Robert Hartley Cromek was an engraver, editor, art dealer and entrepreneur who was most active in the early nineteenth century. He is best known for having allegedly cheated 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...

 out of the potential profits of his engraving depicting Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims.

In the early years of the nineteenth century Cromek had supported Blake, and had engraved Blake's design for Benjamin Heath Malkin

Benjamin Heath Malkin

Benjamin Heath Malkin was a British scholar and writer notable for his connection to the artist and poet William Blake.Malkin was educated at Harrow School and Cambridge University, receiving his MA in 1802 and his doctorate in 1810. In 1795 he published Essays on Subjects connected with...

's A Father's Memoirs of his Child in 1806. Cromek later commissioned Blake to illustrate Robert Blair

Robert Blair (poet)

Robert Blair was a Scottish poet.-Biography:He was the eldest son of the Rev. Robert Blair, one of the king's chaplains, and was born at Edinburgh. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh and in the Netherlands, and in 1731 was appointed to the living of Athelstaneford in East Lothian...

's poem The Grave. Blake had produced the designs, but his sample engraving was considered by Cromek to be too crude to attract subscribers. Cromek then gave the lucrative job of engraving Blake's designs to a rival engraver Luigi Schiavonetti

Luigi Schiavonetti

Luigi Schiavonetti , Italian reproductive engraver and etcher, was born at Bassano in Venetia.After having studied art for several years he was employed by Testolini, an engraver of very indifferent abilities, to execute imitations of Bartolozzi's works, which he passed off as his own...

.

In response, Blake proceeded to create a self-engraved illustration to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Cromek, however, had also given the idea to Blake's friend Thomas Stothard

Thomas Stothard

Thomas Stothard was an English painter, illustrator and engraver.-Life and work:Stothard was born in London, the son of a well-to-do innkeeper in Long Acre, London. A delicate child, he was sent at the age of five to a relative in Yorkshire, and attended school at Acomb, and afterwards at...

. Stothard's print became far more popular than Blake's, at least during their lifetimes. It remains unclear whether Blake or Cromek originated this project, but Blake certainly believed that the idea was stolen from him. The incident destroyed the friendship between Blake and Stothard.

As a savagely humorous comment on these events Blake wrote epigrams attacking Cromek:

Cromek loves artists as he loves his meat:

He loves the Art; but 'tis the art to cheat.



A petty sneaking knave I knew--

"O! Mr. Cromek, how do ye do?"

In 1809 Cromek published Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, a collection of Scottish ballads. The aspirant poet Allan Cunningham sent in poems of his own authorship, which Cromek included in the collection, even though he may have suspected their real authorship.