Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Beckett, Isaac
BECKETT, ISAAC (1653–1719), mezzotint engraver, was born in Kent in 1653, and apprenticed to a calico printer in London, but happening to visit Lutterel, he became captivated by a desire of learning the new art of engraving in mezzotint. Hearing that one John Lloyd was acquainted with the process, and being obliged through an intrigue to absent himself from his business, Beckett offered his services to him, and entered into articles to work for him. Before long, however, he again fell into trouble, and was assisted by Lutterel, with whom he became associated in the development of the art. He is said to have been noted for his gallantries, and to have married a woman of fortune, which enabled him to set up as the publisher of his own prints, and Lutterel did many heads for him, being more expeditious and more skilful in drawing than Beckett, but they were often finished by the latter. His plates are all referable to dates between 1681 and 1688, yet he survived until 1719. Isaac Beckett and Robert Williams were the first native Englishmen who extensively practised engraving in mezzotint, and, in a measure, may be considered to have founded the school, for the earlier works were executed chiefly by engravers of foreign birth. John Smith was Beckett's pupil, and appears to have obtained possession of many of his plates and to have placed his own name on them, not only as publisher, but on some even as engraver.
Beckett executed several scriptural and allegorical subjects, as well as a few landscapes, but by far the greater number of his plates are portraits, of which Mr. Chaloner Smith describes 107. Among the best of them may be mentioned full-length portraits of Charles II, the Duchess of Portsmouth, James II, and Catharine Sedley, countess of Dorchester, after Kneller; and of Lady Williams, said by Granger to have been a mistress of the Duke of York, after Wissing; and other portraits of Catharine of Braganza, queen of Charles II, Barbara Villiers, duchess of Cleveland, and Elizabeth, countess of Chesterfield, after Sir Peter Lely; Mary of Modena, queen of James II, after Kneller and Largillière; Queen Anne, after Wissing; Prince George of Denmark, after Riley and Wissing; Beau Fielding, after Kneller and Wissing; Henry Compton, bishop of London, after Riley; Thomas Cartwright, bishop of Chester, after Soest; and Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Nicolas de Largillière and his family, after paintings by themselves. The most important of Beckett's subject plates are 'The Virgin and St. Joseph, with the Infant Jesus asleep;' 'Time cutting the Wings of Love;' 'Cupid and Psyche,' after Turchi; 'The Village Surgeon,' after Lingelbach; and 'The Dutch School,' after Egbert van Heemskerk. Beckett's own portrait has been engraved by John Smith and others.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (ed. Wornum), 1849, iii. 960-1, with portrait; J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1878-84, i. 20-54; Meyer's Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, 1872, &c., iii. 272-274.]