misreading the engraver’s name as “D. Fenkins”; BL Add. MS 33400, f. 454).

George Francis Joseph

Registered as a student 3 December 1784, aged 20, 25 November last; engraver (H465) Gold medal 1792
Noted in the life school register 8 October 1790

George Francis Joseph (1764–1846). Portrait and history painter. Often said to have been born in Dublin, though the ODNB suggests he may have been the George Francis Joseph who was baptized on 16 December 1764 at St. Botolph Aldgate, London, the son of Thomas Joseph and his wife, Ann, of Red Lyon Alley, Minories, which is not unreasonable, given his stated birthdate in the register. He was a cousin of the sculptor Samuel Joseph. Waterhouse notes him as “mainly a rather dull portraitist.” He exhibited at the RA 1788–1846, initially from 27 Strand. Elected ARA 1813. He died in Cambridge in 1846.

Michael Kean

Registered as a student 29 October 1784, aged 23, 16 October last; painter (H458)

Michael Kean (1761–1823). Painter of portraits in crayon and miniatures. Born Dublin and trained at the Dublin schools, where he won a medal at the Dublin Society of Arts, and with a sculptor, E. Smith, before coming to London. Pasquin states that he studied under Benjamin West, but this may simply allude to his time at the RA schools. He exhibited at the RA 1786–90, from 20 Southampton Street, Bloomsbury, and 190 Piccadilly. He largely gave up painting on becoming a partner in the china factory at Derby with William Duesbury in 1795. He married Duesbury’s widow, Elizabeth, and was the dominant figure in the Derby porcelain factory until 1811.
(Gerald Pendred, “Michael Kean and the Duesbury Miniatures,” Derby Porcelain International Society 3 [1996]: 9-19)

Christopher Kinder

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 25, 2 November last; painter (H392) Entered as “Benjamin” in the register, altered to “Christopher”

Christopher Kinder (1754–1833). Coach painter and varnish maker. He seems certain to be the Christopher Kinder of 12 North Place who died in 1833, aged 79 (so born c. 1754), and was buried at St. Andrew’s, Holborn. The Kinders were coach painters in North Place, Gray’s Inn Lane. Christopher Kinder of King’s Mews, coach painter, took an apprentice in 1783. He was made free of the City of London by redemption of the Company of Painter Stainers in 1787. In 1790 he had insured properties at Liquorpond Road, King’s Mews (near Gray’s Inn Lane), and Little James Street (LMA). In his will he describes himself as a varnish maker (National Archives, PROB 11/1824). A range of his London properties, “producing 1000l. per annum,” was put up for auction by order of his executors and trustees in 1834 (Morning Post 24 June 1834).

George King

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 22, 30 last November; painter (H334)

George King (1756–active 1778). “Master King” exhibited sculptures and drawings at the FSA 1771–73, as “Mr King junr” in 1774, and “at Mr King’s, 54 Wells Street, Oxford Road” in 1775–76. A G. King exhibited “Portrait of a Gentleman” from Wells Street, Marylebone, in 1778. The BDSB notes him as the brother of William King, who exhibited sculpture at the FSA 1769–82, from 48 Wells Street, Oxford Street, and who is recorded as making a chimneypiece for the Earl of Coventry in 1797. These connections would surely point to a family background in the building trades, but such cannot currently be documented.

Thomas Kirk

Registered as a student 7 January 1784, aged 18, 17 last October; painter (H449) Marked as “Dd” in the register

Thomas Kirk (1765–97). Historical painter and illustrator. His family background has not been established. However, the Kirk who competed unsuccessfully to be the engraver of the dies for the RA’s medals in 1770 may be related (CM); this must be John Kirk (1724–76), medalist and gem engraver of St. Paul’s Churchyard. A pupil of Richard Cosway (Waterhouse). He exhibited at the RA 1785–96, firstly from 50 Berwick Street, Oxford Street. He achieved some brief prominence, but died of consumption in 1797; he must be the Thomas Kirk, aged 32, who was buried at St. Pancras Old Church in November 1797. Dayes says that “he passed like a meteor through the region of art.”

James Laboreau

Registered as a student 4 November 1774, aged 28; designer (H237)

James Laboreau (c. 1746–96). Pattern drawer. Presumably of French origin. Possibly connected with the Miss Labare or Labar who exhibited works in hair at the FSA 1766–83, from “Mrs Labare, 2 Nottingham Street, Mary Bone High Street” in 1783. He must be the James Laboreau, pattern drawer of St. Anne, Soho, whose will was proved 1796, benefiting his widow, Mary (Gordon) (National Archives, PROB 11/1277).

Thomas Langdon

Registered as a student 10 March 1783, aged 14, 6 last February; engraver (H432)

Thomas Langdon (1769–active 1802). Miniature painter and engraver. He must be the Thomas Langdon born 6 February 1769 and baptized 6 March 1769, St. Marylebone, son of William Langdon and his wife Margaret. His father is probably the William Langdon, hosier and mercer of 17 Vere Street, Oxford Street, who appears in Kent’s Directory, 1774. Exhibited at the RA 1785–1802, initially from 19 Vere Street, presumably his father’s Oxford Street address. He gave the Vere Street address when he won a prize at the Society of Arts in 1785. Foskett suggests he may be the T. Langdon who was active as a miniature painter in Bath 1809–22, with a wife who “taught painting on glass, velvet etc., and modelling in wax.”

Francis Legat

Registered as a student 1 April 1783, aged 22, 8 last March; engraver (H436) Noted in the life school register 6 December 1790

Francis Legat (1761–1809). Engraver. Born Scotland in March 1761. J. T. Smith recalled him as “a North Briton … educated at Edinburgh, under Alexander Runciman.” Other sources note him as a pupil of the engraver Andrew Bell in Edinburgh (Edinburgh Annual Register [1816]; Edinburgh Monthly Magazine [February 1821]). He told Smith in 1780 that he was 25, putting his birthdate back to 1755, contrary to the statement in the register. In London he first lived at Charles Street. Legat exhibited paintings at the RA in 1796 and 1800, from 11 Camden Town and 3 Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital. He was prominent as an engraver of historical subjects and was historical engraver to the Prince of Wales. His burial record from St. Pancras Old Church, April 1809, stated that he was 47 when he died, more in conformity with the RA register. Redgrave states he died in debt, “which a friend discharged.”

Nicholas Lemesle/Newton Lamech

Registered as a student 4 December 1775, aged 15, last 18th August; painter (H260)

His birthdate must be 18 August 1760. The discrepancy in the names given in the CM and register cannot be explained. Lemesle suggests a French Huguenot origin, but he has not been further identified.

Richard Livesay

Registered as a student 21 March 1774, aged 23, 8 last December/73; designer (H230)

Richard Livesay (1750–1826). Miniature painter, drawing master, and engraver. He exhibited at the RA 1776–1821, firstly from “Mr Spilsbury’s, Tavistock Street,” suggesting he was a student of Jonathan Spilsbury, then from Mrs. Hogarth’s house, Leicester Fields (to 1785). He did copies and engravings after Hogarth. A pupil and assistant of Benjamin West, moving to Windsor to work for him c. 1790. He taught drawing to some of the royal children c. 1790–93. He was drawing master at the Royal Naval College at Portsea from 1796. He received charity from the RA in 1820 (CM) and applied to the AGBI, described as of Ryde, Isle of Wight: An Artist once in a respectable station of Society and now oppressed by two great Evils, Old Age & Poverty; being reduced to great distress in the 70^th year of his Age, and now (the 12^th of July) under confinement at the suit of an Angry Creditor and obliged to hope for Liberty only by the benevolence of the Law for the relief of Insolvents. The produce of his professional exertions are also diminished to such a degree as to afford at best but scanty provision when he gets his liberty; so that his future prospects are as gloomy as his present situation is distressing. (AGBI Applicants’ Book) He was given a donation of £20 in 1820. He is said to have died in Hampshire in 1826. His will, dated 1826, stated he was an artist, Harrington Street, Bath, and benefited his nephew in Portsmouth, John Livesay; this was filed in 1831 (National Archives, PROB 22/46).

William Lock

Attended the life academy c. 1785–87?

William Lock (1767–1847). Amateur artist. Son of the collector and patron William Lock, Esq. (1732–1810), of Norbury Park, Surrey, and his wife Frederica Augusta (Schaub; 1750–1832). His father inherited wealth from William Lock, MP (d. 1761), who is taken to be his natural father, and was prominent as a collector of antiquities and patron of art. The younger Lock was educated at the Rev. William Gilpin’s school at Cheam. His upbringing therefore gave him hugely privileged access to influential artists and writers on art. His entry to the RA schools presumably rested on these influential connections, for he was not enrolled as a probationer. Instead, the council noted on 7 March 1785 only “that Mr Lock Junr be allowed to draw after the Female Model.” This was an exception in several respects, as not only was he not a student, he was also unmarried and under the age of 20. He appears to have studied at the academy for short periods, for in 1787 he was again heading to London for a week in order to visit the schools; his father, who generally encouraged him in his art, considered this unnecessary and they argued: “Tis a whim of William’s, but when they are young they will have their whims” (Duchess of Sermoneta, The Locks of Norbury [London, 1940] 35). Lock was actively encouraged by Henry Fuseli, a friend of his father’s; as professor of painting at the academy, Fuseli dedicated his published Lectures (1801) to the son. Lock traveled to Rome in 1789 and married Elizabeth Jennings, daughter of the collector John Constantine Jennings, in 1800. He paid little attention to Norbury Park, and went on in 1819 to sell it. After that date he mainly traveled, notably to Italy and France. He died in London in 1847, “of the prevailing influenza” (Sussex Advertiser 21 December 1847).

Wilson Lowry

Attended the schools c. 1778?

Wilson Lowry (1760–1824). Engraver. Born in Whitehaven, Cumberland, the son of Strickland Lowry (1737–80/85), portrait and landscape painter, and his wife Sarah (Watson). His father worked in Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Ireland, and Wilson Lowry worked with a housepainter in Warwickshire and in London and Sussex before settling with the family in Worcester, where he worked for a local engraver called Ross. At the age of 18 he returned to London, where he worked for the publisher John Boydell. “Though he never formally enrolled as a student, it is said that he took drawing lessons in the Royal Academy Schools and was taught perspective by Thomas Malton the elder” (ODNB). This would presumably have been around 1778. In the later 1780s he spent four years training as a surgeon, but returned to engraving and worked for a number of leading engravers. He established a particular reputation for illustrating architecture and mechanism. He was responsible for several technical innovations in printmaking and took a serious interest in science. He married twice, and although professionally successful he suffered ill health and poverty late in life, becoming dependent on the Artists’ Annuity Fund. He died in London in 1824.

William Lyford

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 26 next September; painter (H373)

William Lyford (1755–1830). Drawing master. Probably the William Lyford, son of Richard Lyford and his wife Elizabeth, baptized at St. Martin in the Fields, 5 October 1755. His father is likely the Richard Lyford of 24 Strand listed as a leatherseller in Kent’s Directory, 1774, and the individual of that name insured at 463 Strand as a leatherseller, 1781 (LMA), and entered in the poll books to 1784 (London Lives). William Lyford exhibited London views at the RA 1784–89, from 463 Strand, and as honorary from 1787. William Lyford, drawing master, was insured at 463 Strand in 1791–92 (LMA). Probably the William Lyford of a corresponding age who was buried at St. Martin in the Fields, 1830.

Richard Mabbet

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 19, 2 March 1779; painter (H350)

Richard Mabbet (1760–active 1781). Miniature painter. Perhaps the Richard Mabbet, son of Richard Mabbet and his wife Jane, baptized at Newland, Gloucestershire, 9 March 1760. His family background has not been further established, although it seems likely that his father is the “late Richard Mabbet, Esq. Of Colford” whose daughter married in Bicknor in 1798, suggesting some degree of gentility (Gloucester Journal 20 August 1798). He exhibited at the RA 1780–81, from 24 Villiers Street, Strand. A dated miniature by him is in the National Maritime Museum. Foskett reports that “[Basil] Long saw two examples of his work which he did not consider very good; they were almost in monochrome.”

William Macaulay

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 24 last August; painter (H275)

William Macaulay (1752–active 1776). Not identified.

Robert Makepeace

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 19, 11 last July; painter (H374)

Robert Makepeace (1761–1827). Goldsmith. Very likely the Robert Makepeace baptized 2 August 1761 at St. Anne and St. Agnes, City of London, the son of Robert Makepeace and his wife Margaret. His father was a goldsmith, first based in Newcastle until around 1755. “Robert Makepeace Son of Robert Makepeace of Serle Street Lincolns Inn Fields County of Middlesex Goldsmith Citizen and goldsmith of London” was apprenticed to his father in 1776. The younger Robert Makepeace, goldsmith, first entered his name as plate-worker in partnership with Richard Carter in 1777. The Serle Street address was insured by “Robert Makepeace junior” in 1791 (LMA); his father, “Gentleman” of Serle Street, died in 1801 (National Archives, PROB 11/1352). He was the Robert Makepeace of Lincoln’s Inn Fields who was buried in Highgate, December 1827, aged 67. His will, identifying him as “Goldsmith,” was proved 1828. The firm continued after his death.

Robert Marcuard

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 18, 25 December last; engraver (H298)

Robert Samuel Marcuard (1758–92). Engraver. Although the name suggests a French origin, he has been identified as “an Englishman … esteemed one of Bartolozzi’s best scholars” (Tuer 2: 52). He practiced in mezzotint and stipple. There are several Marcuards in records from the late eighteenth century. Daniel Augustin Marcuard married Julie Fornered at St. Botolph-without-Bishopsgate in January 1757, and is very likely to be this student’s father, given the dates. An M. C. Marcuard was recorded as a ratepayer in Newman Street in 1791 (London Lives).

William McKenzie

Registered as a student 21 June 1781, aged 16, 7 August 1781; engraver (H399)

William McKenzie (1765–c. 1837). He must be the William McKenzie born Upper Mount Street, St. George’s, Hanover Square, 7 August 1765, and baptized 16 August 1765 at the nonconformist Scotch Church, Swallow Street, the son of Roderick McKenzie and his wife Charles [sic]. A younger brother, George, was baptized at the same place in 1767, his parents’ address then given as King Street. His father was, then, very likely the Roderick McKenzie who appeared as a wine merchant at King Street, St. James, in 1788, and who had married Charles Clark in Edinburgh in 1751. The BM records a William McKenzie active as a print publisher until the 1840s in “Glasgow, Edinburgh, London & New York,” who may be a relative. McEwan identifies him with the miniature painter of this name who was working in Edinburgh in 1820 and exhibited in Scotland 1832–37.

