William Woollett

File:William Woollett by Gilbert Stuart 1783.jpeg

William Woollett, oil on canvas, by Gilbert Stuart, 1783. Tate Britain

William Woollett (15 August 1735 – 23 May 1785) was an English engraver operating in the 18th century.

Life

He was born at Maidstone, of a family which came originally from the Netherlands.

He was apprenticed to John Tinney, an engraver in Fleet Street, London, and studied in the St Martin's Lane academy. His first important plate was from the "Niobe" of Richard Wilson, published by Boydell in 1761, which was followed in 1763 by a companion engraving from the "Phaethon" of the same painter. After Benjamin West he engraved his fine plate of the "Battle of La Hogue" (1781), and "The Death of General Wolfe" (1776), which is usually considered Woollett's masterpiece. In 1775 he was appointed engraver-in-ordinary to George III; and he was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, of which for several years he acted as secretary.

In his plates, which unite work with the etching-needle, the dry-point and the graver, Woollett shows the greatest richness and variety of execution. In his landscapes the rendering of water is particularly excellent. In his portraits and historical subjects the rendering of flesh is characterized by great softness and delicacy. His works rank among the great productions of the English school of engraving. Louis Fagan, in his Catalogue Raisonné of the Engraved Works of William Woollett (1885), has enumerated 123 plates by this engraver.

Woollett's The Battle at La Hogue (1781), after a painting by Benjamin West.

He died in London and is one of the many lost graves in Old St. Pancras Churchyard. He is not listed on the memorial to important lost graves erected in the 19th century.

Memorials

A monument to his memory, by Thomas Banks, stands in Westminster Abbey.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Further reading

• Fagin, Lewis. A catalogue raisonné of the engraved works of William Woollett (London, The Fine art society Ltd., 1885).
• Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers, volume 5 (New York: Macmillan, 1903) p394.

External links

• William Woollett and family (woolletthistory.co.uk)
• Engravings by Woolett (Government Art Collection)
• William Woollett & William Hogarth – Frontispiece to Taylor's Perspective (Art of the Print)
• Phaeton (engraving after Richard Wilson)
• Works by Woolett (National Portrait gallery, London)
• Woollett's grave