Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/117

 the period of their publication, than from any idea of their own merits.'

Though not altogether relinquishing the burin till about 1767, he had long before this commenced his career as a printseller and a publisher of the works of other engravers. After serving six years with Toms, he purchased the remainder of his term of apprenticeship, and the success of his prints, especially of a volume of views in England and Wales, published in 1751, enabled him to set up in business on his own account. The first engraving of great importance produced under his encouragement was Woollett's plate after Wilson's 'Niobe,' published in 1761. This was also (with the exception of Hogarth's prints) the first important engraving by a British engraver after a British painter. J. T. Smith, in his account of Woollett appended to 'Nollekens and his Times,' recounts the history of this plate as told him by Boydell. 'When I got a little forward in the world,' said Boydell, 'I took a whole shop, for at my commencement I kept only half a one. In the course of one year I imported numerous impressions of Vernet's celebrated "Storm," so admirably engraved by Lerpinière; for which I was obliged to pay in hard cash, as the French took none of our prints in return. Upon Mr. Woollett's expressing himself highly delighted with this print of the "Storm," I was induced, knowing his ability as an engraver, to ask him if he thought he could produce a print of the same size, which I could send over, so that in future I could avoid payment in money, and prove to the French nation that an Englishman could produce a print of equal merit; upon which he immediately declared that he should much like to try.'

The result was the print of 'Niobe,' for which Boydell agreed to pay 100l., 'an unheard of price, being considerably more than I had given for any copperplate.' He had, however, to advance the engraver more than this before the plate was finished. Very few proofs were struck off, and 5s. only was charged for the prints; but the work brought Boydell 2,000l. It was followed by the 'Phaeton,' also engraved by Woollett, after Wilson, and published by Boydell in 1763. These prints had a large sale on the continent, with which an enormous trade in English engravings was soon established. Boydell's enterprise increased with his capital, and he continued to employ the latter in encouraging English talent. In the list of engravers employed by him are the names of Woollett, M'Ardell, Hall, Earlom, Sharpe, Heath, J. Smith, Val. Green, and other Englishmen, and a large proportion of the prints he published were, from the first, after Wilson, West, Reynolds, and other English painters. His foreign trade spread the fame of English engravers and English painters abroad for the first time. The receipts from some of the plates, especially the engravings by Woollett after West's 'Death of General Wolfe,' and 'Battle of La Hogue,' were enormous. In 1790 he stated the receipts from the former amounted to 15,000l. Both were copied by the best engravers in Paris and Vienna.

In 1790 he was elected lord mayor of London, having been elected alderman for the ward of Cheap in 1782, and served sheriff in 1785. During his career as a print publisher the course of the foreign trade in prints was turned from an import to an export one. It was stated by the Earl of Suffolk in the House of Lords that the revenue coming into this country from this branch of art at one time exceeded 200,000l. per annum. Having amassed a large fortune, Boydell in 1786 embarked upon the most important enterprise of his life, viz. the publication, by subscription, of a series of prints illustrative of Shakespeare, after pictures painted expressly for the work by English artists. For this purpose he gave commissions to all the most celebrated painters of this country for pictures, and built a gallery in Pall Mall for their exhibition. The execution of this project extended over several years. In 1789 the Shakespeare Gallery contained thirty-four pictures, in 1791 sixty-five, in 1802 one hundred and sixty-two, of which eighty-four were of large size. The total number of works executed was 170, three of which were pieces of sculpture, and the artists employed were thirty-three painters and two sculptors, Thomas Banks and the Hon. Mrs. Damer. It appears from the preface to the catalogue of 1789, and from other recorded statements of Boydell, that he wished to do for English painting what he had done for English engraving, to make it respected by foreigners, and there is independent evidence of the generous spirit in which he conducted the enterprise. Northcote, in a letter addressed to Mrs. Carey, 3 Oct. 1821, says: 'My picture of "The Death of Wat Tyler" was painted in the year 1786 for my friend and patron Alderman Boydell, who did more for the advancement of the arts in England than the whole mass of nobility put together. He paid me more nobly than any other person has done; and his memory I shall ever hold in reverence.'

Boydell's 'Shakespeare' was published in 1802, but the French revolution had stopped his foreign trade, and placed him in such