Richard Houston (
c. 1721 – 4 August 1775) was an Irish
mezzotint engraver, whose career was mostly in
London.
Life
Born in
Dublin around 1721, he became a pupil of
John Brooks, who was also the master of
James McArdell and
Charles Spooner. He came to London around 1747, and some of his early plates bear the address "near Drummond's at Charing Cross".
In debt to
Robert Sayer the print-seller, he was arrested and confined to the
Fleet prison; according to Sayer this in order that he might know where to find the dissipated Houston. He was released in 1760, on the accession of
George III. As a free agent he was commissioned by
Henry Carrington Bowles.
Houston died in Hetton Street, London, on 4 August 1775, aged 54.
Works
Houston's major works are engravings after
Sir Joshua Reynolds, which include portraits of:
A series of portraits by him is in
Richard Rolt's Lives of the Principal Reformers, London, 1759. Besides portraits, he executed a number of subject plates, such as:
'The Elements,' four plates, and 'The Times of the Day,' two different sets of four plates, also after Mercier;
the 'Miraculous Onyx Stone;' and
plates of running horses, in which he excelled.
Houston's early work included his series of portraits of politicians after
William Hoare,[1] as well as plates after
Rembrandt.[2] For Bowles he engraved religious figures.[3] He painted a few miniatures.
^They comprise 'The Burgomaster Six,' 'The Syndics,' 'Haman's Condemnation,' 'An old Woman plucking a Fowl,' 'A Man holding a Knife, 'The Pen-maker,' and some others. Houston also etched two small plates of an old man and an old woman, after Rembrandt.