Till about the middle of the last century, the fine arts had been but little cultivated in England; and the works of any consequence that were-executed, were in general the productions of foreigners, invited from the continent by the occasional munificence of the monarch, or the taste of a few of the nobility. Among the artists who have at different times visited England, there have bean several eminent engravers, principally in the depart ments of history and portrait. The most distinguished of these are Simon and Crispin de Passe, \Vallcrant Vaillant, Judocus and Henry Hondius, Lucas \roster man, Hollar, Blooteling, Vanderbank, Gribelin, and Do rigny ; but till the time of the elder Faithorne, who flou rished in 1670, the native engravers limited themselves to maps, cuts, and small portraits for books, all of which: are greatly below mediocrity.
John Payne, a scholar of Simon de Passe, is the first English engraver who merits our attention. He pos sessed great talents, as his works sufficiently testify; they arc not numerous, as he led an irregular life, and died early. His chief works are frontispieces, and other book cuts and portraits; he also executed a variety of other subjects, landscapes, animals, flow ers, fruit, birds, 67.c.; hut several of his portraits are very fine, and by far the best of his works: these he executed entirely with the graver, in a free open style, and they have a pleasing effect. He likewise engraved a large print of a ship, called the Royal Sovereign, on two plates, which, when joined, were three feet long, by two feet two inches high. He died about the year 1618.
Faithorne is the next English engraver who merits our attention. Ile was a man of great genius, and being obliged to leave England during the civil war, lie went to Paris, where he derived great advantage from the in structions of Nanteuil, and on his return to his native country, he executed a great number of portraits, and several historical subjects, in an excellent manner : he worked almost entirely with the graver. In the early part of his life, he imitated the Dutch and Flemish man ner of engraving; but on his return from France, lie greatly improved it. His best portraits are admirable, and are finished in a free delicate style, with much force of.colour ; his drawing of the human figure is by no means correct nor in a good taste, but as he dedicated so much of his time to portrait, the few historical works he has left are not fair specimens of his talents. His portraits are numerous, and not of equal merit, his best ones arc very valuable. His son William Faithorne scraped many
portraits in mezzotinto, which arc greatly inferior to the works of his father. The invention of this method of engraving, which a little before this was brought into England, and has been since cultivated with so much success, is generally attributed to Prince Rupert, who, it is said, one morning seeing a soldier cleaning his mus ket, which bad been rusted by the night dew, and ob serving something of the appearance of a figure cor roded on the barrel, he conceived the idea that, by co vering the plate with such a grained ground, and scrap ing away the parts where the lights were required, he might produce the effect of a drawing; and that, having communicated his ideas on the subject to Waller= Vaillant, with his assistance lie invented an instrument, which, in some sort, answered this purpose. The Prince engraved in this way a print of an executioner, holding in one hand a sword, and in the other a head, after Spagnolletto, dated 1658. Ile afterwards engraved, on a reduced scale, the head of the executioner, for Mr Evelyn's Sculfitura, who therein assures us, that it was given to him as a specimen of the new invented art by Prince Rupert himself. But, on the other hand, it is positively asserted by Baron Heineken, whom we have so often quoted, that it was invented by Lieutenant Colo nel Siegen, an officer in the service of the Landgrave of Hesse, and that the print which he produced was the portrait of the Princess Amelia Elizabeth of Hesse, graved s early as the year and that Prince Ru pert learned the secret from him, and brought it to Eng land, when he came over the second time with King Charles II.
. White, the scholar of Loggan, born 1645, be sides many portraits in black lead on vellum, in which he was very successful, has left many engravings of portraits, frontispieces, and book decorations. His en gravings, though respectable, are not equal to his draw ings. He likewise scraped a few portraits in mezzo :tint°, which are much inferior to his other engravings.
His son, George White, learned the principles of draw ing and engraving from his father. His engravings are neatly executed ; but his principal works are in mezzo tinto, in which he was very successful. He frequently etched the outlines of his portrait before he laid on the mezzotint° ground, which gives much firmness and pre cision to his effect. The last portrait we have of him was Bishop Weston, 1731.