Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Murphy, John (fl.1780-1820)

1341047Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 39 — Murphy, John (fl.1780-1820)1894Freeman Marius O'Donoghue

MURPHY, JOHN (fl. 1780–1820), engraver, was born in Ireland about 1748, and came to London, where he practised as an engraver, chiefly in mezzotint. His plates are not numerous, but some of them are singularly brilliant and masterly in treatment. He engraved historical subjects after contemporary English painters and the old masters, and also portraits. Murphy's plates include: ‘A Tyger,’ after Northcote; ‘A Tigress,’ after G. Stubbs; ‘Jael and Sisera,’ after Northcote; ‘Mark Antony's Oration,’ after West; ‘George III and his Family,’ after T. Stothard; ‘Portrait of the Duke of Portland,’ after Reynolds; two subjects from the history of Joseph, after Guercino; ‘Titian's Son and Nurse,’ after Titian; ‘Christ appearing to the Magdalen,’ after P. da Cortona; ‘Sacrifice of Abraham,’ after Rembrandt; and ‘The Cyclops at their Forge,’ after L. Giordano. The last four were done for Boydell's ‘Houghton Gallery.’ Murphy was also a portrait draughtsman. Several of his plates are from his own designs, and a portrait of Arthur O'Leary [q. v.], drawn by him, has been engraved by G. Keating. The latest date on Murphy's prints is 1809, but, according to a list of living artists published in 1820, he was then residing in Howland Street, Fitzroy Square.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Huber and Rost's Manuel des Curieux et des Amateurs de l'Art, 1804; Annals of the Fine Arts, iv. 665.]

F. M. O'D.