Robert Mitchell Meadows

Registered as a student 7 January 1784, aged 20, 26 last November; engraver (H446)

Robert Mitchell Meadows (1763–before 1812). Engraver. Said to have been born Cardigan, Wales (BM), but his family background has not been established. He married, in 1793, Mary Ogborne, at the Parish Chapel, St. Pancras; she is possibly the engraver and sister of the engraver John Ogborne, who was a student registered in 1776. Both Ogborne and Robert Meadows were pupils of Joseph Strutt (Strutt 73). Engraved for Boydell and published in 1809 lectures on engraving. Foskett says he “may possibly have painted miniatures” as well as engraving. Redgrave states he died before 1812.
(William Strutt, A Memoir of the Life of Joseph Strutt, 1749–1802 [London, 1896])

Thomas Medland

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 18, 7 March inst.; painter (H299)

Thomas Medland (1759–1833). Engraver and draftsman. “Of unknown parentage” (ODNB). He is possibly the Thomas Medland baptized 5 April 1759 at Wolborough and Newton Abbot, Devon, the son of William Medland. Several Medlands are recorded at Hatherleigh, Devon, in the late eighteenth century, including bakers and thatchers, and it seems likely that this provides his family background. He did much topographical work and exhibited at the RA 1777–1822, initially from Old Palace Yard, Westminster. He became the drawing master of the East India Company’s Hailsbury College, Hertford, on its foundation in 1806, and remained there until his death in 1833.

John Minnitt

Registered as a student 8 April 1778, aged 22, 11 April 78; painter (H326)

John Minnitt (1756–1823). Painter and glazier. The son of John Minnitt of Hanover Square, Westminster, gardener. He was apprenticed in 1770 to the coach painter Thomas Maxfield, citizen and painter stainer. John Minnett or Minnitt, painter and glazier, was insured at 35 Dartmouth Street, Westminster, in 1806 (LMA), and appears in building records for several London developments (Survey of London). The J. Minnett who exhibited a London view in 1811 from 13 Stargate Walk, Lambeth, may have been this artist or a relative. The will of John Minnitt, painter and glazier of Dartmouth Street, Westminster, was proved May 1823 (National Archives, PROB 11/1670).

Alexander Monies

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 15, 27 January 1779; painter (H335)Silver medal 1784

Alexander Monies (1764–active 1809). Portrait painter. He won a premium at the Society of Arts for a drawing of Venus in 1776. An “A. H. Monies” exhibited portraits at the RA 1797–1809, initially from 29 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.

James Moore

Registered as a student 31 December 1777, aged 19, 12 last June; painter (H314)

James Moore (1758–99). Wholesale linen draper and antiquary. Probably the son or otherwise closely related to Francis Moore, linen draper and warehouseman at Cheapside, who appeared in Kent’s Directory, 1774. Very likely the “Master James Moor” who exhibited drawings and paintings at the FSA 1771–74 and perhaps the “Mr Moore,” 48 Widegate Street, Whitechapel, who exhibited a view in 1783. An honorary exhibitor of the same name appeared at the SA in 1790–91, and these may all be identified with James Moore (1762–99), a wealthy wholesale linen draper based in Cheapside, who was also an amateur antiquary and draftsman. The date of birth generally given, 1762, is based on Bell’s statement of “family records” (47). He traveled extensively in Britain 1784–95, collaborating with Thomas Girtin in the 1790s and publishing in 1792 Monastic Remains and Ancient Castles in England and Wales. He had married, in 1786, Mary Howett, and died in May 1799. His family background is not much established, although the obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine refers to his father as “the late Mr Moore of mechanical memory,” which suggests he was an inventor of some kind.
(C. F. Bell, “Fresh Light on Some Water-Colour Painters of the Old British School, Derived from the Collection and Papers of James Moore, FSA,” Volume of the Walpole Society 5 [1915–16 and 1916–17]: 47-83)

George Charles Moreland

Registered as a student 7 January 1784, aged 21, 26 last May; painter (H450)

George Morland (1763–1804). Landscape and genre painter. Born London, the son of Henry Robert Morland (c. 1719–97), painter of portraits and fancy pictures. He was trained by his father and started exhibiting as early as 1773. He lodged with William Ward, marrying his sister, Anne Ward, in September 1786; Ward married Morland’s sister, Anne, in October. He went on to achieve commercial and critical success as a painter of rural life, although also gaining a reputation for unreliability and alcoholism. He suffered financial problems from the late 1780s, was under suspicion of forgery at one point, and was arrested on suspicion of being a spy in 1799. He continued to exhibit until his death in 1804, being arrested once again for debt a few days before his demise. After his death there was a proliferation of biographies and accounts of the artist.
(George Morland: Art, Traffic and Society in Late Eighteenth Century England, exhibition catalogue, Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery [University of Leeds, 2015], with references to earlier literature)

George Mortimer

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 14, 13 June last; painter (H336)

George Mortimer (1764–active 1778). Not identified. Despite the discrepancy in the year of birth, he is possibly the George Mortimer born 11 June 1765 and baptized 13 June 1765 at the British Lying-In Hospital, Holborn, the son of Joseph Mortimer, peruke-maker, and his wife Elizabeth.

Richard Mortimer

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 23 last October; painter (H393)

Richard Mortimer (1757–active 1782?). Not identified. Perhaps the “Mortimer” who exhibited at the FSA 1778–82 from 16 Marybone Street, Golden Square. Thomas Mortimer, tailor, was later (1808) insured at Golden Square (LMA), but there is no evidence to connect them.

Munton

Noted in CM, 1775

Noted in CM 4 December 1775, at the admission of new students, “that Mr Munton be desired to draw another Figure.” He is not otherwise noted as a student or artist.

John Murphy

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 23, 25 last November; engraver (H352)

John Murphy (1753–c. 1820). Printmaker and print publisher. Apparently born in Ireland, but according to the ODNB “nothing is known about him until 1778, when his career in London commenced.” He lived in Air Street, Piccadilly, at the house of the bookseller Patrick Keating, until 1788, but subsequently moved to Warwick Street, Golden Square, and Paddington Green, producing and publishing mezzotints independently. He was still noted as active in 1820 (Annals).

Henry Mutlow

Registered as a student 31 December 1777, aged 21, 29 last November; engraver (H315)

Henry Mutlow (1756–1827). Engraver and printer. Born Clerkenwell, so perhaps connected with the James Mutlow of St. John’s Street, Clerkenwell, who appeared as a witness at the Old Bailey in 1801. Apprenticed to the William Darling, “Engraver,” St. Martin in the Fields, in May 1771. In partnership with Thomas Jones Woodman in the 1780s; Woodman had been apprenticed to Thomas Dent, engraver of Allhallows Lombard Street, in 1772 (ROLLCO). A press notice in 1785 announces that “Woodman and Mutlow, engravers, map and print-sellers, respectfully inform the nobility, gentry and publick in general, that they have succeeded Mr. Ashby in that well established shop, formerly Mr. Spilsbury’s, No. 30, Russell-court, Covent-garden” (Daily Advertiser 3 January 1785). His trade card (BM) describes “H. Mutlow & Son, Engravers &c. to His Majesty … Arms Found, Printed on Velum & Engraved on Stone, Steel & Silver medal. Visiting Cards, Book Plates &c.” Presumably the “Mutlow head Shopman to Cadell and Davies,” the publishing firm, noted by Farington in 1819 (15: 5357). He had engraved maps for Cadell and Davies and was noted by Dodd as “an engraver of mediocre talent, whose productions consist chiefly of Book plates, for various common publications” (BL Add. MS 33403, f. 115). His eldest son died as a schoolboy in a horrific accident involving a “hogshead of sugar unloaded from a cart” (Reading Mercury 18 December 1797). This may be the Henry Mutlow, son of Henry Mutlow and his wife Sarah, baptized at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, in 1787. Henry Mutlow & Son was listed for 3 York Street, Covent Garden, in 1819 (PO Directory). He died in 1827, said to be 70 years old (Hereford Journal 17 January 1827); his will benefited his widow, Anne (Barrington), and an infant son, Henry (National Archives, PROB 11/1727). This youngest Henry Mutlow had been born in 1817 and baptized at St. Pancras (the father’s occupation stated as “Engraver”).

John Ogborne

Registered as a student 25 November 1776, aged 21, 22nd last July; engraver (H282)

John Ogborne (1755–1837). Engraver. Born Chelmsford, Essex, the son of David Ogborne (active 1740–d. 1800/01), engraver and print publisher, and his wife Ruth (Howe). His father had a local reputation as an artist and also wrote poetry and plays. John Ogborne was apprenticed to William Wynne Ryland in London and went on to become his assistant. Also noted as being a pupil of Bartolozzi, although this was refuted by William Strutt, who said that he was a pupil of his father, Joseph Strutt (Strutt 74). He exhibited at the RA in 1785, from 58 Tottenham Court Road. He married, probably in 1790, Elizabeth Jackson. His sister Mary Ogborne (b. 1764) was also a printmaker and married Robert Meadows, a fellow student and also a pupil of Strutt; John Ogborne engraved a portrait of Strutt. He still exhibited in 1828 and 1837, but applied to the AGBI in 1835, stating his age as 80, “incapable of following his profession from a nervous affection of the head”; he was granted £20 (AGBI Applicants’ Book). He died in 1837, his widow receiving further support from the AGBI.
(William Strutt, A Memoir of the Life of Joseph Strutt, 1749–1802 [London, 1896])

Daniel Orme

Registered as a student 7 March 1785, aged 18, 25 last August; engraver (H468)

Daniel Orme (1766–1837). Miniature painter and engraver. Born Manchester, the son of Aaron Orme (1707–82), fustian manufacturer, and his third wife, Margaret (Walmsley; baptized 1739–d. 1808). Exhibited as a portraitist in miniatures, but mainly occupied as an engraver. He married, in 1787, Ann Barr. He exhibited at the RA 1797–1801, but continued to produce and engrave his own works. He worked closely with Mather Brown, a fellow student, embarking in the 1790s on a project to publish and exhibit scenes from naval history. He was appointed engraver to George III. Returned to Manchester after 1814, where he continued to practice as an artist and taught art. His brother Edward Orme was an artist and publisher; another brother, William Orme (1771–1854), a painter.

Peter Paillou

Registered as a student 29 October 1784, aged 27, 1 December; painter (H459)

Peter Paillou, Jr. (1757–1835). Miniature painter. Son of Peter Paillou (active 1724–84), bird painter, who exhibited at the FSA in 1763 and the SA in 1778, from Paradise Row, Islington (see Christine E. Jackson, Dictionary of Bird Artists of the World [Woodbridge, 1999]). Peter Paillou, Jr., exhibited at the RA 1786–1800, initially from 9 White Lion Row, Islington. Latterly based in Scotland, where he advertised as a portrait painter in Glasgow in 1803, stating that he “has had nearly twenty years practice in London” (Glasgow Courier 23 April 1803). He appears in commercial listings for Glasgow from at least 1813–30. The will of Peter Paillou, Glasgow, was proved 1835, suggesting a slightly later death date than usually stated (National Archives, PROB 11/1852).

William Palmer

Registered as a student 10 October 1783, aged 19, 18 last November; painter (H438)Silver medal 1785

William Palmer (1763–90). Portrait painter. Born Limerick, the son of Alexander Palmer, a linen draper (Strickland). Studied in Dublin before moving to London, where he became a pupil of Reynolds. He exhibited pastel portraits at the RA 1784–88, from 14 Mercer Street, Long Acre, and 23 Great Queen Street. He returned to Limerick after 1788 and died in Ireland. The honorary exhibitor at the RA of this name noted by Graves as exhibiting in 1792 and 1796 must be another individual.

Thomas Park

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 17, 24 inst.; engraver (H300) Noted in the life school register 21 February 1799

Thomas Park (1758/59–1834). Mezzotint engraver, antiquary, and bibliographer. Born in East Acton, Middlesex. The family background is not clear, although it was clearly sufficiently affluent to, apparently, send Park to a grammar school in Durham (although his name is not included in T. H. Burbidge, Durham School Register, 3rd ed. [Cambridge, 1940]), and East Acton was a rural setting favored by professional and military men. His biographer states that his parents lived in East Acton “in lowly and peaceful retirement,” his father having “raised himself by honest industry to a position in which he was able to live with comfort” (Robert C. Jenkins, The Last Gleanings of a Christian Life: An Outline of the Life of Thomas Park, FSA [London, 1885] 8-9). His father seems likely to be John Park of Acton, whose son, Thomas Park, was appointed executor and beneficiary of his will, proved in 1786; the will refers to an unspecified sum in shares and £50 bequeathed to his son, but also details a life of comfort, including furniture, silver medal, and a portrait by “Stewart” (National Archives, PROB 11/1146). “He was brought up as an engraver, and in the late 1780s produced several mezzotint portraits” (ODNB). Presumably the T. Park who exhibited architectural designs at the RA 1780–81, from 14 Garlick Lane, Bow Hill, Cheapside. He married, in 1787, Maria Hester Reynolds. In the 1790s he focused on literary pursuits, writing poetry and becoming an editor. He died in Hampstead in 1834 and was buried in Acton, with his parents. His Sonnets and Other Small Poems (1797) included an epitaph to his parents, from “A Grave Stone in Acton Church Yard.”

James Parker

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 23 last September; engraver (H376)

James Parker (1756–1805). Engraver and print publisher. Born in St. Mary-le-Strand, London, the son of Paul Parker, a corn-chandler. He was apprenticed to the engraver James Basire (1730–1802) in 1773 (ROLLCO). Exhibited at the FSA and SA in 1783, from 19 Little Drury Lane. Partner of William Blake in a short-lived print shop in 1784, which did not flourish. He died suddenly in London in 1805, having achieved moderate success as a print publisher.

