| Mainly distinguished as the prettiest and most elegant of portrait painters of his age in chalk and watercolours, but he was also an accomplished executant in oils. Born, probably near Ruabon, 1750; died Wrexham 24 December 1824. Pupil of Benjamin West (q.v.) 1768 and entered the RA Schools 1769. Exh. FS 1768; RA 1770-1819; BI 1806-10. ARA 1795. Although from 1773 he exh. a few, mainly small, subject pictures, they were mostly disastrous. He travelled to Italy and was in Rome with Wright of Derby 1773-74. In 1777-78 he was at Cambridge where, in addition to the beginnings of his series of portrait drawings, he painted a number of small portrait heads in oils, in a neat manner, similar to that of Wheatley. He began about 1776 his annotated 'albums' of portrait drawings (several of which are in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) from which he could later execute a number of repetitions (for the best account of what survives, see E. Croft-Murray, British Museum Quarterly, XIV(1940), 60-66.) From 1779 to 1804 he was settled in London, but later travelled considerably. In 1806 he made an injudicious marriage at Exeter, but left after his wife died in 1808. He was again mainly in London until he settled in Chester, 1817. |
