Life

He was born in Peterborough

Peterborough

Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...

 of Roman Catholic parents, and studied art in London as a pupil of the Genoese refugee Alessandro Maria Grimaldi (1659−1732). He painted portraits of his master Grimaldi and his master's wife about 1720. He married Grimaldi's daughter, and remained on close terms with Alexander Grimaldi, his master's son. Subsequently he received instruction from Louis Peter Boitard

Louis Peter Boitard

-Life:He was born in France, and was a pupil of Raymond Lafage. His father François Boitard brought him to England. The date of his death is unknown, being stated by some authorities as 1758, by others as after 1760.-Works:...

. About 1736 Worlidge and the younger Grimaldi are said to have visited Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, where Worlidge reintroduced the art of painting on glass

Painting on Glass

-Track listing:# "Magma" - 4:25# "Commemoration" - 5:41# "Crystal Orchids" - 2:59# "Persistent and Fleeting" - 5:58# "White Waters" - 2:50# "Aurora Borealis" - 1:32# "Dreamscapes" - 4:31# "Aurora Australis" - 2:39# "Azure" - 4:00# "Veiled Exposure" - 5:22...

. For a time, too, he seems to have practised portrait painting at Bath, Somerset.

About 1740 Worlidge settled in London in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

, where he remained for the rest of his life. At one time Worlidge's address was ‘at the Piazza, Covent Garden.’ He afterwards resided in Bedford Street and King Street in the same neighbourhood.

In 1763 he settled in 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 a large house built by Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...

, adjoining the later site of the Freemasons' Tavern. Worlidge became obese and a drinker in later life, and suffered from gout

Gout

Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint. The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected . However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate...

. In his last years he spent much of his leisure in a country house situated in Messrs. Kennedy & Leigh's nursery-ground at Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

. There he died on 23 September 1766, and was buried in Hammersmith church. A plain marble slab, inscribed with verses by William Kenrick

William Kenrick (writer)

William Kenrick was an English novelist, playwright, translator and satirist, who spent much of his career libelling and lampooning his fellow writers.- Life and career :Kenrick was born at Watford, Hertfordshire, son of a stay-maker...

, was placed on the wall of the church; it is now at the east end of the south aisle.

Works

His portraits in oil and pastel

Pastel

Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....

 enjoyed some vogue, his first reputation was made by his miniature portraits. In middle life his most popular work consisted of heads in blacklead pencil, for which he charged two guineas; leaders of fashionable society employed him to make these drawing. Later he concentrated his energies on etching in the style of Rembrandt, using a dry-needle with triangular point. He copied some of Rembrandt's prints, among them the artist's portrait of himself and the hundred-guelder plate. An etching after Rembrandt's portrait of Sir John Astley was described by Horace Walpole as Worlidge's ‘best piece.’ Worlidge drew a pencil portrait of himself, which is reproduced in Walpole's Anecdotes (edition by Ralph Nicholson Wornum

Ralph Nicholson Wornum

Ralph Nicholson Wornum was an English artist, art historian and administrator. He was Keeper and Secretary of the National Gallery of London from 1855 until his death.-Early life:...

). Examples of Worlidge's drawings and etchings are in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 print-room. There is also there a priced catalogue of a selection of his etchings.
One of Worlidge's most popular plates depicted the installation of John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland

John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland

John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland was an English nobleman, styled The Honourable John Fane from 1691 to 1736....

 as chancellor of the university at the Sheldonian Theatre

Sheldonian Theatre

The Sheldonian Theatre, located in Oxford, England, was built from 1664 to 1668 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the university at the time and the project's main financial backer...

 at Oxford in 1761. Worlidge represents himself in the gallery on the right in the act of drawing the scene with his second wife beside him. In the corresponding place on the left-hand side of the plate is a portrait of his brother-in-law, Alexander Grimaldi. Most of the numerous heads and figures are portraits. A plate of the bust of Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 at Oxford (known as the Pomfret bust) also enjoyed a wide vogue.
In April 1754 Worlidge had a large collection of his works to be sold by public auction. The printed catalogue bore the title, ‘A Collection of Pictures painted by Mr. Worlidge of Covent Garden, consisting’ ‘of Histories, Heads, Landscapes, and Dead Game, and also some Drawings.’ The highest price fetched was £51 15s. 6d., which was given for a ‘fine head’ after Rembrandt.
More than sixteen hundred prints and more than thirteen hundred drawings by Worlidge were sold by Abraham Langford