Christopher Parks

Registered as a student 2 April 1782 (CM only) (H417)

Faithful Christopher Pack (1760–1840). Artist and drawing teacher. Born in Norwich, the son of a Quaker merchant. According to Pasquin, “His father was the lineal descendant of Sir Robert Pack, Bart who made himself conspicuous in the reign of Charles I and was a merchant in that city [Norwich]; but having entered into partnership with men, who, under the cloak of puritanical sanctity, concealed the basest designs, he found himself in a short time plundered of his property” (52). He first worked for his father in business, but took an interest in art: The duty he owed to the inclinations of his parents, for some years overbalanced his natural propensity; but the repeated losses his father sustained, and the stagnation put to their trade by the American war, determined him to abandon it, and pursue painting as a profession. (Pasquin 53) He moved to London in 1781 to pursue art, supposedly becoming a pupil of Reynolds. Although he is not previously noted as having attended the RA schools, this reference would appear to be to him. In a letter written in 1824, he claimed that he spent two years with Reynolds from the age of 16, but his “intensity of application to study—not only of Painting but Surgery and Physic so impaired [his] constitution that a removal to the country was deemed necessary” (quoted by Jeffares). He was in Liverpool 1783–87, exhibiting there in 1784, but returned to London before embarking for Dublin in 1789. Reynolds wrote to his Liverpool friend William Roscoe in 1784, stating that Mr Pack called on me a few days since to desire I would lend him a picture to copy for his improvement; about three or four years ago I lent him many for that purpose, and he used to bring me his works from the life, in order to be told their faults, as he was only one of many that did the same, I did not recollect the name, nor am I sure I ever knew it. If all those whom I have endeavoured to help forward by lending them pictures and telling them their faults should do me the honour of calling themselves my scholars, I should have the greatest school that any Painter had. (John Ingamells and John Edgcumbe, eds., The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds [New Haven, 2000] 135) He advertised in Dublin in 1790, “Mr Pack, Historical, Portrait, and Landscape Painter, from the Royal Academy, London” (Dublin Evening Post 11 March 1790). He was mainly based in Dublin until around 1820, lecturing on art and teaching, as well as practicing as a painter. His fortunes declined in later years. He applied to the AGBI in 1834: Portrait & Landscape Painter, that he had the high honor & privilege of being instructed in the Art of Painting by the late Sir Jos Reynolds, that in 1784 he visited Liverpool and in conjunction with the late Mr Roscoe & others established an Academy for the Study of Fine Arts & there commenced Lecturer on Painting, returning to London he gave Lectures in the Adelphi on Painting where he first promulgated the doctrine of universal Harmony. That 1787 he went to Dublin to form a Royal Academy, which was retarded by the Death of the Duke of Rutland the viceroy where he enjoyed a high rank in his profession, but a domestic Calamity obliged him to leave all & return to England, where as an artist he is almost unknown & unemployed, having been deprived of the Property he had saved, is now in debt for Rents & Taxes & expects his Chattels will be seized. He was granted £15, and another £12 in 1835. He continued exhibiting until the year of his death, 1840. His will referred to his wife (who had, however, died by the date the will was proved) and a daughter, and property in Dublin (National Archives, PROB 11/1944).

Charles Patterson

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 16 last May; painter (H276)

Charles Patterson (1760–active 1776). Not identified. He may be a brother of Samuel Patterson, who registered at the schools in 1784. His family background has not been established.

Samuel Patterson/Paterson

Registered as a student 12 November 1784, aged 19, 16 November/84; painter (H463)

Samuel Patterson (1765–active 1789). Waterhouse notes he exhibited a “Portrait of an Artist” at the RA in 1789, from the Sun Fire Office (Bank Street in the City of London), “which suggests his later profession.” He may be connected to the John Paterson who was clerk at the Sun Fire Office in 1795, when he was the victim of a pickpocket (Old Bailey). He may be a brother of Charles Patterson, who had registered at the schools in 1776. The family background of the brothers (if that is what they are) has not been established.

Charles Peart

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 21, 22 last December; sculptor (H394) Gold medal 1782

Charles Peart (1759–98). Sculptor. Said to be born at English Newton, Monmouth, but his family background is not documented. However, it seems likely he is connected with the Peart who was a Huguenot goldsmith active in London by the 1740s (Tessa Murdoch, “Second Generation Huguenot Craftsmen in London: From the ‘Warning Carriers’ Walks’ 1744,” Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland 26.2 [1995]) and the John Peart (active 1742–97), upholder of London, noted by Beard & Gilbert. He exhibited at the RA 1778–98, initially from “Mr Abington’s, Paulin Street, Hanover Square.” He worked for Wedgwood as well as producing his own work, and secured a monumental commission connected with the East India Company through his wife, Elizabeth, whose sister’s husband worked for the company. He died in 1798, leaving a widow and child, Farington noting that he was “much in arrears in the parish of St. Pancrass having rec’d money as Parish Officer” (BDSB). Mrs. Elizabeth Peart, who must be his widow, received RA charity in 1799 (CM).

Frederick Plowman

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 21 next November; painter (H377)

Frederick Prussia Plowman (1760–1820). Miniature painter, pastelist, and portrait painter. Born in John’s-Lane, Dublin, according to Pasquin (18). Jeffares suggests he may be the Frederick Plowman baptized at St. John’s, Dublin, on 27 October 1756, son of Joseph Plowman and his wife Jane (Dobbins), while also noting the discrepancy in birthdate with the register. His family background has not been further established. He appeared as an exhibitor in Dublin in 1773, from Winetavern Street. He studied at the Dublin Society schools, winning prizes there in 1776 and 1779. He was in Dublin again in 1781 and seems to have retired long before his death in Marino, Co. Down, in 1820 (Strickland).

Thomas Proctor

Registered as a student 30 September 1777, aged 24, 22 April last; painter (H309) Silver medal 1782, 1783, Gold medal 1784
Noted in the life school register 26 November 1790
Rome Prize 1794 (“Dy’d. when preparing to go”)

Thomas Procter (1753–94). Sculptor and history painter. Born at Settle, Yorkshire, the son of an innkeeper who ran the Spread Eagle in the village and owned property locally. Educated at Giggleswick Grammar School and had jobs at a tobacconist in Manchester and as a clerk in London before embarking on an artistic career in 1776. The shift was probably prompted by the death of his father in 1776, which provided him with funds and property. He exhibited at the SA 1780 and 1790, and at the FSA 1780. Exhibited at the RA 1780–94, initially from “Settle or 8 New Inn.” Widely acclaimed as a painter and modeler of rigorously high-minded subjects, he died shortly before leaving for Italy, having been awarded the Rome Prize at the academy. The circumstances of his death were immediately romanticized, but his family background appears to have been reasonably comfortable and it seems unlikely that he was anywhere near as desperate as was made out. Nonetheless, his memory was kept alive for the following generations, and his biography appears in several widely circulated collections and histories.
(Martin Myrone, “‘The Chatterton of Sculpture’: Thomas Procter and the Martyrology of the British School,” Jason Edwards and Sarah Burnage, eds., The British School of Sculpture, c. 1760–1832 [London, 2017] 146-62)

George Purdon

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 17, 25 last May; painter (H277)

George Purdon (1759–active 1777). Portrait painter. Probably the George Purdon baptized 3 June 1759 at St. Peter le Poer, City of London, the son of Thomas Purdon and his wife Elizabeth. His father’s occupation has not been established, but he may be the Thomas Purdon, salesman, who died in 1772, said initially to be worth £40,000 (the report was corrected in the Daily Advertiser 28 October 1772: “His Circumstances were very far from being affluent; and it is suspected that the Report was raised to prejudice the Publick against salesmen in general”). George Purdon was formally apprenticed to William Burgess, “Drawingmaster,” St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, in 1772 (National Archives, IR 1/27). He exhibited as “Master George Purdon” at the FSA 1772–75, giving his address as “at Mr Burgess’s Drawing Academy, 33 Maiden Lane,” and exhibited at the SA in 1777.

John Pye

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 31 this March; engraver (H301)

John Pye (1746–active 1789). Engraver. Quite possibly the John Pye, son of Richard Pye, reed-maker, and his wife Elizabeth (Sibley), born Paternoster Row, City of London, 12 March 1745/46, his birth registered as a protestant dissenter, 1760. A “Richard Pye esq” died in Islington, 1768, but it has not proved possible to connect them (St. James’s Chronicle 24 November 1768). Apprenticed to Thomas Major, engraver, St. Martin in the Fields, in 1760 (National Archives, IR 1/22). Exhibited at the SA in 1769–73, “at Mr Birk’s, Sadler, Little Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields” and “at Mr Edwards, Duke Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,” then from City addresses in 1772–73.

Thomas Pye

Registered as a student 16 June 1775, aged 19, 29 next July; painter (H254)

Thomas Pye (1756–active 1797). Portrait painter and copyist. Born in Ireland, his family background unknown, and studied at the Dublin Society schools 1770–74. He exhibited as an honorary in Dublin in 1773, noted as a pupil of Robert West. He exhibited at the SA in 1774–75 and at the RA in 1776, giving his address as “Mr Dowling’s, New Court, Temple Bar.” He subsequently moved to Italy, where he was based 1781–97: he was “a painter of modest ability, whose work in Italy was principally confined to making copies” (Ingamells).

Keith Ralph

Registered as a student 4 December 1775, aged 23 last Sept.; painter (H262)

George Keith Ralph (1752–active 1811). Portrait painter. His family background has not been established. He exhibited at the RA 1778–1811, initially from 15 Orange Street, Leicester Fields. Exhibited at the SA in 1790, from 100 St. Martin’s Lane. Based at Bury St. Edmunds later in life. He was appointed “Portrait Painter to the Duke of Clarence” in 1792 (Morning Chronicle 5 May 1792). He became a freemason, joining the Lodge of Concord in 1795, stating his occupation as portrait painter, Carlisle Street, Soho, and age as 40. According to the ODNB, “His work is competent and straightforwardly painted, but lacks distinction,” and he was last recorded in Covent Garden, in 1811.

John Henry Ramberg

Registered as a student 7 December 1781, aged 18 last November; painter (H404) Silver medal 1784

Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1763–1840). Subject painter and engraver. Born Hanover, son of Johann Daniel Ramberg (1732–1820), the war secretary to the electorate and “lover of art” (ODNB), and Sophie (Gerstenberg; 1739–1811). He trained in Germany. Came to England at the invitation of George III in 1781. “London ist in der Tat ein ungeheurer Orth. Ich glaube das hier mehr Kutschen als Leute in Hannover sind, den alle Strassen wimmeln davon, und alles reitet Frauens- und Masleute” (Johann Heinrich Ramberg 1763–Hannover–1840 [Historisches Museum Hannover, 1998] 17). He exhibited at the RA 1781–88, initially from 19 Eaton Street, Pimlico. He became a pupil of Benjamin West, but left England in 1788. He was appointed electoral court painter in Hanover, and died in Germany in 1840.

Francesco Renaldi

Registered as a student 4 October 1776, aged 21 last January; painter (H278)

Francesco Renaldi (1755–1800). Born in Piedmont, Italy, perhaps from a family of bakers. He exhibited at the RA in 1777, from “Mr Negri’s, Queen Street, Berkeley Square,” the well-known confectioner. He was in Italy in 1781, where he was a friend of the landscape painter Thomas Jones. He was based in India 1786–96, apparently successful as a portrait painter, after which he returned to London. He last exhibited in 1798. He seems certain to be the Francis Renaldi who was recorded as a taxpayer in London in 1799; Francis Renaldi, Esq., “a native of Piedmont, but residing at Cheltenham,” died in 1800, his will referring to substantial wealth in excess of £6000, benefiting relatives in Italy, to the widow of his late uncle Francis Negri, and to his cousin Francis Negri, who was bequeathed “several trunks of books paintings clothes” still in Berkeley Square, London (National Archives, PROB 11/1351). A death notice also identified him as Piedmontese (Whitehall Evening Post 12-14 June 1800). The will also mentioned brothers in Italy who were bakers, which may point to the family trade. Given the connections with the Negri family, Renaldi may be the student labeled “Mr Negri” in Rowlandson’s drawing A Bench of Artists (Tate), a figure who has otherwise resisted identification.

William Ridley

Registered as a student 14 October 1785, aged 19, 16 April last; engraver (H474)

William Ridley (1766–1838). Engraver. He is possibly the William Ridley, son of William Ridley, yeoman of Giltspur Street, who was apprenticed to John Robins, goldsmith of St. John Street, in 1777, when this student would have been about 11 years old and so potentially a youthful apprentice. Produced book illustrations and reproductive engravings in partnership with William Holl (1771–1838) and Thomas Blood (1777–1850), those partnerships being dissolved in 1808 and 1809 respectively, which may indicate that he was retiring from the trade. Redgrave states, “He died at Addlestone, where he had for many years retired, August 15, 1838, aged 74.” His burial record from Addlestone, Surrey, states he was 72.

John Rising

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 25 last June; painter (H338)

John Rising (1753–1817). Portrait and genre painter, picture restorer, and copyist. His family background is not known. The surname originated in Norfolk, and the individuals of the name John Rising recorded in the late eighteenth century were associated with East Anglia; however, the details of none of these correspond with this individual. Waterhouse notes, “He is said to have been friendly with Reynolds and he later specialised in restoring and copying his works.” He exhibited at the RA 1785–1814. He is documented restoring pictures at the RA, Belvoir Castle, Knole, and for Sir John Soane. He died at his home in Portland Place in 1817, his will benefiting his widow, Mary. His obituary noted that he had “for many years devoted his study to the restoration of valuable pictures, particularly those of our late eminent Sir Joshua Reynolds” (Gentleman’s Magazine, quoted NPG). A son advertised that the business of picture restoration would be continued by him, “Collections in the country undertaken as usual” (Morning Post 2 April 1817).

