John Boydell, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

John Boydell

British publisher and Lord Mayor of London, 1790

Date of Birth: 19-Jan-1719

Place of Birth: Dorrington Lane, England, United Kingdom

Date of Death: 12-Dec-1804

Profession: politician, engraver, publisher, patron of the arts

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn


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About John Boydell

  • John Boydell (; 19 January 1720 (New Style) – 12 December 1804) was an 18th-century British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings.
  • He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition in the art form.
  • A former engraver himself, Boydell promoted the interests of artists as well as patrons and as a result his business prospered. The son of a land surveyor, Boydell apprenticed himself to William Henry Toms, an artist he admired, and learned engraving.
  • He established his own business in 1746 and published his first book of engravings around the same time.
  • Boydell did not think much of his own artistic efforts and eventually started buying the works of others, becoming a print dealer as well as an artist.
  • He became a successful importer of French prints during the 1750s but was frustrated by their refusal to trade prints in kind.
  • To spark reciprocal trade, he commissioned William Wollett's spectacular engraving of Richard Wilson's The Destruction of the Children of Niobe, which revolutionised the print trade.
  • Ten years later, largely as a result of Boydell's initiative, the trade imbalance had shifted, and he was named a fellow of the Royal Society for his efforts. In the 1790s, Boydell began a large Shakespeare venture that included the establishment of a Shakespeare Gallery, the publication of an illustrated edition of Shakespeare's plays, and the release of a folio of prints depicting scenes from Shakespeare's works.
  • Some of the most illustrious painters of the day contributed, such as Benjamin West and Henry Fuseli. Throughout his life, Boydell dedicated time to civic projects: he donated art to government institutions and ran for public office.
  • In 1790 he became Lord Mayor of London.
  • The French Revolutionary Wars led to a cessation in Continental trade at the end of the 1790s.
  • Without this business, Boydell's firm declined and he was almost bankrupt at his death in 1804.

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