Samuel Davenport (1783–1867) was an English line engraver. He was one of the earliest to engrave on steel.

Life

Davenport was born at

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

, 10 December 1783: while he was still small, his father, an architect and surveyor, moved to London. There he was in due course articled to

Charles Warren General Sir Charles Warren, (7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927) was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his mi ...

. His earlier works were book illustrations after the designs of Henry Chawner Shenton,

Henry Corbould Henry Corbould (1787–1844) was an English artist. Life The third son of Richard Corbould, he was born in London. He studied painting with his father, and was at an early age admitted as a student of the Royal Academy, under Fuseli, where h ...

, and others; but subsequently he engraved in outline a large number of portraits for biographical works. He died 15 July 1867. His son, Samuel Thomas Davenport (born 1821), was also an engraver.

Works

Davenport is said by Redgrave to have 700 portraits for one publication alone. Examples of his work are the plates which he engraved for the ''Forget-Me-Not'' annual between 1828 and 1842, and which include: *''The Sister's Dream'', ''Fathime and Euphrosyne'', and ''The Disappointment'', after Henry Corbould; * ''The Orphan Family'', after Alexander Chisholm; * ''The Frosty Reception'' and ''Uncle Anthony's Blunder'', after

Robert William Buss Robert William Buss (4 August 1804 – 26 February 1875) was a Victorian artist, etcher and illustrator perhaps best known for his painting ''Dickens' Dream''. He was the father of Frances Buss, a pioneer of girls' education. Early career Bo ...

; * ''Chains of the Heart'', after John Cawse; * ''Cupid caught tripping'', after John Philip Davis; * ''The Dance of the Peasants'', from ''

The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some crit ...

'', after Robert Trewick Bone; * ''Louis XI at Plessis-les-Tours'', after

Egide Charles Gustave Wappers Egide Charles Gustave, Baron Wappers (23 August 18036 December 1874) was a Belgian painter. His work is generally considered to be Flemish and he signed his work with the Dutch form of his name, Gustaaf Wappers.Note: The painter is known by one ...

; and * ''Count Egmont's Jewels'', after a drawing by James Holmes, from a sketch by

Charles Robert Leslie Charles Robert Leslie (19 October 1794 – 5 May 1859) was an English genre painter. Biography Leslie was born in London to American parents. When he was five years of age he returned with them to the United States, where they settled in Philad ...

. All these plates were engraved on steel, which he was one of the earliest to adopt. He also engraved a small plate of ''The Infant St. John the Baptist'', after Murillo.

External Link

* Engraving of , a painting by

in the Forget Me Not annual for 1828, with a poem by

Felicia Hemans Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835) was an English poet (who identified as Welsh by adoption). Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic statu ...

. * Engraving of , by Murillo for The Easter Gift, 1832, with a poetical illustration by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Davenport, Samuel 1783 births 1867 deaths English engravers People from Bedford