The Duke of Newcastle’s Return from Shooting

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Francis Wheatley was born in London. He studied at Shipley’s Academy before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1769. He made a number of trips aboard during the 1760s and became influenced by contemporary French painting, particularly the work of Jean-Baptiste Greuze and François Boucher. Wheatley was elected a Fellow of the Society of Artists in 1770 and became a director in 1774. In 1779, he fled to Dublin with the wife of another artist to escape creditors. Having established himself in Ireland, he returned to London in 1783 and produced work for the print publisher John Boydell. His images of itinerant merchants of the early 1790s were published for English and French markets. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1791.
Francesco Bartolozzi was born in Italy. He became a pupil of the German painter and printmaker Joseph Wagner, then based in Venice. In 1764, he was invited to England by Frederick Augusta Barnard, King George III's Librarian. Although best known for copying Old Master drawings in the stipple technique (such as his reproductions of Guercino’s drawings in the Royal Collection), Bartolozzi also engraved plates after contemporary artists (notably Giovanni Battista Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann). He set up a studio in London, which produced large numbers of ‘furniture prints’ (generally set within a roundel or oval and intended for framing). In 1802 he left England to become Director of the Lisbon Academy in Portugal.
Samuel Alken was an aquatint engraver of landscapes, topographical views and sporting subjects, after works by contemporary artists. He was born in London; the son of a carver and guilder. Alken studied at the Royal Academy Schools. As well as his aquatints, he produced some painted decorative compositions. His son was sporting artist Henry Thomas Alken.

People

Henry Fiennes, 9th Earl of Lincoln and 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme Pelham-Clinton (1720 - 1794), John Litchfield ( - c.1801/2)

Places

Subjects

horseback, bird hunting, shooting, tree, dog, hare, horse, pheasant, woodland, coat of arms, Duke, bridge (rural)

Materials & Techniques

engraving

Artist

Francis Wheatley (1747 - 1801)
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727 - 1815)
Samuel Alken (1756 - 1815)

Title

The Duke of Newcastle’s Return from Shooting

Date

published 10 January 1792

Medium

Engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Colnaghi, April 1952

GAC number

1559