Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Freeman, Samuel

948617Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 20 — Freeman, Samuel1889Lionel Henry Cust

FREEMAN, SAMUEL (1773–1857), engraver, worked chiefly in stipple, and is principally known as an engraver of portraits. Among these may be noted Samuel Johnson, after Bartolozzi, Garrick, and Henry Tresham, R.A., after Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir R. K. Porter, and Miss L. E. Landon, after J. Wright (Freeman's original drawing from the portrait of Miss Landon is in the print room at the British Museum), Thomas Campbell, after Lawrence, Queen Victoria, after Miss Costello, and others. He engraved numerous portraits and other illustrations to the Rev. T. F. Dibdin's 'Northern Gallery,' &c. For Tresham's 'British Gallery' (1815) Freeman engraved the Stafford Gallery replica of Raphael's 'Vierge au Diademe.' He also engraved some of the plates for Jones's 'National Gallery,' and numerous portraits for Fisher's 'National Portrait Gallery.' For Dallaway's edition of Walpole's 'Anecdotes of Painting' he engraved 'The Marriage of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou' from an ancient painting. He died on 27 Feb. 1857, aged 84.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Catalogue of Dyce Collection, South Kens. Mus.]

L. C.