Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham, by George Perfect Harding

James Stow (born. , died in or after 1823), was an English engraver.

Life

Born near

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

about 1770, the son of a labourer. At the age of thirteen he is said to have engraved a plate from

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Bartolomé Esteban Murillo ( , ; late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporar ...

's ''St. John and the Lamb,'' which showed such precocious talent that a group of local gentry provided funds for him to move to London and study for

William Woollett William Woollett (15 August 173523 May 1785) was an English engraver operating in the 18th century. Life Woolett was born in Maidstone, of a family which came originally from the Netherlands. He was apprenticed to John Tinney, an engraver in F ...

, one of the leading engravers of the time. After Woollett's death in 1785, he completed his apprenticeship with William Sharp. Stow is said to have fallen into dissipated habits; he died in obscurity and poverty.

Works

Stow worked entirely as a

line engraver Line engraving is a term for engraving, engraved images printed on paper to be used as Old master print, prints or illustrations. The term is mainly used in connection with 18th- or 19th-century commercial illustrations for magazines and books or ...

. He engraved many of the plates for the

Boydell Shakespeare Gallery The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a school of British history painting. In addition to the e ...

, after paintings by British artists. He also produced engravings as illustrations for other publications, among them

Robert Bowyer Robert Bowyer (; bap. 18 June 1758 – 4 June 1834) was a British miniature painter and publisher. Bowyer was born in Portsmouth to Amos and Betty Ann Bowyer and baptized on 18 June 1758. His first job was as a clerk to a merchant in Portsmouth ...

's edition of

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment philo ...

's ''

History of England England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated.; "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk" (2014). BBC News. Retrieved 7 February ...

''(1806),

Thomas Macklin "The Cottagers" (inspired by Thomson) painted by Reynolds and commissioned by Macklin in 1788, featuring his daughter, Maria, (left), and his wife, Hannah (right) and friend (Jane Potts ( Edwin Landseer's mother), standing). Thomas Macklin (1752 ...

's ''Illustrated Bible'' (1791–1800), F. J. du Roveray's edition of

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

's translation of '' The Odyssey of Homer'', and

George Perfect Harding George Perfect Harding (1781 – 23 December 1853) was an English portrait painter and copyist. Life He was a son of Silvester Harding of Pall Mall, London. Adopting his father's profession, he practised miniature-painting, and exhibited at the ...

's series of portraits of the

deans of Westminster The Dean of Westminster is the head of the chapter at Westminster Abbey. Due to the Abbey's status as a Royal Peculiar, the dean answers directly to the British monarch (not to the Bishop of London as ordinary, nor to the Archbishop of Canterb ...

(1822), as well as other publications. Stow's most important single plates were ''The Three Women at the Sepulchre,'' after

Benjamin West Benjamin West, (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as '' The Death of Nelson'', ''The Death of General Wolfe'', the '' Treaty of Paris'', and '' Benjamin Franklin Drawin ...

, which he issued himself; and a portrait of

Lord Frederick Campbell Lord Frederick Campbell (20 June 1729 – 8 June 1816) was a Scottish nobleman and politician. He was lord clerk register of Scotland, 1768–1816; Member of parliament, Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Burghs (UK Parliament constituency), G ...

, after

Henry Edridge Henry Edridge (1768 in Paddington – 23 April 1821 in London) was the son of a tradesman and apprenticed at the age of fifteen to William Pether, a mezzotinter and landscapist, and became proficient as a painter of miniatures, portraits ...

. His latest employment was upon the illustrations to Robert Wilkinson's ''Londina Illustrata,'' (1811–23).

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Stow, James 1770 births 1823 deaths English engravers People from Maidstone