William Skelton (1763–1848) was an English engraver. William Skelton - William Skelton - B1977

Life

He was born in London on 14 June 1763, the brother of the engraver Joseph Skelton. He studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, and was a pupil first of

James Basire James Basire (1730–1802 London), also known as James Basire Sr., was a British engraver. He is the most significant of a family of engravers, and noted for his apprenticing of the young William Blake. Early life His father was Isaac Basire ...

and later of William Sharp, becoming a line engraver. Skelton resided for many years at Stafford Place, Pimlico, London, and afterwards in Upper Ebury Street, where he died on 13 August 1848, having long previously retired. For fifty years he served on the committee of the Female Orphan Asylum.

Works

Skelton was employed on the illustrations of many of the fine publications of the day:

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's ''Shakespeare'',

Thomas Macklin "The Cottagers" (inspired by Thomson) painted by Reynolds and commissioned by Macklin in 1788, featuring his daughter, Maria, (left), and his wife, Hannah (right) and friend (Jane Potts ( Edwin Landseer's mother), standing). Thomas Macklin (1752 ...

's Bible, Robert Bowyer's edition of

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...

's ''History of England'', John Sharpe's ''British Classics'', ''Lord Macartney's Embassy to China'', 1797, the ''Museum Worsleyanum'' of Richard Worsley, ''Ancient Marbles in the British Museum'', and ''Specimens of Ancient Sculpture'' published by 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 ...

, 1810. Skelton is best known for his many portraits of contemporary notabilities, mainly from pictures by Sir William Beechey, most of which he published himself between 1790 and 1820. They included: * a series of George III and his sons, which became extremely popular; * Robert Markham, D.D., 1790; * Thomas Denman, M.D., 1792; * Jean François de La Marche, Bishop of St. Pol de Léon, 1797; * Henry, Lord Mulgrave, 1808; *

Spencer Perceval Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and barrister who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. Perceval is the only British prime minister to ...

, 1813; and *

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-General ...

, 1817. One of his last plates was a portrait of the Queen of Würtemberg after P. Fischer, which he issued in 1828. Skelton executed in

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

portraits of himself and Beechey.

References

* ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Skelton, William 1763 births 1848 deaths English engravers