William Sharp. William Sharp, was an English engraver and artist.
Sharp was the son of a reputable gunsmith who lived at Haydon's Yard, Minories in central London. He was apprenticed to the bright-cut engraver and genealogist, Barak Longmate, and after marriage, to a Frenchwoman, set himself up as a writing engraver in Bartholomew Lane.
His first notable work was an engraving of Hector, an old lion at the Tower of London. Around 1782, he sold the shop and moved to Vauxhall, intending to specialise in the higher branches of the engraver's art.
Among his earlier plates are some illustrations, after Stothard, for the Novelists' Magazine. He also completed the plate of Benjamin West's Landing of Charles II which William Woollett had left unfinished at the time of his death, engraved some of the illustrations by artists who travelled with Captain Cook on his famous voyages, and J. H. Benwell's Children in the Wood.
He finally settled at Chiswick where he remained for the rest of his life. He engraved the Doctors Disputing on the Immaculateness of the Virgin and Ecce Homo; King Lear in the Storm and The Witch of Endor; The sortie from Gibralter; the portrait of John Hunter and The Holy Family; St Cecilia and Virgin and Child. Sharp's style of engraving was original, the half-tints rich and full. He became an honorary member of the Imperial Academy in Vienna and the Royal Academy in Munich. Sharp's
Sharp was the son of a reputable gunsmith who lived at Haydon's Yard, Minories in central London. He was apprenticed to the bright-cut engraver and genealogist, Barak Longmate, and after marriage, to a Frenchwoman, set himself up as a writing engraver in Bartholomew Lane.
His first notable work was an engraving of Hector, an old lion at the Tower of London. Around 1782, he sold the shop and moved to Vauxhall, intending to specialise in the higher branches of the engraver's art.
Among his earlier plates are some illustrations, after Stothard, for the Novelists' Magazine. He also completed the plate of Benjamin West's Landing of Charles II which William Woollett had left unfinished at the time of his death, engraved some of the illustrations by artists who travelled with Captain Cook on his famous voyages, and J. H. Benwell's Children in the Wood.
He finally settled at Chiswick where he remained for the rest of his life. He engraved the Doctors Disputing on the Immaculateness of the Virgin and Ecce Homo; King Lear in the Storm and The Witch of Endor; The sortie from Gibralter; the portrait of John Hunter and The Holy Family; St Cecilia and Virgin and Child. Sharp's style of engraving was original, the half-tints rich and full. He became an honorary member of the Imperial Academy in Vienna and the Royal Academy in Munich. Sharp's
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