Joseph Samuel Webster

Last updated
Webster's portrait of Robert Strange, c. 1750 Robert Strange Webster.jpg
Webster's portrait of Robert Strange, c. 1750
Portrait of Levett Hanson by Webster, c. 1790 'Sir' Levett Hanson (1754-1814).jpeg
Portrait of Levett Hanson by Webster, c. 1790

Joseph Samuel Webster (died 6 July 1796) [1] was an English portrait painter who worked in miniatures, oils, pastels, and crayons.

Little is known of Webster's life. His portrait of Robert Strange has been reported to date from 1750, [2] while one of John Ward (died 1758) is estimated to date from about 1755. [3] Between 1762 and 1780, while living in Covent Garden, he was exhibiting miniatures and crayons at the Society of Artists of Great Britain, and in 1763 his work also appeared in the Free Society. In 1769 the Society of Artists paid him for some of his work which had been destroyed in a fire. [4] He was still working about 1790, the estimated date of his portrait of Sir Levett Hanson. [5] He died in 1796. [4]

Robert Strange (engraver) British engraver

Sir Robert Strange (1721–1792) was a Scottish engraver. A Jacobite, he spent periods out of Great Britain, but was eventually reconciled to the Hanoverian succession and was knighted by George III.

John Ward (academic) English teacher, supporter of learned societies, and biographer

John Ward (1679?–1758) was an English teacher, supporter of learned societies, and biographer, remembered for his work on the Gresham College professors, of which he was one.

Covent Garden district in London, England

Covent Garden is a district in Greater London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between Charing Cross Road and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and with the Royal Opera House, which is also known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the historical buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Georg Kaspar Nagler notes that Webster painted in the manner of Joshua Reynolds, that he painted ideal figures as well as portraits, and that some of his work was engraved, including a painting of Thomas Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury. [6]

Joshua Reynolds 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits

Sir Joshua Reynolds was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769.

Thomas Herring Archbishop of Canterbury

Thomas Herring M.A. was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1747 to 1757.

Archbishop of Canterbury senior bishop of the Church of England

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justin Welby, who was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", sent from Rome in the year 597. Welby succeeded Rowan Williams.

Webster has been confused with the "Mr. Joseph Webster, jun., of Loughborough", born 1774, whose death was announced in The Gentleman's Magazine for August 1796. [4] [7] The issue for September marked the death of this Webster by printing an engraving of him by James Basire. [8]

<i>The Gentlemans Magazine</i> London periodical

The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term magazine for a periodical. Samuel Johnson's first regular employment as a writer was with The Gentleman's Magazine.

James Basire British engraver 1730-1802

James Basire (1730–1802), also known as James Basire Sr., was an English engraver. He is the most significant of a family of engravers, and noted for his apprenticing of the young William Blake.

Notes

John Ward, by Webster, c. 1755 John Ward by Joseph Samuel Webster.jpg
John Ward, by Webster, c. 1755
  1. ↑ Samuel Redgrave, A Dictionary of Artists of the English School (George Bell, 1878), p. 462
  2. ↑ Richard Ormond, Malcolm Rogers, Adriana Davies, Dictionary of British Portraiture: Kilmurray, E. Later Georgians and early Victorians, historical figures born between 1700 and 1800 (Oxford University Press, 1980), p. 201
  3. ↑ Jacob Simon, The Art of the Picture Frame: artists, patrons and the framing of portraits in Britain (National Portrait Gallery, 1996) p. 162
  4. 1 2 3 Webster, Joseph Samuel in Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, online edition, accessed 5 August 2016.
  5. ↑ 7  Painting(s) by or after Joseph Samuel Webster , Art UK . Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  6. ↑ Georg Kaspar Nagler, Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon (1835-1852), vol. 24, p. 11: "Webster, Joseph Samuel, Maler zu London, war Zeitgenosse des Joshua Reynolds, und malte wie dieser Bildnisse. Auch Idealfiguren finden sich von ihm. J. M. Ardell stach nach ihm die Bildnisse des Th. Harrington, Erzbischofs von Canterbury, und des Th. Newman in schwarzer Manier. J. Watson stach 1773 das Bildnis des Lord-Mayor Frederik Bull in derselben Weise. Webster starb zu London 1796."
  7. ↑ The Gentleman's Magazine, August 1796, p. 702.
  8. ↑ The Gentleman's Magazine, September 1796, Plate II, facing p. 728

