Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rhodes, Richard (1765-1838)

659297Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 48 — Rhodes, Richard (1765-1838)1896Campbell Dodgson

RHODES, RICHARD (1765–1838), engraver, born in 1765, produced chiefly small line-engravings for illustrated books, in the style rendered popular towards the close of the last century by James Heath [q. v.], and continued by Charles Heath, to whom Rhodes was principal assistant for many years. He engraved plates after Fuseli in Woodmason's ‘Shakespeare,’ 1794, and in Cowper's ‘Poems,’ 1806; ‘Timon of Athens,’ after Howard, in Boydell's ‘Shakespeare,’ 1802; some plates in ‘Ancient Terra-cottas in the British Museum,’ 1810; numerous illustrations to Tegg's ‘Shakespeare,’ after Thurston, 1812–13; some of Stothard's designs for Byron's ‘Poems,’ 1814; eleven plates for Somerville's ‘Poems,’ 1815; several plates after Westall and others for Sharpe's ‘Poets,’ 1816–17; and a portrait of Henry Mackenzie, author of ‘The Man of Feeling,’ after Geddes. A number of proofs of Rhodes's engravings are in the print-room at the British Museum. He worked skilfully in a style which gave little scope for the individuality of an artist. He died at Camden Town on 1 Nov. 1838.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]

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