Robert Bowyer
Encyclopedia
Portrait miniature
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolour, or enamel.Portrait miniatures began to flourish in 16th century Europe and the art was practiced during the 17th century and 18th century...
and publisher.
Bowyer was born in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
to Amos and Betty Ann Bowyer and baptized on 18 June 1758. His first job was as a clerk to a merchant in Portsmouth and then 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...
. Two different accounts of his career shift survive. The first claims that he had decided to voyage to America, and before leaving wanted to obtain a portrait of himself for his fiance, Mary Shoveller. Unable to afford to commission one, he painted one himself and eventually gave up the idea of going to America and became a miniaturist. The second claims that he was simply looking for a job and decided to paint. On 14 July 1777, Bowyer married Shoveller; the couple had one daughter.
Bowyer probably began to train with the miniature painter John Smart
John Smart
John Smart , was an English painters of portrait miniatures. He was a contemporary of Richard Cosway, George Engleheart, William Wood and Richard Crosse.-Biography:He was born in Norfolk, but not much is known of his early life...
in the late 1770s and exhibited his first works at the Society of Artists
Society of Artists
The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established Paris salons....
in 1782 and at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in 1783. Bowyer had a successful career, painting the Duke of Rutland, the Marchioness of Salisbury, and Lord Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
. On 4 March 1789 Bowyer was appointed Miniature Painter in Ordinary to the King, following the death of Jeremiah Meyer
Jeremiah Meyer
Jeremiah Meyer was an 18th-century English miniature painter. Among Meyer's creations as Painter in Miniatures and Enamels to King George III, was the king's portrait used for coinage.Meyer was also one of the founder members of the Royal Academy....
.
In the 1790s, Bowyer became a print publisher, starting with his own works. His two major endeavors were an illustrated edition of the Bible and David Hume's
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
The History of England. Bowyer's Bible, begun in 1791 and finished in 1795, included 32 engravings by James Fittler
James Fittler
James Fittler , was an English engraver.Fittler was born in London in 1758, and became a student at the Royal Academy in 1778. Besides book illustrations, he distinguished himself by numerous works after English and foreign masters, chiefly portraits. He engraved also landscapes, marine subjects,...
after Old Master
Old Master
"Old Master" is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print made by an artist in the same period...
paintings. Bowyer also bought prints in France that he incorporated into a later edition known as "Bowyer's Bible"; he had an agent purchase even more during the Napoleonic wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. These were added to Thomas Macklin's
Thomas Macklin
Thomas Macklin was a British 18th-century printseller and picture dealer.Macklin married Hannah Kenting in 1777 and started a printselling business in London in 1779. His first year, his sold 7,000 copies of a print of Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt...
illustrated edition of the Bible, extending it to 45 volumes.
Schomberg House
Schomberg House is a mansion on the south side of Pall Mall in central London which has a colourful history. Only the street facade survives today. It was built for Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, a Huguenot general in the service of the British crown...
building at 87 Pall Mall
Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London, and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a section of the...
. The idea of placing the original pictures for the illustrated edition on display followed the examples of the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery
Boydell Shakespeare Gallery
The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a school of British history painting...
, Thomas Macklin
Thomas Macklin
Thomas Macklin was a British 18th-century printseller and picture dealer.Macklin married Hannah Kenting in 1777 and started a printselling business in London in 1779. His first year, his sold 7,000 copies of a print of Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt...
's Gallery of the Poets, and Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli
Henry Fuseli was a British painter, draughtsman, and writer on art, of Swiss origin.-Biography:...
's Milton Gallery, all of which operated in Pall Mall at around the same time. Benjamin West
Benjamin West
Benjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
and others contributed a total of 60 works to the Historic Gallery. By 1806, Bowyer had printed five folios, covering the years up to 1688, but high costs then prevented him from completing the work. Bowyer lost as much as £30,000 on the project and in 1805, to recoup some of these costs, he followed John Boydell
John Boydell
John Boydell was an 18th-century British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition in the art form...
's route in applying to Parliament for permission to hold a lottery for the gallery contents. Even after receiving approval for the lottery, it took Bowyer a further year to ensure that two paintings by Robert Smirke and 18 engravings were completed and the sale could proceed.
Due to his relationship with Smart, Bowyer also published a series of engravings regarding India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. In 1794, for example, he published Picturesque Views, with a Descriptive History of the Country of Tipoo Sultan after drawings by Robert Home
Robert Home
Robert Home was a British portrait oil painting artist who travelled to the Indian subcontinent in 1791. During his travels he also painted several historic scenes and landscapes....
and in 1797 Oriental Scenery: Twenty-Four Views in Hindoostan after drawings by Thomas Daniell
Thomas Daniell
Thomas Daniell was an English landscape painter.-Life:Thomas Daniell was born in 1749 at the Chertsey inn, kept by his father, and was apprenticed to an heraldic painter. Daniell, however, was animated with a love of the romantic and beautiful in architecture and nature. Up to 1784, he painted...
.
In 1796, the Bowyers' only daughter died at 18 and Robert wrote to Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...
that he feared his wife might die as well. Three years later, however, the couple adopted an orphaned wax modeller from Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
named Catherine Andras.
During the Peace of Amiens, the Bowyers and Andras went to Paris as members of the Baptist Missionary Society
Baptist Missionary Society
rightBMS World Mission is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its life was known as the Baptist Missionary Society...
and helped form the French Evangelical Society. Bowyer became increasingly active in religious causes later in his life, establishing a Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
, for example. He even bought a public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
, demolished it, and built a chapel in its place near his place of business. In addition to religious activities, Bowyer turned back to miniature portrait painting at the end of his life. George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
and others sat for him.
Bowyer's last years were plagued by financial difficulties and his home suffered a significant fire. He died on 4 June 1834. Mary Parkes, a maid and shop assistant, inherited the business.