Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gaywood, Richard
GAYWOOD, RICHARD (fl. 1650–1680), engraver, was a pupil of Wenceslaus Hollar [q. v.], and worked in the style and method of that artist, though without attaining at any time to the same excellence. He was a friend of Francis Barlow [q. v.], and engraved many of his designs. From a letter written by Barlow to John Evelyn, the diarist, dated 22 Dec. 1656 (see Evelyn, Diary and Correspondence), it appears that the large etching from Titian's ‘Reclining Venus,’ Gaywood's most remarkable work, was commenced by Barlow, who made the drawing from the original picture; Barlow also commenced the work on the plate, but left the completion of the etching to Gaywood, and allowed him to put his name to it. The engraving was dedicated to Evelyn, who mentions Gaywood by name in his ‘Sculptura.’ Gaywood was an industrious and prolific artist. His best work is shown in his etchings of birds and animals after Barlow. The bulk of his work consisted in portraits and frontispieces to books, for which he was largely employed by the publishers. Among the portraits, many of which are mere copies from engravings by Hollar or those in the ‘Centum Icones’ of Vandyck, were those of William Drummond of Hawthornden, and the early kings of Scotland in his ‘History of Scotland,’ 1655, Oliver Cromwell, James Shirley, Sir Peter and Lady Ellinor Temple, George Monk, duke of Albemarle (after Barlow), Madame Anne Kirk, General William Fairfax, Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, John Browne, maker of mathematical instruments (Gaywood's original drawing of this is in the print room at the British Museum), and many others. Among the frontispieces and title-pages was that to J. Wecker's ‘Secrets of Art and Nature,’ 1660, signed ‘Ric. Gaywood, sculp.’ Among other plates were a set of social scenes, representing the ‘Five Senses,’ a view of ‘Stonehenge,’ ‘The most magnificent Riding of Charles the II to the Parliament, 1661,’ ‘The Egg of Dutch Rebellion’ (a satirical print), 1673, ‘Capture of a Whale at Sea,’ ‘Democritus,’ ‘Heraclitus,’ &c. Gaywood is stated to have lived to 1711, but this seems uncertain.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Dodd's MS. Hist. of English Engravers, Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 33401; Cat. of the Sutherland Collection; prints in the print room at the British Museum.]