William Holl the elder (1771-1838)

The Holl family of printmakers (ca.1800-1884) first gained notability with the engraver William Holl the elder (1771-1838). His prints were mainly carried out using the stipple technique and included a number of plates of portraits and statues reproduced from the works of contemporary artists.

He was one of the first engravers to try out the new mould of the steel plate for engraving banknotes in 1819. All four of his sons were apprenticed to him as engravers namely William Holl the younger (1807-1871), Charles  Holl (ca.1810-1882), Henry Benjamin Holl (1808-1884) and Francis Holl (1815-1884).

Frederick Christian Lewis (1779-1856)

Lewis was an etcher, aquatint and stipple engraver, and a landscape and portrait painter. He studied under J. 0. Stadler, and was a student at the Royal Academy . He was appointed engraver to George IV, William IV and Queen Victoria. He mainly engraved works by Sir Thomas Lawrence, until the artist died in 1830.

He painted landscapes, mainly of Devonshire scenery and published several volumes of plates depicting the Devonshire rivers between 1821 and 1843, as well as etchings of the Scenery of the Rivers of England and Wales 1845-7. As well as line and stipple engravings, some topographical aquatints (ca.1845) by Lewis are also present in the Library’s collections.

Daniel J. Pound (fl. 1842-1877)

He was primarily a portrait engraver and created most of his portraits by replicating photographs by John Jabez Edwin Mayall (1813-1901). He became extremely skilled in this method of reproductive engraving.

Many of his portraits appeared in the series, ‘The Drawing Room Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages’, in the Illustrated News of the World.

William Roos (1808-1878)

William Roos was a popular portrait painter and mezzotint engraver. He was born near Amlwch, North Wales, in 1808. Although he based himself in Wales, he spent periods of time in  London and frequently travelled in order to sustain his portrait work. He produced many portraits of the well-known Welsh individuals of his day, including John Elias, Christmas Evans and John Jones, 'Talhaiarn.'

His strengths lay in portrait oil painting and mezzotint engraving, but he also  produced landscape, still-life and watercolour paintings. He painted some historical landscapes for Eisteddfod competitions and his paintings of ‘The Death of Owen Glyndwr’ and ‘The Death of Captain Wynn at Alma’ were awarded prizes at the Llangollen Eisteddfod in 1858.

George Vertue (1684-1756)

George Vertue, engraver and antiquary, was born in London in 1684. He first trained  under an unknown French engraver (c.1698-1701), after which he was apprenticed to Michael van der Gucht (1600-1725) until 1709. He then set himself up as an independent engraver, producing a wide range of work, notably reproductions of portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

In 1717 he was appointed engraver to the Society of Antiquaries, contributing to its Vetusta monumenta. By the mid 1730s he was considered to be one of the best reproductive engravers. A number of his engravings were made after portraits and tomb effigies of historical persons. Examples of such work included his series of nine ‘Historical Prints’ from paintings of the Tudor period, and portrait engravings for The heads of illustrious persons of Great Britain (London, 1747), a collaborative effort with the engraver Jacobus Houbraken.

Vertue was well known for his enthusiastic participation in the artists’ clubs and private academies of the day. He also enjoyed a reputation as an antiquary, having a strong interest in the artistic and cultural history of Britain.

Bibliography

• Hilary Chapman, ‘Holl family (per. c.1800-1884)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 
   
• Hunnisett, Basil, 1989. An illustrated dictionary of British Steel engravers. Aldershot : Scolar Press.
• Jones, Bedwyr Lewis, 1969. William Roos yr artist 1808-73. Anglesey Antiquarian Society and Field Club.
• Rees, T. Mardy, 1912. Welsh painters, engravers, sculptors 1527-1911. Carnarvon : Welsh Pub. Co. ; Newport, Mon. : J.E. Southall.
• Turner, Jane (ed.), 1996. The dictionary of art. Basingstoke : Macmillan.

David Bell (1915-1959)

David Bell, artist and poet, was born in London in 1915 to Mabel Winifred and Sir Idris Bell, scholar and translator. He gained his first understanding of the arts at Merchant Taylors’ School, London. Following his education at the Royal College of Art, he joined an expedition to the Sudan and Iraq (1936-1938) with the Egypt Exploration Society, working in Sesebi and Amarah. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he was employed by the Cartographical Section of the Admiralty first in England and then in Wales at The National Library, Aberystwyth.

After the war, Bell was appointed Assistant Director of the Welsh Arts Council and in 1951 became Curator of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea. In 1952, he collaborated with his father on the translation of the works of Dafydd ap Gwilym, and he continued translating Welsh works, like his father, throughout his later life.

