15

excluded  mere  imifafions  of  modern  French  arf,  which  has  been
much  more  generally  studied  and  copied  in  England  since  the  War.
II.  BRITISH  ENGRAVING
Our  18th  Century  line  engravers,  like  Strange,  Sharp  and
Woollett,  did  notable  work  in  the  reproduction  of  portraits  and
landscape,  but  they  are  now  out  of  fashion  and  unjustly  neglected.
More  favour  is  shown  by  the  modern  collector  to  mezzotint  engraving,
  in  which  English  engravers  were  unsurpassed,  and  to  stipple.
The  mezzotint  process,  though  invented  by  a  German,  was  soon
introduced  into  England  and  found  on  English  soil,  in  the  reign
of  George  III,  its  ripesf  development.  First-rate  engravers  at  thaf
period  were  numerous  and  had  no  lack  of  occupafion  in  reproducing
  the  fine  portraits  which  were  then  being  painfed  by  such
artisfs  as  Reynolds,  Gainsborough,  Hoppner,  Romney,  Opie  and
Lawrence.  No  process  was  better  adapted  to  render  the  sheen  of
silks  and  satins  or  the  brilliance  of  powdered  hair.  The  landscapes
and  rustic  subjecfs  of  Morland  were  also  favourifes  with  such
masters  of  the  mezzofint  as  James  and  William  Ward  and  John
Raphael  Smith.
The  most  accomplished  master  of  the  stipple  process,  which
also  reached  its  highest  development  in  England,  was  the  Italian
Francesco  Bartolozzi,  who  settled  in  London  in  1764  and  remained
fill  1802.  His  pupil,  Luigi  Schiavonetti,  like  Conde  and  Simon,  who
rank  among  the  most  accomplished  stipple  engravers,  were  also
foreigners,  as  were  Angelica  Kauffmann  and  Cipriani,  two  of  the
artists  whose  works  were  most  frequently  chosen  for  reproduction
by  this  process.  But  there  was  also  no  lack  of  native  talenf.  Ryland,
who  had  learnt  his  art  in  Paris,  was  engraving  in  stipple  betöre
Barfolozzi  came  to  London,  while  Burke  and  Cheesman,  who  are
represenfed  here  by  subjecfs  after  Kauffmann  and  Romney,  were
also,  with  P.  W.  Tomkins,  among  the  most  skilful  stipple  engravers
of  English  birth,  while  W.  Ward  and  J.  R.  Smith  excelled  in  mezzofint
  as  well  as  stipple.  Stipple  engravings  are  especially  valued
when  printed  in  colours.
From  about  1790  to  1830  was  the  most  flourishing  period  of
caricafure  in  which  Rowlandson  and  Gillray  were  the  leading  spirits,
and  also  of  the  sporting  prints  (hunting,  shooting,  boxing,  racing,
fishing,  efc.)  in  which  the  designs  of  Alken,  Howift,  Wolsfenholme,