William Say. William Say was a prolific English engraver, born in England, Norfolk, Lakenham.
The son of William Say, a Norfolk land-steward, he was born at Lakenham, near Norwich. 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 engraving. In 1807 Say was appointed engraver to the Duke of Gloucester.
He died at his residence in Weymouth Street, London, on 24 August 1834; his stock of plates and prints was sold the following July. 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 William Beechey, John Hoppner, Thomas Lawrence, James Northcote, Joshua Reynolds, and others. Say's subject-plates include Correggio's Holy Family with St. Catherine, Murillo's Spanish peasant boys, Raphael'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, 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employed by J. M. W. Turner on his Liber Studiorum, for which he executed eleven of the published and two of the unpublished plates.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
The son of William Say, a Norfolk land-steward, he was born at Lakenham, near Norwich. 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 engraving. In 1807 Say was appointed engraver to the Duke of Gloucester.
He died at his residence in Weymouth Street, London, on 24 August 1834; his stock of plates and prints was sold the following July. 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 William Beechey, John Hoppner, Thomas Lawrence, James Northcote, Joshua Reynolds, and others. Say's subject-plates include Correggio's Holy Family with St. Catherine, Murillo's Spanish peasant boys, Raphael'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, 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
Wikipedia ...