William Home Lizars (1788 – 30 March 1859) was a Scottish painter and engraver.

Life

The grave of William Home Lizars, St Cuthberts, Edinburgh

The son of Daniel Lizars, and brother of the surgeon

John Lizars Prof John Lizars FRSE (15 May 1792–21 May 1860) was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist and medical author. He was Professor of surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and senior surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He perfor ...

, he was born at Edinburgh in 1788, and was educated at the high school there. His sister Jean (Jane) Home married

Sir William Jardine Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet of Applegarth FRS FRSE FLS FSA (23 February 1800 – 21 November 1874) was a Scottish naturalist. He is known for his editing of a long series of natural history books, ''The Naturalist's Library''. Life an ...

. His father was a publisher and an engraver who had been a pupil of Andrew Bell, and engraved portraits as book illustrations. Lizars was first apprenticed to his father, from whom he learnt engraving, and then entered as a student under John Graham in the

Trustees' Academy Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histo ...

at Edinburgh, where he was a fellow-student with Sir David Wilkie. In 1812, on the death of his father, Lizars had to carry on the business of engraving and copperplate printing in order to support his mother and family. He employed the artists

Horatio McCulloch Horatio McCulloch (November 1805 – 24 June 1867), sometimes written MacCulloch or M'Culloch, was a Scottish landscape painter. Life He was born in Glasgow in November 1805 the son of Alexander McCulloch, a cotton merchant, and his wife, M ...

and

Daniel Macnee Sir Daniel Macnee FRSE PRSA LLD (4 June 1806, Fintry, Stirlingshire – 17 January 1882, Edinburgh), was a Scottish portrait painter who served as president of the Royal Scottish Academy (1876). Life He was born at Fintry in Stirlingshir ...

. Another employee was William Howison, mainly on small plates. George Aikman, father of

George Aikman George Aikman ARSA (1830–1905) was a Scottish painter and engraver. Life Born at the top of Warriston Close, in the High Street, Edinburgh, on 20 May 1830, was the ninth child of George Aikman (1788-1865) and his wife Alison McKay. The fa ...

the painter, also worked for Lizars before setting up on his own. Lizars encountered J. J. Audubon in Edinburgh in October 1826, introduced (on Audubon's account) with his portfolio by the naturalists Patrick Neill and

Prideaux John Selby Prideaux John Selby FRSE FLS (23 July 1788 – 27 March 1867) was an English ornithologist, botanist and natural history artist. Life Selby was born in Bondgate Street in Alnwick in Northumberland, the eldest son of George Selby of Beal a ...

. So began an intense period when Lizars helped Audubon meet Edinburgh luminaries likely to be useful to him:

Robert Jameson Robert Jameson Robert Jameson FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854) was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist. As Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, developing his predecessor John ...

David Brewster Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics ...

and

James Wilson James Wilson may refer to: Politicians and government officials Canada * James Wilson (Upper Canada politician) (1770–1847), English-born farmer and political figure in Upper Canada * James Crocket Wilson (1841–1899), Canadian MP from Queb ...

in particular. Lizars had a celebrated portrait of Audubon painted (it is now in the White House), by

John Syme John Syme RSA (1795 – 3 August 1861) was a Scottish portrait painter. Life A nephew of Patrick Syme, he was born in Edinburgh and studied in the Trustees' Academy on Picardy Place. He became a pupil and assistant of Sir Henry Raeburn, who ...

, in his wolfskin coat, in late November; and the following day took him to meet

George Combe George Combe (21 October 1788 – 14 August 1858) was a trained Scottish lawyer and a spokesman of the phrenological movement for over 20 years. He founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820 and wrote a noted study, ''The Constitution ...

and other

phrenologist Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...

s. Lizars had agreed to publish Audubon's '' Birds of America''. After a promising start, the business did not go well, and Audubon moved the production to London. The work was completed by the

Havell family The Havell family of Reading, Berkshire, England, included a number of notable engravers, etchers and painters, as well as writers, publishers, educators, and musicians. In particular, members of this family were among the foremost practitioners ...

. In the early 1830s he is listed as operating from 3 St James Square, in Edinburgh, the centre for printers at that time. He was still living there at the end of his life. Lizars perfected a method of etching which performed the functions of wood-engraving, for illustration of books. He died in Edinburgh on 30 March 1859, leaving a widow and family. He is buried in St Cuthbert's Churchyard at the west end of

Princes Street Princes Street ( gd, Sràid nam Prionnsan) is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three ...

. His brother John Lizars, surgeon (d.1860) lies with him. The grave lies on the small mound, south-west of the church. Lizars took an active part in the foundation of the

Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...

Works

File:John James Audubon 1826.jpg, John James Audubon, 1826 portrait by

, commissioned by Lizars File:Lizars Mexico & Guatimala 1836 UTA (cropped).jpg, Lizars' 1836 map ''Mexico & Guatimala'' File:Peter Morris Lizars (frameless).jpg, Peter Morris M.D., fictional creation of

John Gibson Lockhart John Gibson Lockhart (12 June 1794 – 25 November 1854) was a Scottish writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the seminal, and much-admired, seven-volume biography of his father-in-law Sir Walter Scott: ''Memoirs of the Life of Sir ...

by Lizars, 1819, in his new style of metallic relief engraving

William Andrew Chatto William Andrew Chatto (1799–1864) was an English writer. He used the pseudonym Stephen Oliver (Junior). Life The only son of William Chatto, a merchant who died at Gibraltar in 1804, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 17 April 1799. After educa ...

, illustrated by John Jackson, ''A Treatise on Wood Engraving, Historical and Practical'' (1839), p. 717
Google Books
From 1808 to 1815, Lizars was a frequent exhibitor of portraits, and of sacred and domestic subjects, at exhibitions in Edinburgh. In 1812 he sent two pictures to the Royal Academy in London, ''Reading the Will'' and ''A Scotch Wedding''. They were admired, were hung on the line, and were engraved. They went to the

National Gallery of Scotland The Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by ...

at Edinburgh. He engraved ''The Ommeganck at Antwerp'', after Gustave Wappers, for the ''Royal Gallery of Art'', and ''Puck and the Fairies'', after

Richard Dadd Richard Dadd (1 August 1817 – 7 January 1886) was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule ...

. He also engraved plates of Scottish scenery for publications, and the ''Anatomical Plates'' of 1822 for his brother John. Two pictures of churches by Lizars were in the Royal Scottish Academy's collection. There was a pencil drawing by him, done in 1815, of

John Flaxman John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several ye ...

, in the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Co ...

References

---- {{DEFAULTSORT:Lizars, William Home 1788 births 1859 deaths 19th-century engravers 19th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters Scottish engravers Artists from Edinburgh Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art 19th-century Scottish male artists