Life

Simmons was born on 11 June 1811. He became a pupil of William Finden

William Finden

William Finden was an English line engraver.He served his apprenticeship to one James Mitan, but appears to have owed far more to the influence of James Heath, whose works he privately and earnestly studied...

, the line engraver

Line engraving

Line engraving is a term for engraved images printed on paper to be used as prints or illustrations. The term is now much less used and when is, it is mainly in connection with 18th or 19th century commercial illustrations for magazines and books, or reproductions of paintings.Steel engraving is...

, but eventually he almost entirely abandoned that style of the art for mezzotinto, in which he attained a high degree of excellence.

Simmons died, after a short illness, at 247 Hampstead Road, London, on 10 June 1882, and was buried in Highgate cemetery

Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....

.

Works

Several of his best known plates are after pictures by Thomas Faed

Thomas Faed

Thomas Faed RSA was a Scottish painter who is said to have done for Scottish art what Robert Burns did for Scottish song.Faed was born on 8 June 1826, in Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, and was the brother of John Faed....

, R.A., and comprise 'Highland Mary,' 'Coming Events,' 'Daddie's Coming,' 'His only Pair,' 'Sunday in the Backwoods,' 'The Last of the Clan,' 'New Wars to an Old Soldier,' 'The Poor, the Poor Man's Friend,' 'A Wee Bit Fractious,' 'Baith Faither and Mither,' and 'Happy as the Day's long.'

After Sir Edwin Landseer he engraved 'Rustic Beauty' (the single figure of a girl from the 'Highland Whisky Still'), 'Catharine Seyton,' 'Odin,' 'The Princess Beatrice on Donald,' 'Royal Sports' (the Queen in the Highlands), 'The Sick Monkey,' 'On Trust,' 'Balmoral, 1860,' 'Queen Victoria' (an oval), 'Dominion' (Van Amburgh and his animals), 'The Fatal Duel,' 'Well-bred Sitters that never say they are bored,' and the smaller plates of 'The Sanctuary,' 'The Maid and the Magpie,' and 'The Taming of the Shrew.'

Other important works by him are

• 'The Light of the World' and 'Claudio and Isabella,' after William Holman Hunt
  William Holman Hunt
  William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Biography:...
  
  ;
• 'The Proscribed Royalist,' 'The Parable of the Lost Piece of Money,' and 'Rosalind and Celia,' after Sir John Everett Millais
  John Everett Millais
  Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
  
  ;
• 'Broken Vows,' after Philip H. Calderon
• 'The Blind Beggar,' after J. L. Dyckmans;
• 'Luff, Boy,' after James Clarke Hook
  James Clarke Hook
  James Clarke Hook RA was an English painter of marine, genre and historical scenes, and landscapes.-Life:...
  
  , R.A.;
• 'Hesperus,' 'In Memoriam,' 'Mors Janua Vitæ,' and 'Thy Will be done,' after Sir Joseph Noel Paton
  Joseph Noel Paton
  Sir Joseph Noel Paton FRSA, LL. D. was a Scottish artist, born in Wooer's Alley, Dunfermline, Fife.Born to a family of weavers who worked with damask, Joseph continued the family trade for a short time...
  
  , R.S.A.;
• 'The Marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales,' after W. P. Frith, R.A.;
• 'Boswell's Introduction to Dr. Johnson,' after Eyre Crowe, A.R.A.;
• 'Christ weeping over Jerusalem,' after Sir Charles Lock Eastlake
  Charles Lock Eastlake
  Sir Charles Lock Eastlake RA was an English painter, gallery director, collector and writer of the early 19th century.-Early life:...
  
  , P.R.A.;
• 'An Old Monarch,' 'A Humble Servant,' 'An Old Pensioner,' and the small plate of 'The Horse Fair,' after Rosa Bonheur;
• 'The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism,' after Gustave Doré
  Gustave Doré
  Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
  
  .

He engraved also many plates from paintings by Thomas Brooks, Henry O'Neil, A.R.A., George B. O'Neill, George Henry Boughton

George Henry Boughton

George Henry Boughton was an Anglo-American landscape and genre painter, illustrator and writer.-Life and work:...

, R.A., Philip R. Morris, A.R.A., Richard Ansdell

Richard Ansdell

Richard Ansdell was an English oil painter of animals and genre scenes. He was also an engraver.-Life:Ansdell was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, the son of Thomas Griffiths Ansdell, a freeman who worked at the port, and Anne Jackson. His father died young and Richard was educated at the Bluecoat...

, R.A., Henry Le Jeune, A.R.A., James Sant

James Sant

James Sant CVO, RA was a British painter specializing in portraits, and a member of the Royal Academy.Sant was born in Croydon and taught by John Varley and Augustus Wall Callcott. He lived to the age of 96 and produced an astonishing number of canvases for exhibition at the Academy, some 250 of...

, R.A., Frank Stone

Frank Stone

Frank Stone , was an English painter. He was born in Manchester, and was entirely self-taught.He was elected an associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1833 and member in 1843; and an associate of the Royal Academy in 1851.The works he first exhibited at the Academy were portraits,...

, A.R.A., Edouard Frère

Édouard Frère

Édouard Frère was a French bookseller, archivist, biographer, and historian specialized in the Normandy area.-Life:...

, and others.

He left unfinished 'The Lion at Home,' after Rosa Bonheur

Rosa Bonheur

Rosa Bonheur, born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, was a French animalière, realist artist, and sculptor. As a painter she became famous primarily for two chief works: Ploughing in the Nivernais , which was first exhibited at the Salon of 1848, and is now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris depicts a team...

, which was completed by Thomas L. Atkinson. Several of his engravings appeared at 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...

between 1857 and 1882.