John Young (1755–1825),

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 tonal ...

engraver and keeper of the British Institution, was born in 1755, and studied under

John Raphael Smith John Raphael Smith (1751 – 2 March 1812) was a British painter and mezzotinter. He was the son of Thomas Smith of Derby, the landscape painter, and father of John Rubens Smith, a painter who emigrated to the United States. Biography Bapt ...

. He became a very able engraver, working exclusively in mezzotint, and executed about eighty portraits of contemporary personages, from pictures by Hoppner, Lawrence, Zoffany, etc., as well as some subject pieces after Morland, Hoppner, Paye, and others. His finest plate is the prize fight between Broughton and Stevenson, after Mortimer. In 1789 he was appointed mezzotint engraver to the Prince of Wales. In 1813 Young succeeded

Valentine Green Valentine Green (3 October 173929 July 1813) was a British mezzotinter and print publisher. Green trained under Robert Hancock, a Worcester engraver, after which he moved to London and began working as a mezzotint engraver. He began to exhibit ...

in the keepership of the British Institution, an arduous post which he filled with unfailing tact and efficiency until his death. He was honorary secretary of the

Artists' Benevolent Fund The Artists' Benevolent Fund was instituted in 1810Sampson Low the younger. "Artists' Benevolent Fund" in ''The Charities of London in 1852-3''. Sampson Low and Son. London. 1854Page 101 and incorporated by royal charter on 2 August 1827. It has ...

from 1810 to 1813, and then transferred his services in the same capacity to the rival body, the

Artists' General Benevolent Institution The Artists' General Benevolent Institution is a British charity assisting professional artists in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who are in financial difficulty due to illness, old age or accident. It was founded in 1814 by members of the Ro ...

. He died at his house in

Upper Charlotte Street Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ''s ...

Fitzroy Square Fitzroy Square is a Georgian square in London. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding district to be known as Fitzroy Square or Fitzro ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, on 7 March 1825. Young published in 1815 "Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey from the Foundation of the Monarchy to the year 1808", thirty plates printed in colours, with English and French text; and between 1821 and 1825 a series of catalogues, illustrated with etchings by himself, of the Grosvenor, Leicester, Miles, Angerstein, and Stafford galleries.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, John British engravers 1755 births 1825 deaths