Samuel Roberts

Registered as a student 8 March 1782, aged 25 last February; painter (H411)

Samuel Roberts (1756?–99?). Still-life painter and floor-cloth manufacturer. Probably the Samuel Roberts, son of Samuel Roberts and his wife Catherine, baptized St. Bride’s, Fleet Street, 8 April 1756, born Salisbury Court, 10 February 1756. “Roberts, apothecary” of Salisbury Court was reported to be the victim of a street robbery in 1753, the address also later used by this Samuel Roberts, presumably pointing to the occupation of his father (London Daily Advertiser 21 April 1753), although “Mr Roberts, Draper” at the same address appears in multiple press notices of the early 1760s (Public Advertiser 15 January 1760; 11 August 1764). It is unclear whether the earlier report refers to a different Roberts or if the same individual changed trade. The father is also likely to be the Samuel Roberts, “gent,” of Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, who was named in a legal document of 1766 (National Archives, E 134/​7Geo3/​Mich7). Known as an artist only from his record of exhibition at the RA, 1778–82, giving his address as “at Mr Howard’s, 5 Wormwood Street, Old Broad Street” and “3 Salisbury Court, Fleet Street,” the latter presumably the family address. He appears to be the Samuel Roberts, floor-cloth manufacturer of 91 Fleet Market (where he was insured in 1791–95; LMA), if he is the student mentioned by James Sowerby as a contemporary at the academy who went on to success in the trade. No other student can be matched to known floor-cloth manufacturers. Robey notes the business as being in operation in Fleet Market by 1790, offering floor cloths, varnished table covers, and heraldry painting from the manufactory in Blackfriars Road (Ann Robey, “Floorcloth Manufacture in Knightsbridge,” Georgian Group Journal 7 [1997]: 160-67 [165]). His widow, Ann, continued the business after 1801, to judge from insurance records (LMA). Samuel Roberts, corn-chandler, had been insured at 97 Fleet Market in 1788 (LMA); whether this was the father, or the son entering a new trade, is unclear. A memorial in St. Bride’s, Fleet Street, recorded Samuel Roberts, who died 29 November 1799, said to be 41 (so born 1758), with his widow, Ann, who died 25 July 1824, aged 64. It seems likely from the circumstances that this was the student under consideration here.

Hugh Robinson

Registered as a student 2 July 1779, aged 21 next Michaelmas; painter (H357)

Hugh Robinson (1758–96). Portrait painter. Said to be born Malton, Yorkshire, apparently into a genteel family. He has been identified as the son of Henry Robinson, Esq., of Malton (York Herald 15 March 1881), and is likely also connected to the Thomas Robinson, wine merchant of New Malton, Yorkshire, who died in 1815 (National Archives, PROB 11/1569), and the solicitor William Robinson of the same place, who died 1811 (National Archives, IR 26/434/545). He exhibited at the RA in 1780 and 1782, from 12 Carey Street and 16 Mitre Court, Temple. He went to Italy in 1783, hoping to become a history painter, but died of consumption on the return journey in 1796. A contemporary lamented that “he certainly promised to be a very great portrait painter—and has done latterly some exceeding fine ones” (Ingamells).

Godfrey Kendrick Rode

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 27, 1 next November; painter (H378)

Gottfried Heinrich Rode (1753–1823). Miniature painter. Born in The Hague. A pupil of J. J. Schalch and J. H. Hurter (the latter of whom was active in England at this time, and whose son registered at the RA in 1781). Rode may well have come over as his assistant. Foskett notes Basil Long’s referring to a miniature by him of the Prince of Wales, dated London, November 1781. He was a member of the Brotherhood of The Hague in 1782. He died in The Hague in 1823 (RKD).

Harry Rogers

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 18, 24 next May; drawing (H302)

Harry Rogers (1759–active 1777). Not identified. Perhaps connected with the Harry Rogers, widower of St. George, Hanover Square, who died in 1782, his next of kin identified as Elizabeth Rogers, spinster (LMA, DL/​C/​0367/​044r/​001). That same individual must be the Harry Rogers recorded at Trotts Court, St. George, in tax records from at least 1760, and latterly noted as bankrupt (“gentleman”). This student is conceivably the Harry Rogers, Pig Hill, Sydenham, Kent, “gentleman,” who was insured in 1797 (LMA). The unusual designation of “Drawing” as profession on registration may indicate an amateur interest in the art.

Henry Rohan

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 22; painter (H339)

Henry Rohan (c. 1756–active 1778). Not identified. The name suggests a French Huguenot origin.

John Roonkin

Registered as a student 11 October 1782, aged 21, last 7 January; engraver (H425)

John Rooukin (1761–98). Miniature painter and engraver. He appears to be the son of John Rooukin, Somerset Street, who was buried St. Botolph Aldgate, 1770. There are records of Richard, Martha, and Mary being baptized at that church 1757–65, with John Rooukin named as the father. This student must be the John Roukin, son of John and Elizabeth of Somerset Street, baptized at St. Botolph Aldgate, 1 February 1761. It seems credible that his father is the John Rookin, son of a Westmorland tailor, who was apprenticed to Richard Wilson, citizen and gunmaker of London, in 1746, and who became a gunmaker himself (DeWitt Bailey II, “The Wilsons: Gunmakers to Empire, 1730–1832,” online). The younger John Rooukin was apprenticed to the engraver William Sharp in 1774, his father identified as John Rooukin of St. Botolph, gunmaker (ROLLCO). In the apprenticeship record his father is noted as dead.

Rooukin’s name appears on prints from the 1780s. In 1789 he advertised proposals for publishing by subscription a pair of prints of Democritus and Heraclitus, “from the original Pictures … in the Possession of R. Eden, Surgeon,” giving his address as 5 Swan Street, Minories (Kentish Gazette 10 November 1789). A trade card advertises Grainger & Rooukin, engravers (BM). Rooukin exhibited a miniature at the RA in 1791, from 3 Swan Street, Minories. He seems likely to be the John Rooukin of Hoxton Town, aged 36, who was buried at St. Leonard, Shoreditch, in December 1798.

Charles Rossi

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 19, March 8 inst.; sculptor (H395) Silver medal 1781, Gold medal 1784
Rome Prize 1785

John Charles Felix Rossi (1762–1839). Sculptor. In 1808 he told Farington: “He did not know where He was Christened, His father was a foreigner, a Roman Catholick, & irregular in His conduct but He was born in Nottingham” (9: 3240). According to an obituary writer, his father, Ansano Rossi, an Italian from Siena, was a “quack-doctor to the neighbourhood” (Art Union, quoted in BDSB). Ansano Rossi was based in London in 1775, when he was engaged in finding evidence in connection with the divorce case involving Teducci, the castrato. Rossi was apprenticed to the sculptor Locatelli, and became his assistant. He won the RA’s Rome scholarship in 1785, traveling to Italy with fellow student John Deare. Back in England he worked for manufacturers, and latterly started his own ceramic stone business in Lisson Grove, although in the 1790s and 1800s he was prominent as the maker of monuments for Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s. He exhibited at the RA 1781–1834. He was appointed sculptor to the Prince of Wales in 1797, and became sculptor in ordinary to William IV in 1830, but struggled financially in later years.

He was presumably related to (probably brother of) the Lewis or Louis Rossi of St. Martin in the Fields, “enterpreter,” who appeared at the Middlesex Sessions in 1772; Lewis Rossi of 1 Maid Court, Wardour Street, appeared at the Old Bailey as a witness in 1778, where he stated, “I get my bread by translating from foreign languages into English” (Old Bailey). He appeared as a witness again in 1786. Lewis Rossi of St. Martin in the Fields was buried as a nonconformist, 1793, aged 46.

Gabriel Rugeroh

Registered as a student 21 March 1774, aged 23 in December next; painter (H231)

Gabriel Rugeroh (1750–1813). Baptized 15 January 1751 at St. Paul, Shadwell, the son of “Magnus Rugeroh, Mariner in Shakespear Walk & Mary his Wife.” He was apprenticed to William Moses Young, “Citizen of & blacksmith of London,” in 1768. He is not otherwise recorded as an artist. He is likely to be the Gabriel Rugeroh of Camberwell who was buried at St. Paul, Shadwell, in 1813, although the age of that individual is not stated in the record.

Lewis Saillart

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 20 last December; engraver (H353)

John Louis Sailliar (c. 1748–c. 1822). Engraver. Sources state that he was born in Paris around 1748 (contrary to the information in the register) and based in London around 1779–80. He opened a shop in Paris in 1781 specializing in the sale of imported English prints. He appears to have returned to London around 1783 and died there (Huber & Martini; BM). However, a Louis Saillart, “an Engraver, & formerly a Student in the Royal Academy,” applied successfully for charity from the RA in 1821 (CM). Mrs. Catherine Sailliar, widow of John Lewis Sailliar, “An Engraver,” applied to the AGBI in 1823, “being left in low circumstances at the age of 60 and has nothing but her needle to depend upon” (AGBI Applicants’ Book).

Joseph Sanders

Registered as a student 8 April 1775, marked “to be discharged” in the register (H251)

Joseph Saunders (active 1772–1811). Miniature painter. Exhibited at the SA and FSA 1772–76, the first address given being Berwick Street, near Noel Street, Soho, and at the RA 1778–1807. He is known from several works (Foskett). Perhaps the Joseph Saunders noted by Tuer as a pupil of Bartolozzi (2: 63). Joseph Saunders, “limner,” Maddox Street, appears in the Westminster poll book, 1788, and Joseph Sanders, “engraver,” was insured at 16 Somers Place East, Somers Town, in 1793 (LMA).

A number of Sanders and Saunders were operating as artists in the late eighteenth century, and it is not always possible to distinguish them.

Richard Santler

Registered as a student 29 December 1780, aged 19, 28 September last; sculptor (H383)Silver medal 1782

Richard Santler (1761–active 1787). Wax modeler. He exhibited wax portraits at the RA 1785–87, from 13 Long Acre, 22 Rathbone Place, and 125 Strand. He is otherwise obscure.

C. Scheener

Registered as a student 29 October 1784, aged 24, October 1784 (CM/deleted from register) (H460)

C. Scheener (active 1783–89). Musician and artist. Apparently Swiss. He must be the “Mr Scheener, a Genevan Artist” who published proposals for a print of Mrs. Siddons in Edinburgh, 1783 (Hibernian Journal 19 December 1783), presumably a sideline, as Mr. Scheener appears as a violinist in press notices in Dublin, Edinburgh, Bath, and Hereford from 1783 to 1789. He must also be the Scheener, a Swiss violinist much noted by Susan Burney in her journal and letters. As Edward Francesco Burney and Thomas Frederick Burney were at the schools around the same time, and as this student did not apparently commit to study, the circumstantial evidence is quite strong.

Scott/A. Scott

Registered as a student 30 September 1777 (H311)

Possibly the Scott who was an honorary exhibitor of marine views at the RA in 1786. An A. Scott exhibited miniatures at the RA 1807–08, from 29 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, but could well be a separate individual.

Edmund Scott

Registered as a student 5 November 1781, aged 23, 28 last March; engraver (H401)

Edmund Scott (1758–1815). Portrait painter and stipple engraver. Born in London, baptized at St. Andrew, Holborn, the son of Henry Scott and his wife Ann, of Gray’s Inn Lane. His father’s occupation has not been established. He exhibited at the FSA in 1774–75 as “Master Edmund Scott” from 74 Gray’s Inn Lane, the family home. A pupil of Bartolozzi. He married in 1781, Mary Ann Rigg, at St. Andrew’s, Holborn. He was insured at 138 Holborn in 1785 (LMA), “engraver,” and appointed “Engraver to the Duke of York” around 1789. A biographical note published in 1835, quoted by Jeffares, indicates that he started as an engraver but later turned to pastel, raised a large family, and ran into financial difficulties, being “arrested and in confinement.” He was latterly based in Brighton, where he died in 1815.

Samuel Shelley

Registered as a student 21 March 1774, aged 17 last August (H232)

Samuel Shelley (1754–1808). Miniature painter. Said to have been born in Whitechapel, so certainly the Samuel Shelley, son of George Shelley and his wife, Susannah, of the High Street, baptized St. Mary, Whitechapel, in 1754, which is closer to the date given in the register than the traditionally ascribed birthdate of 1750. Williamson asserts that his father was a shoemaker (George C. Williamson, The Miniature Collector [London, 1921] 175). His father may be the George Shelley of George Shelley & Son, “Hosiers and Hatters” of 92 Whitechapel (High Street), appearing in Kent’s Directory, 1774. George Mabbs Shelley, hosier, St. Mary, Whitechapel, was bankrupt in 1809, and was probably a brother (Chester Courant 28 November 1809). Dayes asserted that he “may, in some measure, be considered as self-educated. He derived great advantage by copying the works of Reynolds in the early part of life, and on which he may be said to have formed his style. He is one among the few who do not consider the profession in a mercenary point of view” (348). Exhibited at the RA 1774–1804, initially from “Mr Shelley’s” at 92, 24, or 62 Whitechapel, and achieved some prominence as a miniature painter. He died in 1808, his studio contents sold by auction by Peter Coxe in March 1809. The catalogue includes a note on the artist, indicating that his father and brother survived him, and asserting that “he … had not received the benefit of much early instruction; for he was in a great measure self-taught” (BL Add. MS 33404, f. 218).

John Sigrist

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 17, 5th last February; painter (H303)

John Sigrist (1760–active 1799). Presumably the John Sigrist, son of John Sigrist and his wife Mary, baptized in Westminster in 1760. His father seems certain to be the John Sigrist, paper hanger and paper stainer of Piccadilly active in the 1760s and 1770s, noted in the literature on wallpaper history and in Exeter Working Papers. An advertisement of 1756 announces, “By His Majesty’s Royal Letters Patent J. Harris and J. Sigrist at the King’s Arms the Corner of Green-street, Leicester Square have finished a great Variety of new Patterns for Paper Hangings, in Imitation of the India, printed from Copper Plates, and pencil’d by Hand” (Public Advertiser 23 March 1756). John Sigrist the elder appears in the Westminster poll book in 1774, paper stainer, Piccadilly. He died in Brompton in 1799, his will benefiting his widow Mary and son, John Sigrist. Sigrist trade cards are in the BM and point to an extensive business and a royal patent. Robson, Hale, and Hawley, “Paper Hanging Manufacturers and Painters in Water Colours, to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,” were advertising as “Successors to Mr Sigrist” at 218 Piccadilly in 1789 (World 4 May 1789), which indicates that the younger John Sigrist did not continue the business.

John Peter Simon

Registered as a student 31 December 1778, aged 14, 1st August last; engraver (H340)

John Peter Simon (1764–c. 1810). Engraver. Baptized, as Jean Pierre Simon, 19 August 1764 at the Artillery, French Huguenot, Spitalfields, the son of Jean Pierre Simon and his wife Janne (Auder). His father is presumably the J. P. Simon who appears in tax records in the City of London 1774–80 and seems likely to have been involved in the textile trades. Exhibited miniatures at the RA in 1785–86, from 6 Meard Street, Dean Street, Soho. Noted by Tuer as a pupil of Bartolozzi (2: 66). His date of birth has been given as c. 1750, but the later date recorded in the register suggests it must be a relative who was the Simon who contributed to Worlidge’s Collection of Drawings from Curious Antique Gems (1768). He seems very likely to be related to the mezzotint engraver John Simon (1675–1751), of Huguenot descent and active in London from the 1700s. John Peter Simon worked for Boydell in the 1790s. He died about 1810, according to Redgrave.

