English engraving

History of English Engraving

The English school of engraving developed later than its European counterparts, but its flourishing in the 18th century was remarkably rapid and brilliant. While foreign masters primarily worked in the British Isles during the 16th and 17th centuries, the situation had changed dramatically by the early 1700s.

The rise English engraving was inextricably linked to the golden age of the national school of painting. Works by artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and William Hogarth needed to be reproduced and widely distributed, and engraving brilliantly fulfilled this role. Hogarth himself, a founder of the English painting tradition, began his career as an engraver and masterfully used the print medium to disseminate his satirical and moral series like A Rake's Progress and Marriage à-la-mode. A true triumph of the English school was its mastery and development of tonal engraving techniques, which achieved an unprecedented painterly quality and softness in printmaking. Mezzotint: This technique, invented in Germany, was perfected by English engravers to such a degree that it became known as "la manière anglaise" (the English manner). Instead of lines, the engraver works with patches of light and shadow, giving the print a remarkable depth and velvety texture. Stipple: This technique, based on a pattern of dots, was refined in England by the Italo-Swiss engraver Francesco Bartolozzi, who imbued it with particular elegance and grace. Stipple was ideal for capturing the nuances of watercolors and pastels and was frequently used in book illustration.

Thus, 18th-century English engraving represents far more than mere reproduction; it stands as a significant and independent chapter in the history of world art, introducing new techniques and creating unparalleled masterpieces of printed graphics.

Masters of English Engraving:

William Hogarth

Francesco Bartolozzi

John Smith

James McArdell

Valentin Green

Richard Earlom

John Raphael Smith

William Woollett

Robert Strange

William Blake