Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cheesman, Thomas

1357258Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 10 — Cheesman, Thomas1887Louis Alexander Fagan

CHEESMAN, THOMAS (1760–1835?), engraver and draughtsman, was born in 1760, and is recognised as one of the best pupils of Francesco Bartolozzi [q. v.], in whose manner (dotted) he engraved. In 1798 he resided at No. 40 Oxford Street, and afterwards changed his address to No. 71 Newman Street. His name occurs for the last time, as an exhibitor to the Society of British Artists, in 1834, when he lived at No. 28 Francis Street. He engraved the following plates: ‘The Lady’s last Stake, or Picquet, or Virtue in Danger,’ after Hogarth (a proof before letter is in the British Museum); ‘The Plague stayed on the Repentance of David,’ after West; ‘Heads of Apostles,’ after Giotto; ‘Christ in the Sepulchre,’ after Guercino (engraved in conjunction with P. W. Tomkins); ‘Venus,’ after Titian; portraits of G. Colman, sen., after P. de Loutherbourg; G. Colman, jun., after De Wilde; Lady Hamilton, after G. Romney; a son of the late Lord Hugh Seymour, after R. Cosway; Mrs. Powell, Mrs. Sharpe, Mrs. Gilles, Mr. Fawcett, Madame Catalani, &c. To these may be added ‘Spring and Summer,’ ‘Plenty,' ‘Erminia,’ ‘Nymphs Bathing,' &c.

[Redgrave;s Dict. of Artists, 1878; manuscript notes in the British Museum.]

L. F.