Although sometimes challenging the Welsh field of arts, Bell was an enthusiastic supporter of young talent in the country, giving  significant support to living artists and buying works from contemporary artists such as Ceri Richards for the Glynn Vivian Museum.

John Kelt Edwards (1875-1934)

John Kelt Edwards was born in Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales in 1875. After receiving his education at a local school, Llandovery College and Beaumont, Jersey, he spent several years drawing and painting in Florence and Paris where he  received tuition from highly regarded artists. Some of his work was exhibited in the Paris Salon and in London.

On returning to Britain, he based himself in London, where he acquired a studio, and produced portraits of numerous London-Welsh including David Lloyd George, Lady Megan Lloyd George and  Sir Owen M. Edwards.  He returned to North Wales before the War, possibly because of a rejection of one of his portraits of David Lloyd George by the Royal Academy, which was of great disappointment to him.

During the First World War he produced war cartoons and later designed the banner and badge of the ‘Comrades of the Great War’ and the roll of honour of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Other portraits of well-known Welsh literary figures completed by him include R. O. Hughes (Elfyn) and Ellis H. Evans (Hedd Wyn). He was also well-known for his book illustrations.

Mervyn Levy (1914-1996)

Mervyn Levy, artist, writer, critic and teacher, was born in Swansea in 1914. He went to school with the poet Dylan Thomas, who became a lifelong friend. Art became his driving force and in 1935, whilst a student at the Royal College of Art, he was awarded the Sir Herbert Read Prize for drawing.

After serving as Captain of the Royal Army Educational Corps during the Second World War, he held posts as art tutor at Bristol University and at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol.

During the 1950s his teaching skills led to his own BBC television series ‘Painting for housewives’ which ran for several years. He also appeared regularly on BBC radio arts programmes and interviewed artists for the BBC Radio archives.

Over the next 30 years he produced over 25 books including A dictionary of art terms  (1963), The paintings of D. H. Lawrence (1964) and Whistler lithographs (1975). He became a great authority on the English artist, L. S. Lowry (1887-1976), producing many publications, as well as becoming a friend.

Daniel Maclise (bap. 1806, d.1870)

Maclise was born in Cork, Ireland. He received a classical education there and from an early age displayed a strong interest in drawing. In 1822, following a short period working as a bank clerk, he left to study at the Cork Institute of Arts, where he began to draw from the newly arrived collection of casts made after the antique sculpture in the Vatican. Drawings by Maclise displayed in his father’s shop attracted much attention.

His first public success came when his portrait drawing of Sir Walter Scott was lithographed in Dublin and attracted much attention.  As a result, he received many commissions for portraits and opened his own studio in late 1825 in Cork, where he produced portrait drawings of officers and professional people. Here he specialized in finely pencilled portrait drawings. 

To further his career, Maclise travelled to London and became a student at the Royal Academy in 1828. He received the highest awards available for his drawing, painting and draughtsmanship. The crowning of his studies was to win the prestigious gold medal for history painting for his ‘Choice of Hercules’ in December 1831. During the 1830s he developed a form of historical genre painting, influenced by the contemporary interest in the 17th century Dutch and Flemish genre painting. 

The central event of Maclise’s career was his commission to paint some of the mural decorations in the Houses of Parliament. He painted two frescoes for the Chamber of the House of Lords, the ‘Spirit of Chivalry’ and ‘Spirit of Justice’, in the medieval style favoured by Dyce, Eastlake and Prince Albert. His large narrative subjects of the 1850s culminated in the cartoons of the ‘Meeting of Wellington and Blücher’ and its companion ‘Death of Nelson’  for the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster, which he completed in 1861 and 1865 respectively. 

Among some reproductive engravings of his original drawings and paintings, a watercolour of the lexicographer, antiquary and poet, William Owen Pughe (1759-1835) can be found in the Library’s Portrait Collection.

Leslie Ward (‘Spy’) (1851-1922)

Sir Leslie Ward [pseud. Spy], caricaturist and portrait painter, was born in 1851 in London. Both his parents, Edward Matthew Ward (1816-1879) and Henrietta Mary Ada Ward (1832-1924) were painters of some note. Ward was educated at Chase’s Preparatory School near Slough, and Eton college. Here he drew caricatures of his schoolfellows and masters. He left school in 1869, and following an unhappy year working at an architects office, his father agreed to support his training as an artist. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1871. His chosen field of work in which he excelled was polite caricature.

In 1873, a family friend introduced Ward to the founder owner and editor of Vanity Fair, Thomas Gibson Bowles. He noted Ward’s ability to capture the likenesses of prominent public figures and invited him to join the staff of the famous magazine. As his pseudonym, Ward suggested to Bowles that he use ‘Spy…'"to observe secretly, or to discover at a distance or in concealment”, and so it was that Leslie Ward signed his portraits ‘Spy.’

