WILLIAM

See also:

• SHARP, GRANVILLE (1735-1813)
• SHARP, JAMES (1618-1679)
• SHARP, JOHN (1645-1714)
• SHARP, RICHARD (1759-1835)
• WILLIAM SHARP (1749-1824)
• SHARP, WILLIAM (1856-1905)

SHARP (1749-1824)  , English line-engraver, was born at London on the 29th of January 1749 . He was originally apprenticed to what is called a bright engraver, and practised as a writing engraver, but gradually became inspired by the higher branches of the engraver's art . Among his earlier plates are some illustrations, after Stothard, for the Novelists' Magazine . He engraved the " Doctors Disputing on the Immaculateness of the Virgin " and the " Ecce Homo " of Guido Reni, the ";St Cecilia" of Domenichino, the " Virgin and Child" of Dolci, and the portrait of John Hunter of Sir Joshua Reynolds . His style of en-graving is thoroughly masterly and original, excellent in its play of line and rendering of half-tints and of " colour." He died at Chiswick on the 25th of July 1824 . In his youth, owing to his hotly expressed adherence to the politics of Paine and Horne Tooke, he was examined by the privy council on a charge of treason . Mesmer and Brothers found in Sharp a stanch believer and for long he maintained Joanna Southcott at his own expense . As an engraver he achieved a European reputation, and at the, time of his death he enjoyed the honour of being a member of the Imperial Academy of Vienna and of the Royal Academy of Munich .