Henry Singleton

Registered as a student 10 March 1783, aged 16, 19 last October; painter (H433) Silver medal 1784, Gold medal 1788
Noted in the life school register 1 October 1790

Henry Singleton (1766–1839). Portrait and history painter. Born in London “into an artistic family” (ODNB). He appears to be a member of the Singleton family of Bury St. Edmunds who were established as masons and builders from at least the late seventeenth century. His father died when he was only 2, and he was raised by his uncle, the painter William Singleton (d. 1793), a pupil of Ozias Humphry. Another uncle, Joseph Singleton (1751–1810), was a miniature painter, of Bury St. Edmunds. Henry Singleton was practicing as a portraitist from the age of 16 and exhibited at the SA as early as 1780 and the RA 1784–1839, achieving success as a portrait painter, history painter, and illustrator. He married his cousin, a daughter of William Singleton, in 1807. His sisters Maria Singleton and Sarah Macklarinan Singleton were also artists.

James Sinnott

Registered as a student 21 March 1774, aged 21, 8 August last (H233)

James Sinnott (1752–active 1774). Sculptor. Possibly the James Sinnott, son of Lavotte Sinnott, peruke-maker of Cox’s Buildings, baptized at St. George in the East on 3 September 1751, although this means a discrepancy with the year of birth stated in the register. John Sinnott, peruke-maker, provided the first bond for a foundling at the Foundling Hospital, in 1748, and may be another close relative; similarly Joseph Sinnott, cordwainer and shopkeeper of Wargrave, Berkshire, who died in 1784 (National Archives, PROB 11/1118). Lavotte Sinnott, widower, remarried, in 1761, a widow, Sarah Salmon, at St. George in the East. James Sinnott was apprenticed to John Walsh (active 1757–77), statuary of St. George, Hanover Square, in 1769.

Sinzenich

Registered as a student 4 December 1775, aged 23; engraver (H263)

Heinrich Sintzenich (1752–1812). Stipple engraver. Born Mannheim, Germany, and trained at the academy there. Sent to London at the expense of the elector to train under Bartolozzi 1775–78. Later career in Munich. Member of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin and manager of the Sintzenich Kunstverlag in Berlin. He died in Germany in 1812. His brother Peter was also an engraver, active from around 1789, and was presumably younger (and therefore not this student), although he and his family remained in England; he must be the “Sintzenich, Designateur, Engraver, and Printseller” advertising in London in 1801 (Hampshire Chronicle 6 April 1801) and the Peter Sintzenich of Spring Place, Kentish Town, and New Bond Street, Hanover Square, “print seller,” bankrupt in 1808 (Morning Chronicle 22 June 1808). “Mr Zintzenich, Jun, Drawing Master, from London” and “G. Sintzenich Jun” advertised drawing lessons in Cheltenham in 1809–12 (Cheltenham Chronicle 20 July 1809 and 23 January 1812). It seems more likely that he was a son of Peter Sintzenich, and seems to be identified as such in a marriage notice of 1820 (Bristol Mercury 14 February 1820). Peter John Sintzenich died, aged 72, in Bristol at his son’s home (Western Times 13 March 1830), suggesting a birthdate of c. 1758. Gustav Sintzenich, aged 40, painter, became a member of the Artists’ Benevolent Fund in 1826.

William Skelton

Registered as a student 29 March 1781, aged 17, 14 June last; engraver (H396)

William Skelton (1763–1848). Engraver. Born in London, son of William Skelton of St. James, Westminster, copperplate printer. “He was descended from the ancient family of Skeltons, in Cumberland, by a branch which settled subsequently in Yorkshire” (press cutting, BL Add. MS 33404, f. 287). Apprenticed to the engraver John Lodge, 2 July 1777, the record where his father’s identity is established. Also said to be a pupil of James Basire and of William Sharp: “He was also a student of the Royal Academy, and enjoyed through life the intimacy of most of the distinguished members of that Society” (press cutting, BL Add. MS 33404, f. 287). Worked for the British Museum and for Boydell, and produced royal portraits. “From this work and other labours he realised a competence, and retired to Ebury Street, Pimlico,” living with his only daughter. His brother, Joseph Skelton, was also an engraver (Redgrave).

John Smart

Registered as a student 1 April 1783, aged 27, 4 last March; painter (H437)

John Smart (1756–active 1831). Portrait and landscape painter and picture restorer. Based in East Anglia, exhibiting local scenes at the RA from London and Ipswich addresses 1786–1813. References to Smart undertaking picture restoration and copying appear in the diary of John Longe, vicar of Coddenham, Suffolk, from 1796 to 1831 (Michael Stone, ed., The Diary of John Longe (1765–1834): Vicar of Coddenham [Woodbridge, 2008]).

John Thomas Smith

Attended the schools c. 1784–85?

John Thomas Smith (1766–1833). Topographical draftsman, printmaker, and curator. Born in London, the son of Nathaniel Smith (1738–1809), sculptor, and his wife Elizabeth (Tarr; d. 1779). He entered the studio of the sculptor Joseph Nollekens after the death of his mother in 1779, but went on to focus on drawing and studied with John Keyse Sherwin. Several references in his anecdotal Nollekens and His Times (1828) indicate that he studied at the RA schools, although he appears never to have registered. The ODNB asserts that he “attended occasional evening lectures at the Royal Academy,” but it seems more likely that he did go to the schools, at least as a probationary student. He wrote that “during the short time Morland drew at the Royal Academy, I was his fellow-student.” Morland registered in January 1784. He referred to hearing Barry lecture “when I was a student in the Royal Academy” and to drawing at the Townley Collection of Park Street “with many other students in the Royal Academy.” Noted as an academy student who was “celebrated for his pen imitations of Rembrant’s and Ostade’s etchings, and copied several of the small pictures of Gainsborough, by whom he was kindly noticed” (J. H. Lewis, The History and Topography of the Parish of Saint Mary, Islington [London, 1842] 155).

Smith established himself as a printseller in London in 1784 and developed a reputation as a topographical draftsman. He married, in 1788, Anne Marie Prickett. He went on to become keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum in 1816, in which capacity he was also responsible for art students’ use of the Townley Marbles. He died in 1833, apparently leaving his widow “without a shilling” (John Constable, quoted in ODNB).

James Sowerby

Registered as a student 31 December 1777, aged 19, 22 last March; painter (H316)

James Sowerby (1757–1822). Botanical illustrator. Born in Bolt in Tun Passage, Fleet Street, “a house afterwards forming part of White the Bookseller’s premises” (Simpkins 402), baptized St. Dunstan in the West, London, 29 March 1757, the son of John Sowerby, a lapidary, and his wife Arabella (Goodspeed; d. 1782), his birthdate recorded then as 21 March 1757. His early circumstances are related in a memoir by his son, James de Carle Sowerby, from 1825: His Father John Sowerby who was a Lapidary had several Children, who all died young except three sons and a Daughter. Unfortunately the Father died when the eldest Son John was too young to carry on the business, though he had served several years of his apprenticeship to his Father and was an excellent workman, but what rendered the circumstances of the family more precarious was the change of fashion that took place about that time, the demand for coloured stones (such as garnet beads) which formed a great part of his employment diminishing rapidly. The property left by his Father who had a considerable stock was gradually consuming; and eventually the Family had to look to the productive genius of James for assistance and even support. This genius manifested itself in his earliest years, while yet a child he would amuse himself by cutting out watch papers, copying prints, making Grotto’s & similar employments: when eight years old he cut in thin paper a piece representing his God-Father coursing a hare …. (Simpkins 402) Although sent to a day school he continued making figures and toys, which he sold to schoolfriends, and “with the money he bought colors, pencils, prints, shells &c”: When he was 14 his Friends contrived to raise 100£ with which he was bound for seven years to Richd. Wright from the Isle of Man, a celebrated painter of Sea views …. Unfortunately for our young artist his master was seized soon after with a paralytic stroke that prevented his painting, but he gave instructions & taught his pupils (among whom were his Wife & Daughters) to copy his own and other Masters works and even to paint originals in which Jamie as he used to call young Sowerby was generally appointed to do the figures in which he excelled. (Simpkins 403)

“James Sowerby Apprentice to Richard. Weight of Pimlico Painter” was a witness at a coroner’s inquest in Westminster in 1774 (London Lives), which confirms his apprenticeship with the marine painter. He went on to a trial period with William Hodges, but he was so “disgusted not only with the treatment he experienced being sent into the kitchen to scant meals but with the uncleanly state of the painting Room, that he declined remaining with him” (403). He painted portraits and miniatures “at about three guineas each,” supporting himself, and “he shortly obtained admission to the Royal Academy where he was however very diffident of his abilities for it was a twelvemonth after Mr Moser, the keeper at that time, had recommended him to Draw for admission to the life Academy that he could be persuaded that he was able to produce anything good enough: his ticket to admit him to Draw from the life is dated December. 1^st [sic] 1777” (403).

He was still at the academy schools when the institution removed to Somerset House in 1780, the memoir recording that “there were at the same time two pupils whose Prospects in life were uncertain with whom and Mr Sowerby a kind of emulation was excited to succeed best in life, one became a drawing master & married a lady of fortune the other became a Floor Cloth manufacturer with a good business” (408). The former is clearly Peter Denys; the latter may be Samuel Roberts, who registered at the schools in 1782.

He is possibly the James, son of John Sowerby, haberdasher, who was made free of the city in 1787, but his birthdate was given as 1759. He exhibited miniatures at the RA 1779–90, initially from the family address, 2 Bolt and Tun Passage, Fleet Street. He married, in 1786, Anne de Carle, the sister of the sculptor Robert de Carle; Sowerby had met the latter “while studying at the Academy” (404). Robert de Carle “first assisted and afterwards succeeded Bacon as modeller at Miss Coades artificial Stone manufactory.” This must be Robert Brettingham de Carle (1748–91) from the Norwich-based family of statuaries, who is recorded as taking a lead role at Coade’s manufactory, or his nephew, Robert de Carle (1761–1837), also a sculptor. One or the other exhibited at the RA in 1785, but neither is recorded as studying at the schools. From 1790 he began publishing botanical works and amassed an important collection of specimens, opening a museum at his home. He died in London in 1822.
(Diana M. Simpkins, “Biographical Sketch of James Sowerby, Written by His Son, James de Carle Sowerby, 1825,” Journal of the Society of the Bibliography of Natural History 6 [1971–74]: 402-15)

John Spiller

Registered as a student 5 November 1781, aged 18, 23 December next; sculptor (H402)

John Spiller (1763–94). Sculptor. The son of John Spiller of Southwark, speculative builder. He was a pupil of the sculptor John Bacon. Exhibited as “John Spiller jun” at the RA 1779–86, initially from Highbury Place, Islington, a new development that had been built by his father in 1774–77. He was the brother of James Spiller (c. 1761–1829), the architect. He died of consumption in Croydon in 1794, the Gentleman’s Magazine noting, “At Croydon, Surrey, in a deep decline, Mr John Spiller, mason of Temple-lane, Blackfriars, brother to the famous Architect.” His younger brother, Robert Spiller, was also active as a sculptor c. 1792–1827.

John/Jonathan Spilsbury

Registered as a student 25 March 1776, aged 39; painter (H269)

Jonathan Spilsbury (1737–1812). Mezzotint engraver, portrait painter, and drawing master. Born Worcester, the son of Thomas Spilsbury (c. 1681–1741) and his second wife, Mary Wright (1718?–73). The family was of high standing in the region and included a number of artisans and artists. His father is likely the Thomas Spilsbury, “Perriwig Black Maker,” who removed from London to Worcester in 1736 (Grub Street Journal 15 January 1736). Jonathan Spilsbury served an apprenticeship in Birmingham under a cousin, George Spilsbury, a japanner (apprenticeship record in Birmingham Public Library). His aunt, Sarah, had married Jonathan Richardson the artist, and it may be, as Ruth Young proposes, that this provided an introduction to Thomas Hudson (Richardson’s brother-in-law) (6). He received prizes at the Society of Arts in London in the early 1760s. He married, in 1775, Rebecca Chapman (c. 1744–1812), also an artist. Their daughter Maria Spilsbury (1777–c. 1823) was an artist. His brother John Spilsbury (1739–69) was a printmaker and publisher; an elder half-brother, Thomas (1733–95), was a printer in Holborn.
(Keri Davies, “Jonathan Spilsbury and the Lost Moravian History of William Blake’s Family,” Blake 40.3 [winter 2006–07]: 100-09; Charlotte Yeldham, Maria Spilsbury (1776–1820): Artist and Evangelical [Farnham: Ashgate, 2010]; Ruth Young, Father and Daughter: Jonathan and Maria Spilsbury, 1737–1812: 1777–1820 [London, 1952])

Stephanoff

Registered as a student 9 April 1774, aged 29; painter (H235) Silver medal 1775
“Gertrude” entered in different ink in the register, and marked there as “Dd”

Filiter Stepanov (1745?–97). Russian-born portrait and scene painter. “Almost everything about Stepanov is obscure and contradictory” (Cross 217). There has been confusion caused by Hutchison’s uncharacteristically misleading record of the council minutes, which compounds the references to Stephanoff and another individual, “Geo: Burder” (George Burder). His family background is unclear. An early account, perhaps drawn from his sons, was that he was a serf of the name of Stepan who deserted his master during a visit to London. Other accounts state that he was himself a member of the elite sent to England for his education. He received payment for painting at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1777, and exhibited at the RA 1778–81. He married Mara Gertrude Metz at St. Pancras Old Church in 1782. She was a still-life painter, exhibiting as Gertrude Stephanoff. He was recorded working at the Pantheon in 1791. He was said by Edwards to have committed suicide “before the year 1790,” and this has been followed in modern accounts. His name appears in theatrical notices from at least 1783 to December 1790 (Morning Chronicle 23 December 1790), but on engravings until 1793, and a letter of 1798 refers to his death the previous year.
(A. G. Cross, “By the Banks of the Thames”: Russians in Eighteenth Century Britain [Newtonville, 1980] 217-19)

Joseph Stephenson

Registered as a student 11 October 1782, aged 25, 20th last January; painter (H426)

Joseph Stephenson (1756–92). Portrait and landscape painter. Born in Carlisle, probably the Joseph Stephenson baptized at St. Cuthbert, Carlisle, 2 February 1756. “From an early age he was dogged by illness” (Cumberland Artists, 1700–1900, exhibition catalogue, Carlisle City Art Gallery [1971]). Exhibited portraits at the RA in 1785, from Brown Street, Grosvenor Square. He returned to Carlisle, where he practiced as a landscape painter, dying there “after a long illness” (A. Henderson, A Picture of Carlisle [Carlisle, 1810] 107). His work was included in the Carlisle exhibition of 1823: “The late Joseph Stephenson—a native artist also and likewise self-taught …. We understand that Mr Stephenson was a student of the Royal Academy” (Westmorland Gazette 18 October 1823).