Art UK is a registered charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. It was founded for the project, completed between 2003 and 2012, of obtaining sufficient rights to enable the public to see images of all the approximately 210,000 oil paintings in public ownership in the United Kingdom. Originally the paintings were made accessible through a series of affordable book catalogues, mostly by county. Later the same images and information were placed on a website in partnership with the BBC, originally called Your Paintings, hosted as part of the BBC website. The renaming in 2016 coincided with the transfer of the website to a stand-alone site. Works by some 40,000 painters held in over 3,000 collections are now on the website.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

Related Research Articles

John Opie English historical and portrait painter

John Opie was a Cornish historical and portrait painter. He painted many great men and women of his day, including members of the British Royal Family, and others who were most notable in the artistic and literary professions.

Ozias Humphry 18th/19th-century English painter

Ozias Humphry was a leading English painter of portrait miniatures, later oils and pastels, of the 18th century. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1791, and in 1792 he was appointed Portrait Painter in Crayons to the King.

Francis Cotes British artist

Francis Cotes was an English painter, one of the pioneers of English pastel painting, and a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768.

Joseph Collyer English engraver

Joseph Collyer, also called Joseph Collyer the Younger, was an English engraver. He was an associate of the Royal Academy and portrait engraver to the British Queen Consort, Queen Charlotte.

Events from the year 1759 in art.

Events from the year 1756 in art.

Events from the year 1762 in art.

Jeremiah Meyer British artist

Jeremiah Meyer was an 18th-century English miniature painter. He was Painter in Miniatures to Queen Charlotte, Painter in Enamels to King George III and was one of the founder members of the Royal Academy.

Emanuel Witz Swiss sculptor

Emanuel Witz was a Swiss painter, born in Biel.

Samuel Shelley British artist

Samuel Shelley (1750/56–1808) was an English miniaturist and watercolour painter.

William Artaud British artist

William Artaud (1763–1823), was an English painter of portraits and biblical subjects.

Frances Reynolds was an English artist, and the youngest sister of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Peter Edward Stroehling painter from Germany

Peter Edward Stroehling, also spelled Peter Eduard Ströhling, and sometimes Stroely or Straely was a portrait artist from either Germany or the Russian Empire who spent his later years based in London. He worked in oils and in miniature and painted a number of royal portraits.

John Hazlitt English miniature and portrait painter

John Hazlitt was an English artist who specialised in miniature portrait painting. He was the eldest brother of William Hazlitt – a major essayist of the English Romantic period, as well as an artist and radical social commentator – and had a significant influence on his career.

John Boultbee (artist) English painter

John Boultbee (Artist) (1753–1812) was an English painter of equestrian and other sporting subjects. He was born in Osgathorpe, Leicestershire on 4 June 1753 and died in Liverpool on 30 November 1812. Boultbee entered the Royal Academy School in 1775 and became a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds exhibiting in London, including at the Royal Academy, from that date.

Daniel Gardner British artist

Daniel Gardner was a British painter, best known for his work as a portraitist. He established a fashionable studio in Bond Street in London, specializing in small scale portraits in pastel, crayons or gouache, often borrowing Reynolds' poses.

Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel, also known as Frederik Karel Albert Schreuel and Jan Christian Aelbert Schreuel, was a Dutch-born painter.

Georg Kaspar Nagler German art historian

Georg Kaspar Nagler was a German art historian and art writer.

Nathaniel Rogers was an American painter from Long Island known as the preeminent miniature portrait painter in New York City.