Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alken, Samuel

by Ernest Radford

ALKEN, SAMUEL (fl. 1780–1796), was a draughtsman and engraver, and his aquatint engravings are of high merit. Alken produced plates after Morland, Richard Wilson, Rowlandson, Wheatley, and others. As an original artist he is known by the ‘New Book of Ornaments,’ which he designed and etched himself, by his ‘Views in Cumberland and Westmoreland,’ published in 1796, and by ‘Aquatint Views in North Wales,’ published in 1798.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Painters; Nagler, Künstler-Lexicon, ed. 1872.]

E. R.