William Say (1768–1834) was a British mezzotinter, born in Lakenham, Norfolk."''Three Maries''" at LACMA
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Life

The son of William Say, a

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

land-steward, he was born at Lakenham, near

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. Left an orphan when five years old, he was brought up by his maternal aunt. At about the age of twenty he came to London, and obtained instruction from James Ward, who was then practising

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 ...

engraving. 2ndDukeOfGloucester1826

In 1807 Say was appointed engraver to the Duke of Gloucester. He died at his residence in

Weymouth Street Weymouth Street lies in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster and connects Marylebone High Street with Great Portland Street. The area was developed in the late 18th century by Henrietta Cavendish Holles and her husband Edward Ha ...

, London, on 24 August 1834; his stock of plates and prints was sold the following July.

Works

Say became a popular engraver, working entirely in mezzotint. Between 1801 and 1834 he executed 335 plates, a large proportion of which were portraits of contemporary celebrities, from pictures by

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, Joshua Reynolds, and others. Say's subject-plates include

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

's ''Holy Family with St. Catherine'', Murillo's ''Spanish peasant boys'',

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's ''Madonna di San Sisto'', and William Hilton's ''Raising of Lazarus'', He engraved one of Reynolds's two groups of members of the

Dilettanti Society The Society of Dilettanti (founded 1734) is a British society of noblemen and scholars that sponsors the study of ancient Greek and Roman art, and the creation of new work in the style. History Though the exact date is unknown, the Society is b ...

, and compositions by Henry Thomson, Henry Fradelle, Alfred Edward Chalon, and others. Say was one of the engravers employed by J. M. W. Turner on his '' Liber Studiorum'', for which he executed eleven of the published and two of the unpublished plates. He also engraved two of the plates in Turner's ''River Scenery of England''. These, with a view of Lincoln Cathedral after Frederick Mackenzie, were his main work in landscape. In 1820 Say scraped a small portrait of Queen Caroline after Arthur William Devis, the first attempt made in mezzotint on steel. Twelve hundred impressions were taken from the plate.

Family

By his wife, Eleanor Francis, Say had one son Frederick Richard Say, and three daughters. Of these the eldest, Mary Anne, became the wife of

John Buonarotti Papworth John Buonarotti Papworth (24 January 1775 – 16 June 1847) was a British architect, artist and a founder member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He adopted the middle name "Buonarotti" in around 1815. As well as being active in ...

, and the youngest, Leonora, married

William Adams Nicholson William Adams Nicholson (1803–1853) was an English architect who worked in Lincoln and was a founding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Life Born on 8 August 1803 at Southwell, Nottinghamshire, he was the son of James Nich ...

. An almost complete set of Say's works, in various states, was presented 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 ...

by his son in 1852.

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Say, William 1768 births 1834 deaths British printmakers