18th Century Portrait of The Lovely Brunette, Engraved by Edward Williams

After William Ward, Engraved by Edward Williams (circa 1755 – 1797?).

The Lovely Brunette

A late eighteenth century hand coloured engraving depicting a fashionable lady. Housed in a period giltwood frame with oval slip.

Dimensions refer to framed size.

Edward Williams was a London engraver who lived in the late 1700s and engraved many prints after Thomas Rowlandson and William Ward. He was a competent engraver, but is remembered primarily for being the father of the Victorian landscape painter Edward Williams.

Williams is said to have known the celebrated painter and engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764) which would make Williams about nine years old when Hogarth died. As nine is the age during the Georgian period at which many apprenticeships began, it is possible that Williams may have studied under Hogarth for a short time. He eventually became an engraver and some of his work was subsequently published by the master of mezzotint engraving John Raphael Smith.

This picture was engraved after a work by the portrait artist William Ward (1766–1826).