(1811 - 1882)
Engraver William Henry Simmons was born in London. Nothing is known of his parents. He was a pupil of engraver William Finden but later turned from steel plate engraving to mixed mezzotint (combining etching, mezzotint and engraved line). He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1857 and 1882. His prolific output includes engravings after Thomas Faed, William Powell Frith, Charles Eastlake and Edwin Landseer. His finest work is perhaps the engraving after William Holman Hunt's ‘The Light of the World’ (published 1858). By 1881 Simmons was a widower, living in St Pancras, London, with his unmarried sister, widowed daughter, his grandson and an apprentice engraver. He died a day before his 71st birthday and was buried in Highgate cemetery.
