3-021-577 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. John Burnet, engraver, 1868. Engraving from a photograph by John Watkins. '...a passion for drawing...induced his father to place him with Mr. Robert Scott, a landscape engraver of Edinburgh, from whom he learned the practical part of etching and engraving...the young engraver grew impatient for an opportunity of also distinguishing himself in the southern capital...[He] arrived at one of the Thames wharves with only a few shillings in his pocket and a single impression from a plate...as a specimen of his art...His first engravings were for books, but, desirous of engaging on a work of larger dimensions, he asked Wilkie to allow him to engrave "The Jew's Harp," which he executed the same size as the painting...The plate...was published at a guinea, and has often since been sold for twelve, and in one instance for twenty guineas...After the peace of 1815, Mr. Burnet visited Paris, for the purpose of studying in the Louvre. Not long after, he published his "Practical Hints on Painting," which has ever since held its ground as one of the most valuable elementary works on art in the language. Mr. Burnet was one of the body of engravers who produced the well-known collection of prints from the National Gallery'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.