James Basire
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
engraver. He is the most significant of a family of engravers, and noted for his apprenticing of the young William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
.
His father was Isaac Basire
Isaac Basire (engraver)
Isaac Basire was an engraver and first in a family line of prolific and well-respected engravers. Isaac Basire was known as a map engraver. His most well-known work is the frontispiece to an edition of Bailey's dictionary .-Family:...
(1704-1768), a map maker, his son (1769-1822) and grandson (1796-1869) were also named James; these four generations of Basires were all engravers. Their longetivity produced overlapping careers, which has led to difficulties in attribution of some works.
A member of the Society of Antiquaries
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
, James Basire specialized in prints depicting architecture. His studio was on Great Queen Street
Great Queen Street
Great Queen Street is a street in central London, England in the West End. It is a continuation of Long Acre from Drury Lane to Kingsway. It runs from 1 to 44 along the north side, east to west, and 45 to about 80 along the south side, west to east...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. His appointment as engraver to the society, as were all three generations, and much of his finest work is found in Vetusta Monumenta
Vetusta Monumenta
Vetusta Monumenta is the title of a published series of illustrated antiquarian papers on ancient buildings, sites, and artefacts, mostly those of Britain, published at irregular intervals between 1718 and 1906 by the Society of Antiquaries of London...
. A major piece was his copperplate for Field of the Cloth of Gold, an exquisitely detailed reproduction of a watercolour by Edward Edwards
Edward Edwards (painter)
Edward Edwards was an English painter.-Life:Edwards, the elder son of a chairmaker and carver, who had come from Shrewsbury, and settled in London, was born in London 7 March 1738. He was a weakly child, with distorted limbs, and remained of very small size all his life...
; this oversize historical print was issued on 'Antiquarian' paper. Excellent work also appeared in Gough
Richard Gough
Charles Richard Gough is a former Scottish football central defender who enjoyed great success as captain of Rangers. He also played for Scotland 61 times and had a brief spell as manager of Livingston...
's Sepulchral Monuments.
Work by Basire hangs in museums and galleries around the world, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, comprising the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco and one of the largest art museums in California.-External...
, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
, Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand, the National Library of Australia
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
in Canberra, and the National Portrait Gallery, London.
On 4 August 1772, William Blake was apprenticed to Basire for the term of seven years. There is no record of any serious disagreement or conflict between the two during the period of Blake's apprenticeship. However, Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd CBE is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More he won the Somerset Maugham Award...
's biography notes that Blake was later to add Basire's name to a list of artistic adversaries—and then cross it out.
He assisted in the production of Stuart's Athens and engraved several good portraits of eminent men. He died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Among his other works were:
- Captain Cook; after Hodges.
- Lady Stanhope, as the Fair Penitent; after B. Wilson.
- Lord Camden; after Joshua ReynoldsJoshua ReynoldsSir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
. - The Field of the Cloth of Gold: Henry VIII and Francis I; after the picture at Hampton Court.
- Interview between Orestes and Pylades before Iphigenia; after Benjamin WestBenjamin WestBenjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
.
Amongst Basire's apprentices was George Cooke
George Cooke (engraver)
George Cooke , was an English line engraver.-Life and work:Cooke was born in London in 1781. His father was a native of Frankfurt, Germany, who in early life settled in England and became a wholesale confectioner. At the age of fourteen, George Cooke was apprenticed to James Basire...
(1781-1834).
External links
- List of works
- Work by Basire on WorldImages