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 1864Bryan1886–9 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

* * * {{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