WILLIAM

See also:

• WILLIAM WOOLLETT (1735-1785)

WOOLLETT (1735-1785)  , English engraver, was born at Maidstone, of a family which came originally from Holland, on the 15th of August 1735 . 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 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 . He died in London on the 23rd of May 1785 . 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 Raisonnt of the Engraved Works of William Woollett (1885), has enumerated 123 plates by this engraver .