Between 1873 and 1889, both he and Carlo Pellegrini (pseud. ‘Ape’) dominated the weekly coloured cartoon featured in Vanity Fair. He drew approximately 1,325 cartoons for the magazine between 1873 and 1911, capturing on many occasions the public persona of the subject. He often worked from memory, after observing his subjects in their working roles. He became the most well-known Vanity Fair artist, emphasised by the fact that the caricatures are often referred to as ‘Spy cartoons.’

Bibliography

• Jones, Edward V. Breeze, 1987. ‘John Kelt Edwards (1875-1934).’ Rhamant bro, Rhif 4 (Gaeaf 1987), p. 8-10.
• Thomas Parry, ‘David Ernest Bell (1915-1959)’, Welsh Biography Online, National Library of Wales, 2001
• Ceri Levy, 1996. ‘Obituary: Mervyn Levy.’ The Independent, [internet] 17 May
• Turner, Jane (ed.), 1996. The dictionary of art. Basingstoke : Macmillan
• Peter Mellini, ‘Ward, Sir Leslie [Spy] (1851-1922)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004

Ebenezer Morgan  (1820-1906)

Ebenezer Morgan was baptized in Lledrod, Ceredigion, on 9 July, 1820. He was apprenticed in the joinery trade at Tregaron and subsequently worked as a joiner in Manchester and Birmingham. On his return to Aberystwyth he entered into partnership with Benjamin Hughes, who owned an ironmongers in the town. 

Soon after, Morgan started a photography business with John Owen, the first photographer to come to Aberystwyth, and by ca.1860 Morgan had established 2 studios of his own on Pier Street. The 1880s was a boom period for photography in Aberystwyth and by 1880 Morgan owned one of  the six photographic businesses in the town. He became one of the most well-established of the earliest photographers there, maintaining the business for over forty years up to his retirement in 1899.

John Thomas (1838-1905)

John Thomas was a labourer's son from Cellan, Ceredigion. In 1853 he moved to Liverpool to work in a draper's shop. Over a period of ten years the work had a detrimental effect on his health and he was forced to find other employment.

During the early 1860s, he worked for a firm dealing in writing materials and photographs of famous people. The publishing and selling of small photographs of celebrities (carte-de-visite photographs) at the time was a very lucrative business. He soon realised that only a few of the photographs he was selling were of Welsh celebrities, and so he undertook to change things himself.

He learnt the rudiments of photography and in 1863 he began taking photographs of the famous by inviting a number of well-known preachers to sit for their portraits. The enterprise was a success and by 1867 he was confident enough to establish his own photographic business in Liverpool ‘The Cambrian Gallery.’

He worked as a photographer for about forty years, and during that time he travelled widely across Wales taking photographs of landscapes as well as people.

Hugh Humphreys (1817-1896)

Hugh Humphreys was born in Caernarfon in 1817. He was apprenticed at the age of 12 to the Caernarfon printer, Peter Evans. He set up his own printing business in the town in 1837. The business soon developed into a much larger enterprise which also included bookselling, photography and oil painting among its activities. The business thrived for nearly sixty years. One of the most important books published by him was A Tour in Wales (pub. 1778-1783) written by the naturalist, antiquary and traveller, Thomas Pennant (1726-1798).

According to trade directories, Humphreys was operating as a portrait and landscape photographer in the 1880s and 1890s under the title of ‘Humphreys Photographic Studio & Fine Art Gallery’ at Paternoster Buildings, Castle Square, Caernarfon. Many of the photographs produced by him were in the form of card photographs, which were extremely popular during this time. He took a prominent part in the life of the town, becoming Mayor in 1876.

John Wickens (1865-1936)

John Wickens was a well-known Bangor photographer with studios in The Crescent and College Road, Upper Bangor and High Street, Bangor. According to trade directories, he first operated as a photographer in the town in 1889 and remained in business there for the remainder of his life.

By 1900, he had two premises at Retina Studio, Upper Bangor, and Studio Royal, 43 High Street. He was a prolific portrait photographer, and won awards for his images, including a Gold medal at the Swansea Eisteddfod in 1891.

Bibliography

• Darlington, Elizabeth A., 1988. ‘High Street Photographers in Aberystwyth 1857 - c1900.’ National Library of Wales journal. Volume XXV/4 (Winter)
• Gabb, Gerald, 1999. Jubilee Swansea (Volume II) : the town and its people in the 1890s. Swansea : Gerald Gabb
• ‘Hugh Humphreys (1817-1896)’, Dictionary of Welsh Biography, 1959
• National Library of Wales, ‘John Thomas (1838-1905): his life and work'