Thomas Burke was an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 engraver and painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

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Born in Dublin, Burke first trained in the Dublin Society's Schools under Robert West

Robert West (painter)

Robert West was an Irish artist, draughtsman and teacher. He was born in Waterford, where his father was an alderman. He studied drawing and painting at the French Academy under François Boucher and Jean-Baptiste van Loo....

, moving in 1770 to London where he studied mezzotint

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

 under John Dixon. He adopted the chalk method popularised by Bartolozzi

Francesco Bartolozzi

Francesco Bartolozzi was an Italian engraver, whose most productive period was spent in London.He was born in Florence...

, continuing to use both styles.

Most of Burke's mezzotints were engraved after Angelica Kauffmann

Angelica Kauffmann

Maria Anna Angelika/Angelica Katharina Kauffman was a Swiss-Austrian Neoclassical painter. Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.- Early years :She was born at Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland,...

 for William Wynne Ryland

William Wynne Ryland

William Wynne Ryland was an English engraver.-Life and work:Ryland was born in London, the eldest of seven sons of Edward Ryland , an engraver and copper-plate printer. He studied engraving under Ravenet in London, and, in Paris, drawing under François Boucher and engraving under Jacques-Philippe...

, who would teach him the 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:...

 technique. Burke preferred to work for publishers and seldom issued prints himself, the engravings typically featured subject pictures.

He died in London on 31 December 1815.

Burke's best known work was a popular print after Fuseli, The Nightmare

The Nightmare

The Nightmare is a 1781 oil painting by Anglo-Swiss artist Henry Fuseli . Since its creation, it has remained Fuseli's best-known work. With its first exhibition in 1782 at the Royal Academy of London, the image became famous; an engraved version was widely distributed and the painting was parodied...

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