Joseph Collyer
Encyclopedia
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
and portrait engraver to the British Queen Consort, Queen Charlotte
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the Queen consort of the United Kingdom as the wife of King George III...
.
Life and work
Collyer, the younger, was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the son of Joseph Collyer (d. 1776), editor and translator, and Mary Collyer
Mary Collyer
Mary Collyer was an English translator and novelist.Mary Collyer was part of the John "Bankes" pedigree which can be viewed at Geoff's Genealogy...
(née Mitchell, d. 1763), translator and novelist. He studied for a short time under the engraver Anthony Walker
Anthony Walker (artist)
Anthony Walker was an English Printmaker/Artist who was born in 1726 and died in 1765. He lived in England. Many of his works can be viewed at the Tate Gallery in London. He was also a renowned draftsman. He served an apprenticeship to John Tinney, who produced many tographical plates. Much of his...
, and applied himself to book illustrations with success. He attracted the notice of John Boydell
John Boydell
John Boydell was an 18th-century British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition in the art form...
and was employed to make an engraving after David Teniers
David Teniers
David Teniers may refer to three Flemish artists, father, son, and grandson:*David Teniers the Elder , turned from large religious paintings to landscapes and genre scenes...
. In 1761 he was awarded a premium from the Society of Arts; about nine years later he entered the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
, where he exhibited for the first time in 1770. He was admitted as a student in 1771.
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
allowed Collyer to reproduce two of his paintings, "Venus" and "Una", as chalk engravings (a type of stipple engraving
Stippling
Stippling is the creation of a pattern simulating varying degrees of solidity or shading by using small dots. Such a pattern may occur in nature and these effects are frequently emulated by artists.-Art:...
). He engraved some large plates including, 'The Volunteers of Ireland' after Francis Wheatley
Francis Wheatley (painter)
Francis Wheatley was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Life and work:Wheatley was born at Wild Court, Covent Garden, London, the son of a master tailor. He studied at William Shipley's drawing school and the Royal Academy, and won several prizes from the Society of Arts...
, published in 1784. In 1786 he was elected an associate engraver of the Royal Academy, and appointed portrait engraver to Queen Charlotte. In 1815 he was master warden of the Stationers' Company
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
.
Among his engraved portraits may be mentioned those of the Princess of Wales
Caroline of Brunswick
Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was the Queen consort of King George IV of the United Kingdom from 29 January 1820 until her death...
and the Princess Charlotte (1799); George, Duke of Montagu
George Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu
George Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, KG PC, FRS was a British peer.He was born George Brudenell in 1712 at Cardigan House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in London, the son of the 3rd Earl of Cardigan and his wife, the former Lady Elizabeth Bruce...
(1793); Sir Charles Grey
Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey, KB PC was one of the most important British generals of the 18th century. He was the fourth son of Sir Henry Grey, 1st Baronet, of Howick in Northumberland. He served in the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence and French Revolutionary War...
, K.B. (1797); Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
(1789); Qian Long
Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor was the sixth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. The fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor, he reigned officially from 11 October 1735 to 8 February 1796...
, emperor of China (1796); Thomas Newton
Thomas Newton
Thomas Newton was an English cleric, biblical scholar and author. He served as the Bishop of Bristol from 1761 to 1782....
, Bishop of Bristol; Mary Palmer (1785); William Whitehead
William Whitehead
__FORCETOC__William Whitehead was an English poet and playwright. He became Poet Laureate in 1757 after Thomas Gray declined the position.-Life:...
(1787); Paul Whitehead (1776); and Sir William Young
Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet
William Young was a British colonial governor, politician and sugar plantation owner. He was the governor of Grenada in 1776 and British Guiana from 8 March 1777–3 April 1777 and Tobago from 1807 – January 1815....
. Collyer also engraved the illustrations to Hervey's Naval History,' besides several plates after Rooker
Michael Angelo Rooker
Michael "Angelo" Rooker was an English oil and watercolour painter of architecture and landscapes, illustrator and engraver. He was also the principal scene painter at the Haymarket Theatre.-Life and work:...
. He last exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1822, and died on 24 December 1827.
Engraver James Heath
James Heath (engraver)
James Heath was an English engraver. He enjoyed the patronage of George III and successive monarchs, and was an associate engraver of the Royal Academy.-Life and work:...
was one of his apprentices.
External links
- Biography (Geoff's Genealogy)
- Portrait engravings by Collyer (National Portrait Gallery, London)
- Scene from Shakespeare's "King Henry the Eighth" (1796, engraving after William Peters (painter)William Peters (painter)Matthew William Peters was an English portrait and genre painter who later became an Anglican clergyman and chaplain to George IV. He became known as "William" when he started signing his works as "W...
- artoftheprint.com) - Sir Charles Grey, K.B] (1797, engraving after Thomas LawrenceThomas LawrenceThomas Lawrence may refer to:*Sir Thomas Lawrence, British artist, President of Royal Academy*Thomas Lawrence , mayor of colonial Philadelphia*T. E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia"*Thomas Lawrence , U.S. politician...
) - Felina (1790, stipple engraving after Joshua Reynolds - Donald A. Heald )