thumb|Portrait of William Sharp, by James Lonsdale

thumb|Surgeon John Hunter (after portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds)

thumb|The Angel destroys the Assyrians (from Macklin's Bible, 1792)

William Sharp (29 January 174925 July 1824), was a British engraver and artist.

Life and work

Sharp was the son of a reputable gunsmith who lived at Haydon's Yard, Minories in central London. He was apprenticed to the 'bright-cut' engraver and genealogist, Barak Longmate (1738–93), and after marriage to a Frenchwoman, set himself up as a writing engraver in Bartholomew Lane (off Threadneedle Street). He also completed the plate of Benjamin West's "Landing of Charles II" which William Woollett had left unfinished at the time of his death, engraved some of the illustrations by artists who travelled with Captain Cook on his famous voyages, and J. H. Benwell's "Children in the Wood". He finally settled at Chiswick where he remained for the rest of his life. Despite her apparently premature death, he never lost faith in her divine mission or the possibility that she would reappear, and wrote a book in her defence: "An answer to the world etc." (London, 1806).

References

Further reading

  • Cunningham, George Godfrey. Lives of eminent and illustrious Englishmen, volume 8 (Glasgow, A. Fullarton & Co., 1838) p. 277.
  • Baker, William Spohn. William Sharp, engraver (Philadelphia, Gebbie & Barrie, 1875).
  • National Portrait Gallery
  • William Sharp, Thomas Paine, a print after a painting by George Romney (British Museum)
  • Obituary of William Sharp (The New Monthly Magazine, 1 Sep 1824)