mezzotint
Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonali ...
engraver.
Life
Miller was reputedly born London, from a Scottish background. He was a pupil of
, and the earliest date on his own plates is 1737.
After working for some years in London, Miller went to Dublin and settled there. He was invited to do so by John Brooks and they initially worked together, trying to break a London monopoly on mezzotint engraving. Together they had a strong group of pupils—
James McArdell
James MacArdell (1729?–1765) was an Irish mezzotinter.
Life
He was born in Cow Lane (later Greek Street), Dublin, around 1729. He learnt mezzotint-engraving from John Brooks. When Brooks moved to London in 1746, MacArdell and other pupils foll ...
,
Richard Houston
Richard Houston (1721?–1775) was an Irish mezzotint engraver, whose career was mostly in London.
Life
Born in Dublin about 1721, he became a pupil of John Brooks, who was also the master of James McArdell and Charles Spooner. He came to Londo ...
Charles Spooner
Charles Spooner (died 5 December 1767 London) was an Irish mezzotinter, who worked in London towards the end of his life.
Life
He was born in County Wexford, and became a pupil of John Brooks. He came to London before 1756. There he mainly wo ...
—and the main burden of training them may have been Miller's. In 1746 the "Dublin group" broke up, with Brooks returning to England in company with McArdell and Houston. Miller's Dublin plates, which are dated from 1743 to 1756, were mostly published by himself "on Hog Hill, near the Round Church", and some bear also the address of Michael Ford.
Miller is said to have shortened his life by drinking. He died in Dublin in September 1763.
Works
Miller's portraits numbered more than 60. They included:
*
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
, after
Francis Bindon
Francis Bindon (c.1690 – 1765) was a popular architect and painter in 18th century Ireland. Bindon was highly regarded by his contemporaries and was commissioned to design buildings and paint portraits for some of Ireland's most prominent fig ...
(1743);
*
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...
, after
Johann Kerseboom
Johann Kerseboom (died October 26, 1708) was a German painter. His date of birth is not known.
Kerseboom was born in Germany, and was the nephew of the painter Frederick Kerseboom. In the 1680s he traveled to England with Frederick, where he even ...
;
*
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, (22 September 169424 March 1773) was a British statesman, diplomat, and man of letters, and an acclaimed wit of his time.
Early life
He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Ches ...
, after
William Hoare
William Hoare of Bath (c. 1707 – 12 December 1792) was a British portraitist, painter and printmaker. From c. 1740 to 1759, he was the leading Oil painting, oil portraitist at Bath, Somerset, until Thomas Gainsborough arrived in the town. ...
;
*
Prince William, Duke of Cumberland
Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (15 April 1721 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">N.S..html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki> N.S.">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html"_;"title="/nowiki>Old_Style_and_New_St ...
David Garrick
David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Sa ...
as Richard III, after
William Hogarth
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...
;
*
John Hampden
John Hampden (24 June 1643) was an English landowner and politician whose opposition to arbitrary taxes imposed by Charles I made him a national figure. An ally of Parliamentarian leader John Pym, and cousin to Oliver Cromwell, he was one of th ...
;
* Archbishop
William King William King may refer to:
Arts
*Willie King (1943–2009), American blues guitarist and singer
*William King (author) (born 1959), British science fiction author and game designer, also known as Bill King
*William King (artist) (1925–2015), Ame ...
, after
Charles Jervas
Charles Jervas (also Jarvis and Jervis; c. 1675 – 2 November 1739) was an Irish portrait painter, translator, and art collector of the early 18th century.
Early life
Born in Shinrone, County Offaly, Ireland around 1675, the son of John Je ...
;
*
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough
General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reign ...
, after
Godfrey Kneller
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723), was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to Kingdom of England, English and Br ...
James Ussher
James Ussher (or Usher; 4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific scholar and church leader, who today is most famous for his ident ...
, after
Peter Lely
Sir Peter Lely (14 September 1618 – 7 December 1680) was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.
Life
Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch ...
Benjamin Vandergucht
Benjamin Vandergucht or Van der Gucht (1753–1794) was a picture-dealer, restorer and painter.
Life
He was the thirty-second child of Gerard Vandergucht the engraver, and one of twins. He studied drawing in St Martin's Lane Academy, and on th ...
George Whitefield
George Whitefield (; 30 September 1770), also known as George Whitfield, was an Anglican cleric and evangelist who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement.
Born in Gloucester, he matriculated at Pembroke College at th ...
, after M. Jenkin.
An engraving of
Charles Lucas
Sir Charles Lucas, 1613 to 28 August 1648, was a professional soldier from Essex, who served as a Cavalier, Royalist cavalry leader during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Taken prisoner at the end of the First English Civil War in March 1646, ...
, after William Jones, saw Miller in political trouble. Lucas was an opposition figure, and Miller also supported him in print, in the newsletter of James Esdall. In late 1649 the government reacted, and Miller spent some time in
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, t ...
.
Some of Miller's portraits are copies of prints by
Jacobus Houbraken
Jacobus Houbraken (25 December 1698 – 14 November 1780) was a Dutch engraver and the son of the artist and biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719), whom he assisted in producing a published record of the lives of artists from the Dutch Go ...
,
George Vertue
George Vertue (1684 – 24 July 1756) was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.
Life
Vertue was born in 1684 in St Martin-in-the-Fields, ...
, and others: he was known for plagiarism. He also produced some subjects after
Jacques Courtin
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
,
Rosalba Carriera
Rosalba Carriera (12 January 1673 – 15 April 1757) was a Venetian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures. Carriera would later become known for her pastel portraits, helping popularize the medium in eighte ...
,
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...