FINDEN, WILLIAM (1787-1852), English line engraver, was born in 1787. He served his apprenticeship to one James Mitan, but appears to have owed far more to the influence of James Heath. His first employment on his own account was en graving illustrations for books, and among the most noteworthy of these early plates were Smirke's illustrations to Don Quixote. His younger brother, Edward Finden, worked in conjunction with him, and as time went on and the number of their commissions in creased, they employed several assistants, with a consequent deterioration in the later plates issued by them. The largest plate executed by William Finden was the portrait of King George IV. seated on a sofa, after the painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Finden's next and happiest works on a large scale were the "High lander's Return" and the "Village Festival," after Wilkie. A series of landscape and portrait illustrations to the life and works of Byron executed by the Findens appeared in 1833 and following years. But by his Gallery of British Art (in 15 parts, 1838-4o), the most costly and best of these ventures, he lost the fruits of all his former success. Finden's last undertaking was an engraving on a large scale of Hilton's "Crucifixion." He died in London on Sept. 20, 1852.