John Wykeham Archer (1808 – 25 May 1864) was a British artist, engraver and writer.
Life
Archer was born at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1808. In 1820 he went to London, and became a pupil of
John Scott, a noted engraver of animals.
[ His apprenticeship was cut short when Scott became ill, and he returned to Newcastle. There, in collaboration with William Collard he etched a series of large plates of Fountains Abbey, after drawings by John Wilson Carmichael, and on his own produced several plates for ]Mackenzie
Mackenzie, Mckenzie, MacKenzie, or McKenzie may refer to:
People
* Mackenzie (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Mackenzie (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
* Clan Mackenzie, a S ...
's ''History of Durham''.[ He then moved to ]Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
, where he made a collection of drawings of the ancient buildings and streets of the city.[
In about 1830 he returned to London, and entered the studio of the engravers William and Edward Finden, who were then working on illustrations for the annuals and such publications as their ''Bible Illustrations'', and ''The Ports and Harbours of Great Britain''. After a few years the market for this kind of illustration declined, and Archer had to find less renumerative work engraving plates for the ''New Sporting Magazine''.][
]
Career
Having been elected a member of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours, he produced a series of drawings of St. Mary Overy, previous to its restoration, and of Lambeth Palace.[ Having accumulated more than one hundred drawings of London antiquities he offered them to the ]British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, which showed no interest; instead he sold them to William Twopenny, who then commissioned Archer to execute twenty more similar drawings each year.[ In 1874 the British Museum purchased the collection from Twopenny's executors.] Archer also made a series of drawings for the Duke of Northumberland, showing places on his estate.[
As an illustrator, Archer made drawings for ]wood engraving
Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and ...
s for publications including Charles Knight's ''History of London'', ''Illustrated London News'' and Blackie's ''Comprehensive History of England''.
Archer was the author of ''Vestiges of Old London'', a large quarto volume, illustrated with etchings; and of a series of articles in ''Douglas Jerrold
Douglas William Jerrold (London 3 January 18038 June 1857 London) was an English dramatist and writer.
Biography
Jerrold's father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent. In 1807 Dougla ...
's Magazine'', entitled "The Recreations of Mr. Zigzag the Elder",[ and numerous contributions to the '']Gentleman's Magazine
''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term '' magazine'' (from the French ''magazine' ...
'', and ''Illustrated London News''.[
He claimed to have revived the practice of engraving monumental brasses, and produced several large monuments of this type from his own designs. He likewise painted a few works in oil.
]
Death
He died 25 May 1864[Bryan1886–9] and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
. His grave (no.129110) no longer has a readable inscription on the headstone.
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Archer, John Wykeham
1808 births
1864 deaths
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
19th-century English painters
Artists from Newcastle upon Tyne
English engravers
English male painters
19th-century English male artists