David Charles Read (1790–1851) was an English painter and etcher.

Life

Born at Boldre, near Lymington, Hampshire, on 1 March 1790, Read went to London at an early age, and worked under

John Scott John Scott may refer to: Academics * John Scott (1639–1695), English clergyman and devotional writer * John Witherspoon Scott (1800–1892), American minister, college president, and father of First Lady Caroline Harrison * John Work Scott (180 ...

the engraver; but, in poor health, he returned to the country. In January 1820, Read settled at Salisbury, where he lived in the Cathedral close until 1845. He found employment as a drawing-master, and spent his spare time in sketching in pencil, water-colour, and oils. On leaving Salisbury in 1845, Read spent more than a year in Italy. His health became seriously impaired towards the end of 1849, and he died at his residence, 24 Bedford Place,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, London, on 28 May 1851.

Works

In early days, Read engraved plates for a '' Pilgrim's Progress'' published by William Sharp at Romsey (1816–17), and other works. He worked mainly in the open air. In 1826, he began etching, and produced plates to 1844: the total number of his etchings is 237. Sixteen of those were portraits; the rest are landscapes. Technically, Read's work is interesting from the use of

dry-point Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The ...

, unusual with English etchers of the period. Read sent his earliest plates to be printed in London, but then obtained a press and made the impressions. Six series of etchings were published by him between 1829 and 1845. The fifth of these (1840) was a series of thirteen views of the English lakes. The remainder were selected from his miscellaneous works. Two series were dedicated to Queen Adelaide. In 1845, he destroyed 63 of the plates; the rest were destroyed by his family after his death. On his return from Italy, Read concentrated on painting in oils, producing some pictures for Dr. Coope between 1846 and 1849, though he did not exhibit after 1840. Between 1823 and 1840, he sent one landscape to the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

, seven to the

British Institution The British Institution (in full, the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom; founded 1805, disbanded 1867) was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it w ...

, and six to the Suffolk Street Gallery. Read etched his own portrait from a water-colour sketch by John Linnell (1819). A short catalogue of the etchings was printed at Salisbury in 1832. An exhaustive manuscript catalogue, with a memoir of the artist, compiled (1871–4) by his son, Raphael W. Read, F.R.C.S., went to the print-room at the British Museum.

Legacy

Read presented to the British Museum in 1833 and 1842 two volumes containing 168 of his etchings. Another collection, formed by his patron

Chambers Hall Chambers Hall (1786–1855) was an English collector of drawings, bronzes, and other works of art. The son of William Hall, a naval captain of the East India Company, he lived at Elmfield Lodge, Southampton, and died on 29 August 1855 in Bury Stree ...

, went to the university galleries, Oxford, and then to the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

; a third was at Bridgewater House, collected by Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere.

Notes

External links

* Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Read, David Charles 1790 births 1851 deaths English engravers 19th-century English painters English male painters British landscape painters 19th-century English male artists