William Sharp (engraver)
Encyclopedia
William Sharp was an English
line-engraver and artist.
who lived at Haydon's Yard, Minories
in central London
. He was apprenticed to the bright-cut engraver and genealogist, Barak Longmate
(1738–93), and after marriage, to a Frenchwoman, set himself up as a writing engraver in Bartholomew lane (off Threadneedle Street
).
His first notable work was an engraving of "Hector", an old Lion
at the Tower of London
. Around 1782, he sold the shop and moved to Vauxhall
, intending to specialise in the higher branches (i.e. engraving for printing) of the engraver's art. Among his earlier plates are some illustrations, after Stothard
, for the Novelists' Magazine. He also completed the plate of Benjamin West
's "Landing of Charles II" which William Woollett
had left unfinished at the time of his death, engraved some of the illustrations by artists who travelled with Captain Cook on his famous voyages, and J. H. Benwell
's "Children in the Wood". He finally settled at Chiswick
where he remained for the rest of his life.
He engraved the "Doctors Disputing on the Immaculateness of the Virgin" and "Ecce Homo" (after Guido Reni
); "King Lear in the Storm" and "The Witch of Endor (after Benjaimin West); "The sortie from Gibralter" (after John Trumbull
); the portrait of John Hunter
and "The Holy Family (after Joshua Reynolds
); "St Cecilia" (after Domenichino
) and "Virgin and Child" (after Dolci
).
Sharps's style of engraving was thoroughly masterly and original, the half-tints rich and full, and the play of his lines marked by taste and genius. His excellence was also acknowledged abroad and he became an honorary member of the Imperial Academy
in Vienna
and the Royal Academy
in Munich
.
Sharp's portrait was painted by George Francis Joseph (1764–1846) and engraved by Sharp himself, and a 3/4-length portrait was painted by James Lonsdale (illustrated). James Thomson (1788–1850) engraved another portrait.
Sharp died at Chiswick
on the 25th of July 1824, and was buried in the parish churchyard there.
and Horne Tooke
, and became a member of the "Society for Constitutional Information
. As a result of a legal dispute involving Horne Took, Sharp was questioned by the Privy council
on charges relating to treason, but was eventually dismissed without punishment as merely an "enthusiast".
He became a convert to the teachings of Mesmer and Swedenborg and came under the religious influence of would-be visionary, Jacob Bryan (who worked for Sharp as a printer for a time), and millennialist prophet Richard Brothers
, engraving the latter as "Prince of the Hebrews". After Brothers incarceration in an insane asylum in Islington
, Sharp became an adherent of prophetess, Joanna Southcott
, whom he brought from Exeter
to London and kept at his own expense for a considerable time; he made a portrait drawing if her which he engraved. Despite her apparently premature death he never lost faith in her divine mission or the possibility that she would reappear, and wrote a book in her defense: "An answer to the world etc." (London, 1806).
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
line-engraver and artist.
Life and work
Sharp was the son of a reputable gunsmithGunsmith
A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds firearms. This occupation is different from an armorer. The armorer primarily maintains weapons and limited repairs involving parts replacement and possibly work involving accurization...
who lived at Haydon's Yard, Minories
Minories
The Minories is the name of both an area and street in the City of London close to the Tower of London. The street called Minories runs north-south between Aldgate and Tower Hill underground stations...
in central London
London
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...
. He was apprenticed to the bright-cut engraver and genealogist, Barak Longmate
Barak Longmate
Barak Longmate was an English genealogist and editor, heraldic engraver and publisher.-Life and work:Longmate was born in 1738, son of Barak and Elizabeth Longmate of St James's, Westminster in London. He engraved some topographical drawings, but was more distinguished as an heraldic engraver...
(1738–93), and after marriage, to a Frenchwoman, set himself up as a writing engraver in Bartholomew lane (off Threadneedle Street
Threadneedle Street
Threadneedle Street is a street in the City of London, leading from a junction with Poultry, Cornhill, King William Street and Lombard Street, to Bishopsgate....
).
His first notable work was an engraving of "Hector", an old Lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
at the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
. Around 1782, he sold the shop and moved to Vauxhall
Vauxhall
-Demography:Many Vauxhall residents live in social housing. There are several gentrified areas, and areas of terraced townhouses on streets such as Fentiman Road and Heyford Avenue have higher property values in the private market, however by far the most common type of housing stock within...
, intending to specialise in the higher branches (i.e. engraving for printing) of the engraver's art. Among his earlier plates are some illustrations, after Stothard
Thomas Stothard
Thomas Stothard was an English painter, illustrator and engraver.-Life and work:Stothard was born in London, the son of a well-to-do innkeeper in Long Acre, London. A delicate child, he was sent at the age of five to a relative in Yorkshire, and attended school at Acomb, and afterwards at...
