John Brooks (fl. 1755) was an Irish engraver.
Active initially in Dublin, around 1747 he settled in London, managing a business at Battersea for the enamelling of china in colours by a process which he had devised. The articles produced were ornamented with subjects chiefly from Homer and Ovid. After a period of success the business folded on the bankruptcy of its chief proprietor, Stephen Theodore Janssen, Lord Mayor of London for 1754-5.
Brooks stayed in London as an engraver and enameller of china. Some of his pupils of Brooks worked as engravers in mezzotint, among them Michael Ford and James MacArdell.
Brooks' first known work was executed in line-engraving at Dublin in 1730. The earliest engraved portrait of Peg Woffington is that by Brooks, dated June 1740. Between 1741 and 1746 Brooks produced at Dublin mezzotinto portraits and engravings.
A catalogue of his works of Brooks was for the first time published by John Thomas Gilbert, and additions were made by John Chaloner Smith British Mezzotinto Portraits (1878).
James Tassie (1735–1799) was a Scottish gem engraver and modeller. He is remembered for a particular style of miniature medallion heads, portraying the profiles of the rich and famous of Britain, and for making and selling large numbers of "Tassie casts" of engraved gems for collectors.
Henry Thomas Ryall was an English line, stipple and mixed-method engraver and later used mixed mezzotint.
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William Humphrys was an engraver of pictures, book illustrations and postage stamps.
Isaac Beckett was an English mezzotint engraver, one of the first practitioners of the art in the country.
Philip Audinet, was an English line-engraver.
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Edmund Thomas Parris was an English history, portrait, subject, and panorama painter, book illustrator, designer and art restorer. He was appointed history painter to Queen Adelaide, Queen Consort of William IV, and painted Queen Victoria's coronation in 1838 and the Duke of Wellington's funeral in 1852. He supervised the painting of the huge panorama in the London Colosseum in Regent's Park, London, and was the inventor of "Parris's medium".
James MacArdell was an Irish mezzotinter.
Michael Ford, was an Irish mezzotint engraver.
John Smith was an English mezzotint engraver and print seller. Closely associated with the portrait painter Godfrey Kneller, Smith was one of leading exponents of the mezzotint medium during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was regarded among first English-born artists to receive international recognition, along the younger painter William Hogarth.
John Dixon (1740?–1811) was an Irish mezzotint engraver.
William Dickinson (1746–1823) was an English mezzotint engraver.
Andrew Miller was an English mezzotint engraver.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). "Brooks, John". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 6. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
