Caroline Watson (1761?–1814) was an English stipple engraver.

Life

The daughter of the Irish engraver James Watson, she was born in London in 1760 or 1761, and studied under her father, who worked in mezzotint. She was known for her skilled worked in the stipple method, was particularly known for reproductions of miniatures, and was the only woman engraver to serve as an independent engraver in the British 18th century. She came to prominence as an engraver at about the same time as women began to make up a significant proportion print consumers. Her career began to wind down after 1810 due to ill health, and she died at Pimlico on 10 June 1814.

Works

Watson's plates were numerous. In 1784 she engraved a portrait of

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, after Joshua Reynolds, and in 1785 a pair of small plates of the Princesses Sophia and Mary, after

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, which she dedicated to

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. She was then appointed engraver to Queen. She engraved portraits of: * Sir James Harris, and the Hon. Mrs. Stanhope, both after Joshua Reynolds; * Catherine II of Russia, after

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; and *

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, after Gilbert Stuart; and * Samuel Cooper's reputed portrait of John Milton. Other works were: * ''The Marriage of St. Catherine'', after

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; * the plates to

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's ''Life of Romney'', for which she replaced William Blake as primary engraver; * for

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's ''Shakespeare'', the ''Death of Cardinal Beaufort'', after Reynolds, and a scene from '' The Tempest'', after Francis Wheatley. Watson also executed a set of

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. ...

s of the ''Progress of Female Virtue and Female Dissipation'', from designs by

Maria Cosway Maria Luisa Caterina Cecilia Cosway (ma-RYE-ah; née Hadfield; 11 June 1760 – 5 January 1838) was an Italian-English painter, musician, and educator. She worked in England, in France, and later in Italy, cultivating a large circle of friends a ...

. She engraved several pictures belonging to the Marquess of Bute.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Caroline 1761 births 1814 deaths 18th-century engravers 18th-century English women artists Artists from London English engravers English people of Irish descent Women engravers