COUSINS, SAMUEL (1801-1887), English mezzotint en graver, was born at Exeter, May g, i8or. He was pre-eminently the interpreter of Sir Thomas Lawrence. During his apprentice ship to S. W. Reynolds he engraved many of the best amongst the 36o little mezzotints illustrating the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In the finest of his numerous transcripts of Lawrence, such as "Lady Acland and her Sons," "Pope Pius VII." and "Master Lambton," the distinguishing characteristics of the en graver's work, brilliancy and force of effect in a high key, cor responded exactly with similar qualities in the painter. After the introduction of steel for engraving purposes about the year 1823, Cousins and his contemporaries were compelled to work on it, because the soft copper previously used for mezzotint plates did not yield a sufficient number of fine impressions to enable the method to compete commercially against line engraving. The painter-like quality which distinguished the i8th century mezzo tints on copper was wanting in his later works, because the hard ness of the steel on which they were engraved impaired freedom of execution and richness of tone, and so enhanced the labour of scraping that he accelerated the work by stipple, etching the details instead of scraping them out of the "ground" in the manner of his predecessors. To this "mixed style," previously used by Richard Earlom on copper, Cousins added heavy roulette and rocking-tool textures, tending to fortify the darks, when he found that the "burr" even on steel failed to yield enough fine impressions to meet the demand. The effect of his prints in this method after Reynolds and Millais was mechanical and out of harmony with the picturesque technique of these painters, but the phenomenal popularity which Cousins gained for his works at least kept alive and in favour a form of mezzotint engraving during a critical phase of its history. He died in London, unmar ried, on May 7, 1887.
See Algernon Graves, Catalogue of the Works of Samuel Cousins, R.A., (1888) ; George Pycroft, M.R.C.S.E., Memoir of Samuel Cousins, R.A., Member of the Legion of Honour (1899) ; and Alfred Whitman, Samuel Cousins 0904), which contains a catalogue, good illustrations, and much detail useful to the collector and dealer.