Thomas Stewart

Registered as a student 8 March 1782, aged 15, 19 last October; painter (H412) Silver medal 1788
Noted in the life school register 1 October 1790

Thomas Stewart (1766–active 1801). Portrait painter. Apparently the son of a barber. Exhibited at the RA 1784–1801, initially from 1 Union Street, Bond Street. He worked for the Burney family, and the modern edition of Burney papers provides some fragmentary information on him; Fanny Burney referred in 1783 to “Steward’s Father, the Barber” (Early Journals and Letters 5: 309n). In 1785 she reported a visit to Lady Thrale, who complained: “That Boy Steward has been here,—” & then she related a Dialogue between herself & him, in which he desired to have poor Dr Johnson’s Picture to Copy; & after many complaints concerning the request & many gross faults related in the requester, she abruptly finished it all, by turning full upon me, & saying—“But I find it is for Mr George Cambridge—”
And if it is, I thought, I am not responsible: though I wonder he should send with so little ceremony: unless part of the story be sunk for my satisfaction!—a little, I could scarce help thinking it possible Mr G.C. might have sent Steward on this business just now by way of hearing from him who of the family were about, for his Father would probably have mentioned my unwellness to him; but ’tis a far fetched notion. Yet it occurred to me the instant I heard his name, & before his Employer’s came out. (Stewart Cooke, with Elaine Bander, eds., Additional Journals and Letters of Frances Burney [Oxford, 2015] 1: 202) In another note she referred to “Mr Cambridge’s account of the Design he gave to a young Painter Steward for a Caricature Picture of Boswell’s Materials for his life of Dr Johnson” (Early Journals and Letters 5: 309n).

Miss M. Stewart, presumably a sister, exhibited at the RA 1799–1800, also from 1 Union Street, suggesting this was the family home. There appears to have been some connection with George Stubbs, as Thomas Stewart exhibited that painter’s portrait in 1801, and Waterhouse asserts that Miss Stewart was his pupil.
(Lars E. Troide and Stewart Jon Cooke, eds., The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney, Volume V, 1782–1783 [Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012])

George Stoddart

Registered as a student 26 March 1784, aged 18, 13 April next; architect and painter (H452) Silver medal 1785

George Stoddart (1766–active 1817). Surveyor. Born in London, baptized at St. George, Hanover Square, in 1766, the son of George Stoddart, surveyor, and his wife, Hester. Although he professed both architecture and painting on registration, his silver medal was for an architectural drawing. The elder Stoddart’s will, proved in 1793, referred to his widow, Hester, and daughters (National Archives, PROB 11/1232). This student is probably the George Stoddart, surveyor, of Park Place, Marylebone, who was a witness at the Old Bailey in 1807 and bankrupt in 1817.

Thomas Stothard

Registered as a student 31 December 1777, aged 22, 17 last August; painter (H317)

Thomas Stothard (1755–1834). History painter and illustrator. Born at the Black Horse Inn, Long Acre, London, the son of Thomas Stothard (d. 1770), Yorkshire-born innkeeper, and his wife Mary (Reynolds; 1711/12–99). At the age of 5 he was sent to school in Yorkshire, where his father originated, and went on to boarding school in Essex. In 1794 he told Farington, “His Father kept a public House in Long acre. That He was bred in Yorkshire, His Father placed him at School that his morals might not be affected by the scenes in a public House” (1: 155). He moved back to London after his father’s death in 1770, having a bequest of £1200 from him. He was apprenticed to the silk weaver John Vansommer. In 1813, Farington recorded: Stothard walking from the Academy told me that in His youth He lost much time—went late an Apprentice to Spital fields—time not out till 22—then devoted to Art—calculated upon 5 yrs—it answered—at 28 applied to Booksellers—& got business cd not afford to work witht pay. (Notebooks 5) He first exhibited in 1777 (when he was 22) at the SA, and at the RA in 1778, and began a prolific and successful career as an illustrator and painter of literary and mythological scenes, generally on a modest scale. He married, in 1784, Rebecca Watkins. He was made ARA in 1791 and RA in 1794, and was appointed deputy librarian at the RA in 1810, serving as librarian from 1812 until his death. He died in 1834, leaving a substantial fortune of £5084 and a house and effects valued at £2482 to his surviving children.

Thomas Stowers

Registered as a student 6 March 1775, aged 20, 6th last December; painter (H244)

Thomas Stowers (1754–1817). Landscape painter, coach and housepainter. Baptized 16 December 1754 at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, the son of Thomas Stowers (b. 1725), coach-harness maker, and his wife Elizabeth (Coles). His father’s trade is specified in Thomas Stowers’s apprenticeship record, binding him to John Sykes, painter, of the Painter Stainers’ Company, in 1769. Thomas Stowers, painter, was insured at 18 Cow Lane in 1780; described as a coach and housepainter, he was insured at Charterhouse Square in 1788, where he continued the business until late in life (LMA). He married, in 1781, Elizabeth Clerk. Exhibited at the RA 1778–1811, initially from 18 King Street, Snow Hill, and latterly from Charterhouse Square. He appears as one of the students sketched in an anonymous set of drawings of RA students dating from the late 1770s at the RA. Thomas Stowers of Charterhouse Square, coach painter, died in Mitcham, Surrey, in 1817; his will referred to his business as a painter having been carried on with his son, also Thomas Stowers (National Archives, PROB 11/1590). This student’s art collection, including several copies by him, was sold by auction in 1818 (Getty Provenance Index). Thomas Wright refers to him as an amateur friend and pupil of Richard Wilson. These circumstances suggest that the family business was sufficiently successful for this student to assume a more genteel identity, although he must be related to the Thomas Stowers, painter and glazier, who was listed at Charterhouse Square in the PO Directory in 1843, indicating that the business continued.
(Thomas Wright, Some Account of the Life of Richard Wilson, Esq. R.A. [London, 1824])

Francis Tadman

Registered as a student 31 December 1774, aged 19, 20th last March; painter (H240)

Francis Tadman (1755–87). Apparently one of the Tadman family, farmers of Higham, Kent. Francis Tadman of Higham is identified as the artist of a satirical drawing of 1784 in Medway Area Archives. William Tadman, gentleman of Higham, died 1774, aged 52, the chest tomb in St. Mary, Higham, and his will identifying Francis as among his children. Another William Tadman, gentleman of Higham, died in 1786, his will identifying Francis as a son. William Tadman of Higham won premiums for agriculture at the Society of Arts in the 1780s. A Francis Tadman was buried at St. Mary, Higham, in 1787. The memorial identifies him as “Francis Tadman Esquire Captain in the West Kent Regiment of Militia Obiit January 8 1787 Aetat 32,” giving an age that corresponds with the stated age of this student on registration (Kent Archaeological Society, online information on St. Mary, Higham). Oddly, in 1786 he had taken out an advertisement in the local press to refute the rumor that he had been the highwayman who had robbed a couple on the road at Blackheath (Kentish Gazette 31 March 1786).

Philip Tassaert/Tasseart

Registered as a student 29 December 1780, aged 22 last June; painter (H384) Marked as “dead” in the register

Philip Tassaert (1758–94?). A member of the Tassaert family of artists, who originated in Antwerp. He seems likely to be the son of Philip James Tassaert (1736–1803), artist and art dealer. His father was “a native of Antwerp, and the scholar of Vanhaken, the drapery-painter. He came to England when very young, and was some time with Mr Hudson, probably as an assistant” (Edwards 282). The elder Tassaert was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1769, and president in 1775. He was known primarily as an art dealer, working for James Christie and employing William Seguier as a picture cleaner. Dodd opined: “As an artist he holds no elevated rank his works being neither originals or copies being a kind of mongrel imitation in subject and style of Rubens and other eminent masters” (BL Add. MS 33406, f. 1). Farington’s opinion was that “he had great facility but little merit” (Notebooks 3: 99).

It was perhaps the son who exhibited portraits at the RA in 1785, from 28 St. Alban’s Street, Pall Mall. He must be the “Mr Tassaert, jun., of Pimlico” who was rumored to be shot dead after an “affray” with Mr. Bromley, purser of the Oxford East Indiaman in 1793 (Morning Chronicle 11 January 1793). His actual death was noted by Farington in 1794: “Tassaerts Son is dead of the yellow fever in the West Indies. He was lately made a Purser by Sir John Jervais, & promoted in other respects” (1: 225). The father died in Soho, 1803, apparently without immediate family, and “in very poor circumstances” (National Archives, PROB 11/1400; Farington 6: 2146).

William Tate

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 28 last September; painter (H303)

William Tate (1748–1806). Portrait painter. Born Liverpool, the son of Paul Tate (c. 1714–82) of Gawber Hall, Barnsley, Yorkshire, glassmaker and farmer. A pupil of Joseph Wright of Derby; he and his family were important patrons of the artist. Worked in Liverpool and Manchester, and frequently in London, where he generally stayed with Wright. He moved to Bath in 1804, where he died: Lately, at Bath, Mr William Tate, late of this town, portrait painter. He went to bed in remarkably good health and expired before three in the morning. His reputation as an artist was well known in this country; and in that particular department, to which he devoted his chief attention, few of his contemporaries have excelled him. He was several years a pupil to the late Mr Wright of Derby, with whom he lived in habits of the greatest intimacy, and by whom he was strongly urged to the pursuit of the higher branches of the profession; but being well aware of the great difficulty attending historical compositions, as well as the small encouragement held out by the public (unless in the line of portrait painting) he did not paint many historical pictures; but of late years frequently amused himself with landscapes, and a few effects of fire light, which he admirably imitated in the manner of his instructor. (Manchester Mercury 15 July 1806) His brother, Richard Tate, was a Liverpool merchant and amateur painter, and his sister Elizabeth (1766–1822) also an amateur artist.
(Elizabeth E. Barker and Alex Kidson, Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool [New Haven, 2007])

Alexander Taylor

Registered as a student 4 December 1775 (H264) Noted in the life school register 12 August 1796

Alexander Taylor (active 1774–d. 1804?). Miniature painter. Known from his exhibition record, which stretches from 1774 to 1796. Foster suggests he is the Alexander Taylor who was a Scottish-born portrait painter in India from 1797 and is recorded as having died in Calcutta in 1804.

William Taylor

Registered as a student 6 March 1775, aged 24, 6th May last; painter (H245)

William Taylor (c. 1750–active 1775). Not identified.

John Thelwall

Attended the schools c. 1782?

John Thelwall (1764–1834). Radical political writer. Son of Joseph Thelwall (d. 1772), silk merchant. The family were left struggling financially after his father’s death. He was apprenticed to a tailor, but the family finances meant he was unable to complete his apprenticeship. He also worked as a clerk in his younger years.

According to his obituary (Annual Register [1835]) he was “first a student at the Royal Academy,” which would likely have been c. 1782. He is not otherwise recorded as such. His early biography, written by his widow, elaborated on but also qualified this suggestion: He now made a third effort in behalf of his favourite art; and waited personally upon several painters of eminence, with specimens of his drawings, in hopes of recommending himself to some employment under them. Among the rest, he called upon Benjamin West, who received him with very polite attention, recommended him not to out himself under any particular artist (who would, of course, require a very considerable premium), but, as the most eligible mode of study, enter himself at the Royal Academy, procure medallions and casts from the antique, observe the manner and execution of different artists, and exercise his own judgment in what might appear worthy of imitation in them all. Happy as he would have been to have followed this advice, it was not in his power. The affairs of his family were brought to a crisis …. (The Life of John Thelwall, 2 vols. [London, 1837] 1: 17-18) It seems plausible that Thelwall was a probationary student for some period, but evidently was unable to pursue his studies. Later in life, his radical political activities brought him into association with a number of artists, including Thomas Banks, RA, and the engraver William Sharp.

John Thiorais

Registered as a student 10 October 1783, aged 25; painter (H439)

John Thiorais (c. 1758–active 1817?). The name is French in origin and probably Huguenot. He may be the John Thiorais who married Isabella Purdie at St. James, Westminster, in 1796. Her death was recorded in Edinburgh in 1817, said to be wife (not the widow) of “John Thiorais of Moscow” (Caledonian Mercury 23 October 1817). An Eliza Thiorais or de Thiorais, “lately residing in Moscow, in Russia,” died before August 1856 (Edinburgh Evening Courant 12 August 1856).

Thomas Thompson

Registered as a student 6 September 1780, aged 18, 14 July last; painter (H379) Silver medal 1788

Thomas Thompson (1762–1820?). Waterhouse identifies him with the miniature painter who exhibited at the RA in 1793 and 1795 from 64 Fenchurch Street and 39 King Street, Cheapside, and suggests the artist of the same name who exhibited marines at the RA 1797–1810 must be a separate individual. Waterhouse also notes a “Thomas Thompson junior” who exhibited a portrait from Walworth at the FSA in 1783, which suggests his father had the same name and presumably lived in Walworth. This student may be the Thomas Thompson of Bedford Row, Walworth, noted in the press in 1805, dying in 1820 (Globe 9 December 1805; National Archives, PROB 11/1624).

William Thompson

Registered as a student 4 December 1775, aged 25; painter (H265)

William Thompson (1750–active 1785). Landscape painter. Probably the son of William Thompson (c. 1730–1800), Irish-born portrait and landscape painter. Exhibited Cumberland and Westmorland views at the RA 1781–84, from Arlington Street, Piccadilly, and Half Moon Street, Piccadilly. The latter address was that of William Thompson, Sr., who exhibited at the SA and FSA 1760–82. “His marriage to a wealthy woman allowed him temporarily to relinquish his profession, but he fell into debt and was incarcerated in the king’s bench prison” (ODNB). This student seems likely to be related, probably his son. An exhibition and sale of his landscape drawings and paintings was held in Haymarket in 1785–86, which, together with the termination of his record of exhibition in 1784, may suggest that he died in 1785 (although the catalogue does not refer to him as “late,” as might be expected). William Thompson, “Painter,” appeared in the 1784 Westminster poll book at Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, and is presumably the father, whose will of 1800 identifies him as “Painter and Glazier,” suggesting an interest in trade painting as well as landscape (National Archives, PROB 11/1338).