, for the Novelists' Magazine. He also completed the plate of Benjamin West
Benjamin West
Benjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
's "Landing of Charles II" which William Woollett
William Woollett
William Woollett was an English engraver. He was born at Maidstone, of a family which came originally from the Netherlands....
had left unfinished at the time of his death, engraved some of the illustrations by artists who travelled with Captain Cook on his famous voyages, and J. H. Benwell
John Hodges Benwell
John Hodges Benwell was an English genre painter.He was born at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire where his father was under-steward to George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough...
's "Children in the Wood". He finally settled at Chiswick
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
where he remained for the rest of his life.
He engraved the "Doctors Disputing on the Immaculateness of the Virgin" and "Ecce Homo" (after Guido Reni
Guido Reni
Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...
); "King Lear in the Storm" and "The Witch of Endor (after Benjaimin West); "The sortie from Gibralter" (after John Trumbull
John Trumbull
John Trumbull was an American artist during the period of the American Revolutionary War and was notable for his historical paintings...
); the portrait of John Hunter
John Hunter (surgeon)
John Hunter FRS was a Scottish surgeon regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. He was an early advocate of careful observation and scientific method in medicine. The Hunterian Society of London was named in his honour...
and "The Holy Family (after 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...
); "St Cecilia" (after Domenichino
Domenico Zampieri
Domenico Zampieri was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School, or Carracci School, of painters.-Life:...
) and "Virgin and Child" (after Dolci
Carlo Dolci
Carlo Dolci was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence, known for highly finished religious pictures, often repeated in many versions.-Biography:...
).
Sharps's style of engraving was thoroughly masterly and original, the half-tints rich and full, and the play of his lines marked by taste and genius. His excellence was also acknowledged abroad and he became an honorary member of the Imperial Academy
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, Austria.- History :The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy by the court-painter Peter Strudl, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled as Baron of the Empire...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and the Royal Academy
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich was founded 1808 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in Munich as the "Royal Academy of Fine Arts" and is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
Sharp's portrait was painted by George Francis Joseph (1764–1846) and engraved by Sharp himself, and a 3/4-length portrait was painted by James Lonsdale (illustrated). James Thomson (1788–1850) engraved another portrait.
Sharp died at Chiswick
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
on the 25th of July 1824, and was buried in the parish churchyard there.
Politics and Religion
Sharpe was a republican and a friend of Thomas PaineThomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
and Horne Tooke
John Horne Tooke
John Horne Tooke was an English politician and philologist.-Early life and work:He was born in Newport Street, Long Acre, Westminster, the third son of John Horne, a poulterer in Newport Market. As a youth at Eton College, Tooke described his father to friends as a "turkey merchant"...
, and became a member of the "Society for Constitutional Information
Society for Constitutional Information
Founded in 1780 by Major John Cartwright to promote parliamentary reform, the Society for Constitutional Information flourished until 1783, but thereafter made little headway...
. As a result of a legal dispute involving Horne Took, Sharp was questioned by the Privy council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
on charges relating to treason, but was eventually dismissed without punishment as merely an "enthusiast".
He became a convert to the teachings of Mesmer and Swedenborg and came under the religious influence of would-be visionary, Jacob Bryan (who worked for Sharp as a printer for a time), and millennialist prophet Richard Brothers
Richard Brothers
Richard Brothers was born in Port Kirwan, Newfoundland and Labrador and became well known as both an early believer and teacher of Anglo-Israelism...
, engraving the latter as "Prince of the Hebrews". After Brothers incarceration in an insane asylum in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, Sharp became an adherent of prophetess, Joanna Southcott
Joanna Southcott
Joanna Southcott , was a self-described religious prophetess. She was born at Gittisham in Devon, England.-Self-revelation:...
, whom he brought from Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
to London and kept at his own expense for a considerable time; he made a portrait drawing if her which he engraved. Despite her apparently premature death he never lost faith in her divine mission or the possibility that she would reappear, and wrote a book in her defense: "An answer to the world etc." (London, 1806).
Further reading
- Cunningham, George Godfrey. Lives of eminent and illustrious Englishmen, volume 8 (Glasgow, A. Fullarton & Co., 1838) p. 277.
- Baker, William Spohn. William Sharp, engraver (Philadelphia, Gebbie & Barrie, 1875).
External links
- National Portrait Gallery
- William Sharp, Thomas Paine, a print after a painting by George Romney (British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
) - Obituary of William Sharp (The New Monthly MagazineThe New Monthly MagazineThe New Monthly Magazine was a British monthly magazine published by Henry Colburn between 1814 and 1884.-History:Colburn and Frederic Shoberl established The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register as a "virulently Tory" competitor to Sir Richard Phillips' Monthly Magazine in 1814...
, 1 Sep 1824)