Alcock, Edward (fl. 1745–1778), portrait and miniature painter, is first recorded in 1745, living in Liverpool with his mother. Nothing is known of his early life. In Liverpool he met the young carver and gilder Thomas Johnson, to whom he advanced money to set up in business ...
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Ernest Radford
revised by Emma Rutherford
Alefounder, John (1757–1794), portrait and miniature painter, was born in September 1757, probably in Colchester, Essex, the son of an architect and surveyor. He entered the Royal Academy Schools, as an architect, on 4 October 1776, aged nineteen 'Sept last' (...
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V. Remington
Barclay, William (1793–1859), miniature painter, was born on 5 October 1793 in London, where he was baptized on 3 November 1793 at St James, Westminster, the son of William Barclay (fl. 1764–1769), miniature painter, of Tottenham, Middlesex, and his wife Isabella Foster...
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Bennett, William Mineard (1778–1858), miniature painter, was born in Exeter, Devon, and baptized on 2 November 1778 at St Thomas's, Exeter, one of at least two sons of William Bennett, who worked for the Exeter Bank, and his wife, Mary. He was apprenticed to ...
Article
Anne Gilchrist
revised by Geoffrey Carnall
Betham, (Mary) Matilda (1776–1852), writer and miniature painter, was baptized on 1 January 1777 at Haceby, Lincolnshire, the eldest of the fifteen children of the Revd William Betham (1749–1839) and his wife, Mary, née Damant (1752/3–1839), the former wife of Whittocke Planque. In a letter (1840) to ...
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Winifred Leybourne
Biffin [Beffin; married name Wright], Sarah (1784–1850), miniature painter, was born on 25 October 1784 at East Quantoxhead, Somerset, and baptized there, at the church of St Mary the Virgin, on 31 October. She was the third of five children of Henry John Beffin (1747/8–1835)...
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![Cover Biffin [Wright], Sarah (1784–1850)](/cover/searchableMedia/odnb-9780198614128-e-1003683-graphic-1-thumbnail.jpg)
Sarah Biffin (1784–1850) by Henri Grevedon, 1823 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Ernest Radford
revised by V. Remington
Bingham [née Smith], Margaret, countess of Lucan (c. 1740–1814), miniature painter, was the daughter of James Smith MP, of Canons-Leigh, Devon, and St Audries, Somerset, and his wife, Grace. She married, on 25 August 1760, Sir Charles Bingham (1735–1799), later Baron Lucan...
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V. Remington
Boit, Charles (1662–1727), miniature painter, was born on 10 August 1662 in Stockholm, the son of Charles Boit, a French silk merchant and salt manufacturer, and his wife, Marie, daughter of Noak Creveleur of Calais, France. Boit served an apprenticeship to a goldsmith in ...
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Maker: John Opie
Henry Bone (1755–1834) by John Opie, 1799 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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R. J. B. Walker
Bone, Henry (1755–1834), miniature and enamel painter, was born at Truro on 6 February 1755, the son of Henry Bone, a cabinet-maker and carver, who took his family to Plymouth, where Bone learned to paint on hard paste china for the Cookworthy factory. He continued his apprenticeship with ...
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Maker: Henry Pierce Bone
Henry Pierce Bone (1779–1855) self-portrait, 1847 Christie's Images Ltd. (2004)
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R. J. B. Walker
Bone, Henry Pierce (1779–1855), miniature and enamel painter, was born in Islington, London, on 6 November 1779, the eldest son and pupil of the enamel painter Henry Bone (1755–1834) and his wife, Elizabeth, née Van der Meulen (d. c.1830). He went to school in ...
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Deborah Graham-Vernon
Bowyer, Robert (1758–1834), miniature painter and publisher, was born in Portsmouth, the son of Amos Bowyer, a shipwright, and his wife, Betty Ann. He was baptized there on 18 June 1758. He served first as a clerk to a merchant in Portsmouth and then in ...
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Branwhite, Nathan Cooper (1776–1857), miniature painter and engraver, was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, on 27 February 1776, the eldest son of Peregrine Branwhite (1745–1794), poet, shopkeeper, and schoolmaster of Lavenham, Suffolk and his wife Mary née Cooper. He trained as an engraver under ...
Article
Deborah Graham-Vernon
Brown, John (1749–1787), miniature painter and draughtsman, was born on 18 June 1749 in Edinburgh, the eldest of five children of Samuel Brown (1722–1787), and his wife and cousin, Agnes Fyfe Scoular (1716–1787). His father was a watchmaker and deacon of the Hammermen...
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Antony Griffiths
Browne, Alexander (d. 1706), miniature painter and auctioneer, was also one of the first publishers of mezzotints. Of his parents and education nothing is known. In 1669 he wrote and published his Ars Pictoria, or, An Academy Treating of Drawing, Painting, Limning and Etching...
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Adam Buck (1759–1833) self-portrait, 1813 [The Artist and his Family] Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