James Thomson

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 19, 3 November last; designer (H354)

James Thomson (c. 1759–active 1779). Not identified. The rare designation as “Designer” suggests he was a draftsman in the trades.

Thomas Thornley

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 16, 16 next April; painter (H355)

Thomas Thornley (1763–active 1779). Not identified.

Peltro William Tomkins/Tomkyns

Registered as a student 6 March 1775, aged 15, 10 October last; engraver (H246) Silver medal 1777
Marked as “dead” in the register

Peltro William Tomkins (1760–1840). Engraver and draftsman. Born London, the son of William Tomkins, ARA (c. 1730–92), landscape painter, and his wife Susanna (Callard). As well as painting country house views, William Tomkins “practised much as a picture cleaner” (Edwards). He was a pupil of Bartolozzi, who reputedly said of him, “He is my son in the art” (Tuer 2: 69). Edwards noted that his older brother, Charles, was an aquatint engraver, and that he “is an excellent engraver, having been the scholar of Bartolozzi, and now resides in Bond-street” (169). He married, in 1787, Lucy Jones. He taught the royal princesses and was appointed historical engraver to Queen Charlotte in 1793. He exhibited at the RA in 1799 and 1831–32. His brothers and daughter were also engravers.

Joseph Toomer

Registered as a student 8 October 1779, aged 19, 3 March last; painter (H364)

Joseph Toomer (1760–1853). Ironmonger. Foskett notes, “The above artist is known to have painted two large tinted miniatures on paper of a lady and gentleman in March 1781,” and records a further work dated December 1780. The surname is not common, and he appears to have been one of the Toomers of Newbury, Berkshire, locally prominent ironmongers and bankers. He was probably the Joseph Toomer, son of Samuel Toomer and his wife Sarah, whose birth in Newbury on 3 February 1760 was registered as a nonconformist. Probably the son of Samuel Toomer of Newbury, banker (d. 1818), named in his will (National Archives, PROB 11/1602). Joseph Toomer, aged 80, so in conformity with this student’s recorded dates, was an ironmonger in Newbury in the 1841 census; he had retired to the village of Preston in Kent for the 1851 census, and died in 1853. His will was proved 1854 (National Archives, PROB 11/2193). His brother was presumably Edward Toomer (c. 1765–1852), ironmonger, banker, and property developer, the father of the architect Samuel Edward Toomer (1801–42). He may also be related to the George Toomer, pawnbroker of Southwark (d. 1776), whose business was continued by his widow, Mary. George Toomer’s will names only one son, George, who was under the age of 21 (National Archives, PROB 11/1021).

Thomas Trotter

Registered as a student 25 March 1779, aged 22 last May; engraver (H356) Noted in the life school register 1 October 1792

Thomas Trotter (1756–1803). Landscape painter and engraver. Born 5 May 1756 in Fife, the son of the Rev. John Trotter (1726–1808) of the Scotch Church, Swallow Street, Piccadilly, and his wife Elizabeth (Oswald; d. 1771) (for his father, see Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae). Biographical sources state that he was born in London, but the baptism record and the fact that his father did not take up his London appointment until 1769 indicate his birthplace was in Scotland. Redgrave describes him as the son of a clergyman, and … apprenticed to a calico printer. Having some talent for drawing, he tried engraving, and soon produced some excellent portraits. He received some instruction from Blake, who was his fellow-engraver, and finished a plate or two after Stothard … Prevented following his work as an engraver by an accidental injury to his sight, he found employment as a draughtsman, making drawings of churches and monuments for antiquarian publications. Dodd states that he was the son of a merchant in Edinburgh, Thomas Trotter (d. 1767), whose portrait he engraved (BL Add. MS 33406, f. 61). However, the print’s inscription states that the subject died aged 82, so he may have been his grandfather or father.

His obituary writer notes his apprenticeship to a calico printer (Gentleman’s Magazine [February 1803]), and J. T. Smith notes that he “received instructions from Blake” and was “a pattern-draughtsman to the calico-printers” who introduced Blake to Thomas Stothard. He seems likely to be the Thomas Trotter who was apprenticed to William Battersby, “citizen and merchant taylor,” in 1771 (National Archives, IR 1/27); this is presumably the William Battersby who is recorded as a stationer, engraver, and printer in the City of London in the 1780s, in business with a son. An earlier apprentice, Abraham Mondet, was certainly engaged as a designer at a calico printer, so Battersby must have had some connections with the trade (Anne Puetz, “The Society and the ‘Polite Arts’ 1754–1778,” Susan Bennett, ed., Cultivating the Human Faculties: James Barry (1741–1806) and the Society of Arts [Branbury, 2008] 40). Battersby’s trade cards include one identifying him (or his son) as a drawing master. Thomas Trotter exhibited at the RA 1780–1801 and achieved some eminence in engraving. However, the obituary writer noted his late struggles with poor sight after his accident (specified as involving an accidental blow on the head from a falling flower pot), and stated that he left his wife and daughter “totally unprovided for” (Gentleman’s Magazine [February 1803]). The widow became housekeeper at the RA for a time before falling out with the wife of the keeper, Henry Fuseli; the daughter appears to have studied art and exhibited at the RA 1809–15.

John Trumbull

Registered as a student 22 March 1785, aged 29, 6 June 1785; painter (H469)

John Trumbull (1756–1843). Portrait and history painter, soldier and diplomat. Born Lebanon, Connecticut, the son of Jonathan Trumbull, merchant, farmer, and the governor of Connecticut from 1769 to 1784, and his wife Faith (Robinson). He graduated from Harvard in 1773 and volunteered for military service in 1775. He resigned from the army in 1777, moving to Boston, where he pursued business and art. In 1780 he traveled to Paris before moving to England, where he became a pupil of Benjamin West 1784–89. He arrived in London with a letter of introduction to Edmund Burke from his father, which ensured an introduction to Reynolds: Mr Burke was the personal friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and when I mentioned my predilection for history, and spoke of my intention to study especially under Mr West, he did not appear to regard this preference with cordiality. I went on, however, painting by day at Mr West’s house, and in the evening, drawing at the academy. Here I frequently sat by the side of Lawrence (afterwards Sir Thomas) so celebrated for his exquisite portraits. (Theodore Sizer, The Autobiography of John Trumbull Patriot-Artist, 1756–1843 [New Haven, 1953] 85)

Lawrence registered at the schools in 1787, so their time at the academy did overlap. Trumbull was in London again 1794–1804 and 1806–16, returning to America after that date and pursuing a prominent artistic career.

George Turner

Registered as a student 7 January 1782, aged 29, 1 last June; painter (H407)

George Turner (1752–1820). Portrait and fancy painter and art teacher. Exhibited at the RA and British Institution from 1782 to 1820. Waterhouse states that he ran a drawing academy. Mrs. Christian Turner applied to the AGBI in 1823: Widow of Mr George Turner: An Artist; Student & Exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1782 to 1813 & at the British Institution from the commencement to the year 1820 in which year her Husband died, leaving his widow entirely destitute; having resided 55 Years in the Parish of St. Martins, she has the benefit of the Alms Houses, but from the smallness of the monthly income for fuel, food & Cloathing, she is obliged to solicit relief from this Institution. (AGBI Applicants’ Book) She was granted £2 in July 1823. In a subsequent application in 1826 she specified that her husband had “died suddenly on the 29 March 1820, leaving his widow entirely destitute,” and stated that she was now in an asylum.

William Turner

Registered as a student 22 March 1785, aged 22, 25 March inst.; painter (H470)

William Turner (1763–active 1816). Landscape painter. Known from his record of exhibition at the RA 1782–1813, initially from 2 Great Bath Street, Coldbath Fields. This connects him with the Turners who were engaged in the lapidary trade at this location. “Samuel Turner of Great Bath Street … Lapedary & Jeweller” appeared as a witness at the City of London Sessions in 1770. Richard Turner, “gentleman,” was insured at 11 Great Bath Street in 1792 (LMA). William Turner, lapidary of St. Leonard Foster, referred to his brother, Richard Turner, in his will of 1801 (National Archives, PROB 11/1353).

Anthony Van Asson/Assen

Registered as a student 4 December 1783, aged 16, 12 December inst.; painter (H443)Silver medal 1788
Noted in the life school register 15 November 1790

Benedict Anthony Van Assen (1767–c. 1817). Engraver and illustrator. Presumably originating in the Netherlands, although the date of his arrival in England is not known. Dutch engravers and artists of the name Van Assen or Van Ossen are recorded in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it seems likely that this student came from such a background. Waterhouse asserts, “He was mainly an illustrator but a rather feeble one.” He exhibited portraits and subjects at the RA 1788–1804, initially from 13 Cambridge Street, Golden Square. A notice in the World (15 April 1791) claims that “among the youthful prodigies of the present day, may be reckoned a young Engraver, of the name of Van Assen, who, though a child in point of personal appearance, really, ‘enacts more wonders than a man.’” In 1815 he made an application for RA charity, noted as “B. Van Assen formerly a Student, & an Exhibitor in the Royal Academy,” and secured relief of 20 guineas and 8 guineas a year (CM). Ottley states he died in London about 1817.

Henry Vigne/H. G. Vigne

Registered as a student 8 November 1782, aged 17, 15 last January; painter (H430)

Henry George Vigne (1765–88). Miniature painter. Baptized 1 February 1765, the son of James Vigne (c. 1734–1809), watchmaker, and his wife Mary (Keir). His parents had married at St. Martin in the Fields in London in the previous October, when his mother would have been already well advanced in her pregnancy; James Vigne was recorded as being aged 30 or over on that occasion. The Vigne family were of Huguenot descent and were established as jewelers, watchmakers, and merchants in London. H. G. Vigne exhibited at the RA 1785–87, giving the address as “at Mr Vigne’s, Watchmaker, 2 Charing Cross.” Ferdinand Vigne, watchmaker of Charing Cross, who died in 1763, aged 53 (National Archives, PROB 11/887; London Chronicle 7-9 April 1763), was related, and may be this student’s grandfather, given the shared Charing Cross address. James Vigne, “Jeweller and toyman” of St. Giles in the Fields, who died 1767 (National Archives, PROB 11/931), may be another relative. His father appears to be the James Vigne of 2 Charing Cross (later designated as 2 Strand) active in London from the 1760s to 1802 (to judge from commercial listings and the Westminster poll and rate books) and then in Dublin, where he died in 1809 (Saunders’s News Letter 20 September 1809). Henry George Vigne had died aged 23 in 1788, “at his father’s house, Charing Cross” (Times 24 January 1788). He was identified in another death notice as a “miniature painter” (European Magazine [January 1788]: 64).

Walker

Registered as a student 11 October 1782 (CM only) (H427)

Not identified; he may be the John Walker who was registered the following year.

John Walker

Registered as a student 10 March 1783, aged 22, 11 last August; engraver (H434)

John Walker (1760–active 1802). Engraver. Redgrave states he was one of the ten children of the engraver William Walker (1729–93), “all of whom were remarkable for their love of drawing,” and that he “finished many of his father’s plates.” The ODNB states he was the only son of William Walker, and that he was trained in engraving by him. His uncle, Anthony Walker (1726–65), was also a printmaker, who had trained his father. J. Walker of 16 Rosaman’s Street exhibited at the RA 1796–1800, which was his father’s published address, and this seems certain to be this student. John Walker engraved for the Copper-Plate Magazine (1792–1802). He may be the J. G. Walker, engraver, who applied to the AGBI in 1828 (AGBI Applicants’ Book). Applying in 1834, he explained that “the abundance of cheap engravings from steel plates, renders it next to impossible for a person of his description to obtain even the most scanty livelihood.”

Robert Watson

Registered as a student 6 March 1775, aged 20, 20th last April; painter (H247) Noted in the life school register 19 February 1799

Robert Watson (1755–83). Artist and engineer. Born Newcastle, 20 April 1755, and baptized at Castle Garth Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, son of Joseph Watson, a member of the Free Porters’ Company of Newcastle. “At an early age he evinced such a fondness for drawing, that, after his education was finished, his parents apprenticed him to a coach painter. Fortunately for him, his master’s misfortunes soon set him at liberty from a situation so ill suited to the sublimity of his genius; and leaving his native town, he went to London, where he became an industrious student at the royal academy” (E. Mackenzie, A Descriptive and Historical Account of … Newcastle [Newcastle, 1827] 1: 575-76n). He won a premium at the Society of Arts and exhibited at the RA in 1778, from 15 Titchfield Street, Cavendish Square. In 1796 Farington noted: Smirke spoke to me of his friend Watson who died at Madras.—He was a native of Newcastle on the Tyne, and was known to Akenside the Poet. Watson proposed to have been an Artist, but gave up that pursuit, His ambition not being likely to be soon qualified by what exertions He could make.—He was known to Dr Johnson, and was a young man of great parts and good principles.—Watson, Smirke, and Porden, wrote the “Anticipation of Shanaghan.” (3: 655) The publication alluded to was a satirical review, An Anticipation of the Exhibition of the Royal Academy (1780). He went to India as an engineer in 1783, dying there of a fever at the age of 28. He reportedly left a tragedy “in the hands of the managers of one of the London theatres” that could not be recovered after his death (M. A. Richardson, The Local Historian’s Table Book [Newcastle, 1841] 1: 59). A biographical memoir was read at the Newcastle Institution in 1794, the source of early biographical accounts. A woodcut by the Newcastle engraver Charlton Nesbitt of 1798 shows “the house, with wooden posts in front of it, where Robert Watson’s mother made and sold sausages for a livelihood in the latter part of her life” (Richardson 1: 59).