Abraham Langford

Abraham Langford was an English auctioneer and playwright.-Life:He was born in the parish of St Paul, Covent Garden. As a young man he wrote for the stage, and was responsible, according to the Biographia Dramatica, for an 'entertainment' called 'The Judgement of Paris,' which was produced in 1730...

 in March 1767 by order of his widow.

Worlidge's last work was his Antique Gems, a series of 182 etchings of gems from the antique (three are in duplicate). The series was published in parts, some of which seem to have been issued as early as 1754; but Worlidge died before the work was completed. It was finished by his pupils William Grimaldi

William Grimaldi

-Life:Born in the parish of St Leonard's, Shoreditch, on 26 August 1751, he was son of Alexander Grimaldi and Esther Barton his wife, and great-grandson of Alessandro Maria Grimaldi, the heir and representative of the Genoese family of Grimaldi, who had settled in England after the bombardment of...

 and George Powle, and, printed on satin, was published by his widow in 1768 at the price of eighteen guineas a copy. The frontispiece, dated 1754, shows Worlidge drawing the Pomfret bust of Cicero; behind on an easel is a portrait of his second wife, Mary. No letterpress was included originally in the volume, but between 1768 and 1780 a few copies were issued with letterpress. After 1780 a new edition, but bearing the original date of 1768, appeared with letterpress in two volumes at five guineas each. The title-page omits mention of ‘M. Wicksteed's’ name, but is otherwise a replica of the first. Some of the old copper plates (108 in all) were reproduced in ‘Antique Gems, etched by T. Worlidge on Copper Plates, in the Possession of Sheffield Grace, Esq.,’ London, 1823, (privately printed). Charles William King

Charles William King

Charles William King , was a British Victorian writer and collector of gems.- Early life :King was born at Newport, Monmouthshire, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1836. He graduated in 1840, and obtained a fellowship in 1842...

 in his Antique Gems (1872, i. 469) thought Worlidge's plates often inferior to those of Jonathan Spilsbury, and that the descriptions placed below contained some blunders.

Family

Worlidge was three times married: first, to Arabella (b. 1709), daughter of Alessandro Grimaldi (d. 1732); she died before 1749. The name of his second wife was Mary.

He married in 1763 his third wife, Elizabeth Wicksteed, daughter of a toyman of Bath, and apparently sister of the well-known seal engraver there. She assisted Worlidge in his artistic work, and gained a reputation for herself by her skill in copying paintings in needlework

Needlework

Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...

. After Worlidge's death she carried on the sale of his etchings at his house in Great Queen Street; but she let the mansion to Hester Darby and her daughter, Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson (poet)

Mary Robinson was an English poet and novelist. During her lifetime she is known as 'the English Sappho'...

 ('Perdita'), on her marriage to a wine and spirit merchant named Ashley, who had been one of Worlidge's friends.

Worlidge is said to have had thirty-two children by his three marriages, but only Thomas, a son by his third wife, survived him. This son married, in 1787, Phoebe, daughter of Alexander Grimaldi (1714−1800); she was buried in Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields is a cemetery in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the City of London Corporation. It is about 4 hectares in extent, although historically was much larger....

 on 14 January 1829. Her husband migrated to the West Indies in 1792. In March 1826 he was again in London, and while employed as compositor in the office of the Morning Advertiser

Morning Advertiser

Morning Advertiser is the only weekly pub trade publication in the UK. It currently has a circulation of more than 32,500 that reaches the key decision-makers in England and Wales. In March 2011, William Reed Business Media, bought The Publican from United Business Media and merged the two titles...

was sent to prison for an assault. His father drew a portrait of him, which bore the title ‘A Boy's Head.’