William Woollett

Woollett was born in Maidstone, of a family which came originally from the Netherlands.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Woollett, William|volume=28|page=817}}

He was apprenticed to John Tinney, an engraver in Fleet Street, London, and studied in the St Martin's Lane academy. His first important plate was from The Destruction of the Children of Niobe of Richard Wilson, published by Boydell in 1761, which was followed in 1763 by a companion engraving from the "Phaethon" of the same painter. After Benjamin West he engraved his fine plate of the "Battle of La Hogue" (1781), and "The Death of General Wolfe" (1776), which is usually considered Woollett's masterpiece. In 1775 he was appointed engraver-in-ordinary to George III; and he was a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, of which for several years he acted as secretary.

Woollett's plates combined engraving, etching, and dry-point; and were considered highly esteemed examples of the English school of engraving. Louis Fagan, in his Catalogue Raisonné of the Engraved Works of William Woollett (1885), enumerated 123 plates by Woollett.

File:Benjamin West - William Woollett - The Battle at La Hogue.jpg (1781), after a painting by Benjamin West.]]

Thomas Hearne became apprenticed to him in 1765, Woollett came to consider him the finest landscape engraver of his day; he stayed for six years.

Benjamin Thomas Pouncy (B.T. Pouncy) (died 1799), was a pupil.{{Cite DNB|wstitle=Pouncy, Benjamin Thomas|volume=46|pages=231-232|first=Freeman Marius|last=O'Donoghue}}

He died in London; his is one of the many graves in Old St. Pancras Churchyard.[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol5/pp324-340 'St Pancras'], in Old and New London: Volume 5 (London, 1878), pp. 324–340. British History Online. He is not listed on the memorial to important lost graves erected in the 19th century.

A monument to his memory, by Thomas Banks, stands in Westminster Abbey.Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1660–1851, Rupert Gunnis

{{reflist}}

• Fagan, Louis. [https://archive.org/details/acatalogueraiso00fagagoog A catalogue raisonné of the engraved works of William Woollett] (London, The Fine art society Ltd., 1885).
• [https://archive.org/details/bryansdiction05brya Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers, volume 5] (New York: Macmillan, 1903) p394.
• Brendan Cassidy, 'William Woollett's Ring', Print Quarterly, Vol.XXXV No.1 March 2018, pp70–71.

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• [http://www.woolletthistory.co.uk/main/engraver.htm William Woollett and family] (woolletthistory.co.uk)
• [http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/search/Artist.asp?maker_id=115060 Engravings by Woolett] (Government Art Collection)
• [http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/woollett_william_frontispiecetotaylorsperspective.htm William Woollett & William Hogarth – Frontispiece to Taylor's Perspective] (Art of the Print)
• [http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5049535 Phaeton] (engraving after Richard Wilson)
• [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp58004&role=art Works by Woolett] (National Portrait gallery, London)
• {{cite book |last1=Hutchinson |first1=John |title=Men of Kent and Kentishmen |date=1892 |publisher=Cross & Jackman |location=Canterbury |page=145 |edition=Subscription |chapter=William Woollett}}

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Category:1735 births

Category:1785 deaths

Category:18th-century English engravers

Category:People from Maidstone

Category:Burials at St Pancras Old Church