John Webber

Registered as a student 8 April 1775; painter (H252) Marked as “decd” in the register

John Webber (1751–93). Landscape painter and draftsman. Born London, the son of a Swiss-born sculptor, Abraham Wäber (1715–80), and his English wife, Mary (Quant). He was sent to Bern in 1757, in light of the family’s “straitened circumstances” (ODNB). He lived with an aunt, who encouraged his artistic interests. He was apprenticed to the topographical artist Johann Ludwig Aberli in 1767, and studied in Paris with Jean-Georges Wille and at the Académie Royale in 1770–75 before returning to London. He exhibited at the RA 1776–79 and took on work as a decorative painter. He was, famously, draftsman on Captain Cook’s last voyage (1776–80), and continued producing Pacific scenes on his return. Waterhouse opines, “His painting style is rather garish, glossy and linolear.” He was elected ARA in 1785 and RA in 1791. He died unmarried, with a substantial estate of nearly £5000.
(William Hauptman, “Webber before Cook: Two Water-Colours after Sterne,” Burlington Magazine 136 [April 1994]: 237-41)

Raphael West

Registered as a student 7 December 1781, aged 15, 8 last April; painter (H405)

Raphael Lamarr West (1766–1850). Born London, the son of Benjamin West (1738–1820), American-born history painter and founder RA, and his wife Elizabeth (Shewell), who came from America to join him in England in 1764. Dunlap states: His school education was entrusted to one of the numerous academies that surrounded London, and it seems to have been a favourite with the Americans of that day, as Mather Brown, John Singleton Copley (the son of the painter, and now Lord Lyndhurst) and Raphael West, were school mates and playmates. (145) Benjamin Franklin’s grandson was another schoolmate, indicating that he must have attended James Elphinston’s boarding school in Kensington (Benjamin West to Benjamin Franklin, 7 September 1783; Founders Online).

In April 1782, Benjamin West wrote: “My Eldest son is now in his Sixteenth year has increased in height two inches above his father … has greatly improved in painting, and I have determined to do my utmost to cultivate those talents which apear [sic] in him; that they may some day I hope be an Ornament to the profession (to Benjamin Franklin, 28 April 1782; Founders Online). Dunlap, who says he met him in 1784, stated that he was “one of the best designers, of the academy figure from life, that England possessed,” but that “he did not apply himself with the necessary industry to painting which ensures success, but seems to have been discouraged by the overshadowing merit and fame of his father” (146). C. R. Leslie told Dunlap that he “possessed more talent than industry” and that “he also drew the human figure with a masterly and anatomical precision equal to his father, and I believe he often assisted him in his large works” (147).

Benjamin West told Farington in 1799 that he provided his son with an annual allowance of £400 (4: 1166). The elder West had purchased land in America, and in 1800 Raphael was sent over “to improve wild lands, and although he did not exert his talents as a painter for the public, or exhibit any pictures during his stay, his taste had influence on the arts of the country … and the drawings he brought with him, and those executed during his residence at Big-tree, and communicated or presented to his friends, must be considered as swelling the tide of western art by a copious though transient shower” (Dunlap 146-47). He left in 1802, “disappointed, discouraged and home-sick” (147).

He married, and had a daughter. His father’s estate, said to be worth £100,000, was shared between him and his younger brother, Benjamin West, Jr. However, he and his brother struggled financially and applied to the RA for support (William T. Whitley, Art in England, 1821–1837 [Cambridge, 1930] 171). In the 1841 census he was recorded living with his wife in Bushey, “Independent.”

Richard Westall

Registered as a student 16 December 1785, aged 20, 2 January 1786; painter (H476)

Richard Westall (1765–1836). History painter and illustrator. Born Reepham, Norfolk, the son of Benjamin Westall (1736–94), brewer, and his wife Mary (Ayton; 1739–70). The Westalls “were an established Norfolk family” (ODNB). His mother died when he was a child, and his father’s business in Norwich failed at around the same time. Farington heard from Westall himself: His Father, and Grandfather, were brewers, and had extensive business in this line many years: but some unfavourable circumstances caused a change in his Fathers condition, and reduced his fortune so much that He quitted that City. (Notebooks 4: 47) He was placed with an attorney in Norfolk, but then moved to London, where he was apprenticed in 1779 to a John Thompson of Gutter-Lane, Cheapside, “an engraver of Heraldry on silver &c”: In this humble department of the arts, Mr Westall’s genius raised him above his fellows: he became about this time acquainted with Mr Alefounder, an eminent miniature painter, who perceived his superior talents, and kindly fostered and encouraged them. In the last year of Mr Westall’s apprenticeship, Mr Thompson permitted him to draw at the Royal Academy, in the evenings; but for that indulgence he worked a corresponding number of hours in the morning. In 1786, Mr Westall was emancipated from, to his genius, a painful thraldom, and immediately commenced his splendid career. (Gentleman’s Magazine [February 1837]: 213)

He exhibited at the RA 1784–1836. In 1793 Farington noted, “Westall at this time supports his Father, Mother, a Brother, and a Sister, who is blind. They now reside at Hampstead. His Father was formerly a Brewer at Norwich” (1: 5). He was made ARA in 1792 and RA in 1794, enjoying considerable success for his ambitious watercolor designs and paintings. His reputation declined after 1815, and he was latterly drawing master to Princess Victoria. He died unmarried in 1836.

Thomas Whitcombe

Registered as a student 8 March 1782, aged 18, 19 last May; painter (H413)

Thomas Whitcombe (1763–1824). Marine painter. His family background has been unclear, but he appears to be the son of Richard Whitcombe, merchant of London. He exhibited at the RA and British Institution 1783–1824, initially from 43 St. Mary Axe (Leadenhall Street). The address was that of Richard Whitcombe, who is listed as “merchant” in the London Directory, 1780, and appeared as a subscriber of the General Dispensary for the Relief of the Poor in 1776. The Elizabeth Whitcombe insured as a tailor at that address in 1803 may be his widowed mother (LMA).

He may be the Thomas Whitcombe, aged 27, of St. Paul, Covent Garden, who married, in 1791, Elizabeth Young. He may have remarried, as his widow was identified as Mrs. A. Whitcombe when she applied to the AGBI in 1825: Widow of the late Mr T Whitcombe. Painter of Marine Views; formerly a Student and for the last 40 years an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, who died last May leaving his widow & his youngest Son a Youth of 19 years Old & afflicted with lameness completely without support. (AGBI Applicants’ Book)

She was initially declined, “not being properly attested,” but subsequently received charity from the AGBI.

Charles Wilkin

Registered as a student 7 January 1784, aged 28, 4 November last; painter (H447)

Charles Wilkin (1755–1814). Engraver. His family background has not been established, but he seems likely to be related to the engravers named Wilkin active in Norwich. Awarded a premium at the Society of Arts in 1771. The Charles Wilkin noted as bankrupt in 1778, “formerly of Gutter-lane, Cheapside, and late of St. Giles in Norwich, Engraver,” may be this student or his father or another relative (Norfolk Chronicle 4 July 1778). Thomas Wilkin, “Engraver and Copper-plate Printer” of Hog-Hill, Norwich, had advertised for a journeyman tallow-chandler in 1777 (Norfolk Chronicle 13 September 1777). He exhibited at the RA 1783–1808, initially from 52 Wells Street, Oxford Street. Noted for his stipple engravings of contemporary portraits, working from Ranelagh Street, Pimlico (where he was insured in 1790; LMA), and other London addresses. “He died from the effects of an accident” (Redgrave) in 1814, the mundane details of which were related in the press: Mr Wilkins, an engraver, at Somers Town, was a few evenings since, while drinking tea, balancing himself on the hind feet of his chair, when he lost his equilibrium, and fell with his head against a marble slab, by which his skull was fractured, and death ensued in consequence in four days. (Stamford Mercury 3 June 1814)

Solomon Williams

Registered as a student 26 January 1781, aged 23 last July; engraver (H385)

Solomon Williams (1757–1824). History and portrait painter. Born Dublin, the son of Richard Williams, goldsmith. He studied at the Dublin Society schools from 1771 and exhibited in Dublin. Traveled in Italy after studying at the academy, and based in Dublin from 1789, although he continued to work in London. He exhibited at the RA 1791–1806. He advertised in Bath in 1799, “Historical and Portrait Painter (Member of the Clementine Academy) … he has a Room calculated for establishing an Evening Academy” (Bath Chronicle 19 December 1799). He settled permanently in Dublin in 1809 and became a founder member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1823.

George Wilson

Registered as a student 2 April 1782, aged 17, 14 last February; painter (H418)

George Wilson (1765–active 1820). Subject painter. He seems likely to be the George Wilson apprenticed to William Walker, engraver of St. James, Clerkenwell, in 1783. William Walker’s son John registered as a student in 1783. Exhibited at the RA 1785–1819, initially from 457 Strand.

John Wilson

Registered as a student 7 January 1782, aged 16, 8 April next; painter (H408)

John Wilson (1766–active 1783). Portrait painter. His family background has not been established. Exhibited at the RA in 1783, from 35 Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place. 36 Charlotte Street was the home of Richard Wilson, and William Woollett.

Thomas Witchell

Registered as a student 31 March 1777, aged 22 last February; painter (H305)

Very likely the Thomas Witchell born 10 February 1755, baptized St. Luke, Finsbury, 5 March 1755, son of George Witchell and his wife Mary. Exhibited at the RA 1778–80, from 57 Titchfield Street, Oxford Street, and 79 Wells Street, Oxford Street. He is possibly the son of the mathematician George Witchell (1728–85), who had married before 1755, and whose eldest son, Thomas, was executor of his widowed father’s will, meaning he was over 21 at the date of its writing in 1777 (ODNB).

Dean Wolstenholm

Registered as a student 10 March 1783 (CM only)

Dean Wolstenholme (1757–1837). Sporting artist. Born Yorkshire, probably the son of Sir John Wolstenholme, Bart. He spent his younger years in Essex and Hertfordshire. “The possessor of considerable means, he was able to indulge the full passion for sport which is betrayed in his pictures …. At this time he dabbled in art merely for amusement, painting occasionally for friends portraits of horses and hounds and also scenes of sport” (Gilbey 2: 245). His studies at the academy were presumably pursued as an amateur. However, “by some misfortune (1793) he became involved in legal proceedings in connection with title of a property he had purchased at Waltham,” and, his funds depleted by drawn-out legal proceedings, he was obliged to move to London to take up art professionally (Gilbey 2: 245). He seems likely to be the Dean Wolstenholme, “the younger, of Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, innkeeper,” declared bankrupt (with an Essex-based attorney) in 1802 (Morning Post 17 May 1802). He exhibited at the RA 1803–24, initially from Turnford, Cheshunt. He died in London in 1837. The Dean Wolstenholme, “Chemist & Druggist,” who opened a shop in Leeds in 1824, is possibly related (Leeds Intelligencer 1 April 1824). His son, also Dean Wolstenholme (1798–1882), was an artist.

William Wood

Registered as a student 16 December 1785, aged 16, 19 March last; painter (H477) Noted in the life school register 30 September 1790

William Wood (1769–1809). Miniature painter. Born in Ipswich, “he is declared to have come from an old Suffolk Catholic family and to have been specially welcomed in Catholic circles,” although supporting evidence is lacking (George C. Williamson, The Miniature Collector [London, 1921] 163-64). His obituary notice termed him “William Wood, jun,” which suggests his father had the same name, but the elder William Wood’s identity has not been further established (Morning Post 25 November 1809). This student exhibited at the RA from 1791, visiting the West Country on several occasions to work as a miniaturist. He was a founder member of the New Society of Painters in Miniature and Watercolour in 1807. He died at his home in Golden Square, “at the prime of life” (Morning Post 25 November 1809).

Samuel Woodforde

Registered as a student 8 March 1782, aged 18, 29 last March; painter (H414) Noted in the life school register 16 January 1793
Marked as “dead” in the register

Samuel Woodforde (1763–1817). History and portrait painter. Born Ansford, near Castle Cary, Wiltshire, “of a respectable family, long settled in that county” (Redgrave). In 1807 he told Farington that he “was born at Allhampton a village near Castle Cary in Somersetshire February 29^th 1763” (Notebooks 4: 177). His parents were Heighes Woodforde (1726–89), accountant, and his wife Anne (1734–99), daughter and heir of Ralph Dorville, but it has been noted that his father was “in constant turmoil which resulted in a singular lack of money. He did little to provide for his large family” (William Drummond, Samuel Woodforde, Royal Academician, 1763–1817, exhibition catalogue, William Drummond at the Kyburg Gallery [1989]). He was supported by the Hoares of Stourhead, who knew his family. In 1807, Farington noted: Woodforde told me … that an Uncle of His, an Attorney, having business with the late Mr Hoare of Stourhead, had carried some drawings which he had made, when between 16 & 17 years old, to Mr Hoare, who immediately offered Him encouragement; allowed him to draw from pictures at Stourhead, & then sent Him to London to study at the Royal Academy. (8: 2941) His uncle, the Rev. James Woodforde, noted in his diary of January 1781 that he had a letter from Heighes Woodforde that “informs us that his son Sam was at Mr Hoare’s, and is taken great notice of by Mr Hoare for his ingenuity in Painting etc”; the next year he noted: He is very much grown and greatly improved—He is still at Mr Hoares of Stourhead and kindly patronised by him in his Painting—He sticks close to Painting and Mr Hoare has got him into the Royal Academy and pays all his Expenses—he has many Presents also from him. (Dorothy Heighes Woodforde, Woodforde Papers and Diaries [Bungay, 1990] 90) Exhibited RA 1785–1815. He was well connected with the academicians, dining with them for the king’s birthday in June 1785 and noting in October that he “dined and spent the day at Mr West’s” (Woodforde 92-93). He seems no longer to have been attending the academy schools by that date. A trip to Italy, where he remained 1785–91, was sponsored by the Hoares; he again traveled in Italy 1796–1802. He was elected ARA in 1801 and RA in 1807. He married, in 1814, Anne Gardner, said to be one of his models, and they traveled together to Italy, where he died of a fever in 1817. Waterhouse opines, “His art was lightweight and his fancy pictures are terrible, but his best portraits are quite accomplished.” Farington pointed to his comfortable financial circumstances: “Woodford had £12,000 in the 3 per cents, accumulated” (14: 5118).

Joseph Wright

Registered as a student 8 April 1775, aged 17, 16th last July; painter (H253) Silver medal 1778
Marked as “dead” in the register

Joseph Wright (1756–93). Portrait and miniature painter. Born Bordentown, New Jersey, the son of Joseph Wright (d. 1769), a cooper, and his wife Mrs. Patience Wright (Lovell; 1725–1806), wax modeler. After being widowed, Patience Wright set up a waxworks exhibition, which toured to Boston and New York but was destroyed by fire in 1771. He traveled with his mother to England after 1772, and became a pupil of Benjamin West. He was working in Norwich in 1773–74. He exhibited in London in 1780, a portrait of his mother at the RA, from “Mrs Wright’s, Cockspur Street, Haymarket,” but returned to the US in 1782, where he worked in New York and Philadelphia. His sister, Phoebe, married fellow student John Hoppner.