Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Burke, Thomas (1749-1815)

765062Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 07 — Burke, Thomas (1749-1815)1886Louis Alexander Fagan

BURKE, THOMAS (1749–1815), engraver, born in Dublin in 1749, was the pupil of John Dixon, the mezzotint engraver, but, like some other engravers of that period, abandoned mezzotinto for the chalk method, which Francesco Bartolozzi had made so popular. He produced many excellent plates in both styles, chiefly from the works of Angelica Kauffmann. He died in London on 31 Dec. 1815. Among Burke's best scraped works may be mentioned the following portraits: Queen Charlotte, after Kauffmann; the Chevalier d'Eon, after Huquier; Thomas Dimsdale; John Henry Hampe, after Kauffmann; Richard, earl Howe, after Koster; and Frederick, lord North, after Dance; besides others in stipple, generally printed in brown or red colours, such as 'Telemachus at the Spartan Court,' after Kauffmann; 'The Battle of Agincourt,' after Mortimer; and the 'Nightmare,' after Fuseli.

[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists (1878).]

L. F.