BIR
BLA
monopolised the chief works in the pro- fession. He was unequal in his produc- tions, but hardly deserves the criticism with which he has been assailed. If his works possess little true genius, they cannot be called ' barbarous in taste ; ' but Pope's epithet, ' the bathos of sculpture/ applied to his monument of Sir Cloudesley Shovell, sticks to the artist.
BIRD, John, topographical draftsman. He was self-taught ? ana, without the ad- vantages of education, gained some local distinction. He drew some of the views for August 'Seats of the Nobility and Gentry, and the views for a ' History of Cleveland,' published in 1808. Died at Whitby, February 5, 182.9, aged 61.
BISSET, James, engraver. He was born in 1760, and was first known in 1785, when he was practising at Newmarket as a miniature painter. At the beginning of the 19th century he was living at Bir- mingham, anclproduced there several good medallions. He was a singular character, and at the latter town kept a museum. He was chiefly known by his poetic effusions ; among them by his ' Poetic Survey of Birmingham/ which was illus- trated by his own designs, emblematical and topographical. He died at Leaming- ton, August 17, 1832.
BLACK, Alexandhr, architect. At- tained eminence by his works in Edin- burgh, where he practised. He died there February 19, 1761, aged 60.
BLACK, Thomas, portrait painter. He studied at the St. Martin's Lane Academy. In his day he was well known in London, where he practised for many years as a portrait and drapery painter. His por- trait heads were well drawn. He died in
1777.
BLACK, Miss Mart, portrait painter. Daughter of the above. She painted a few portraits, but was best known as a copyist and as a fashionable teacher of drawing. She died in London, November 24, 1814. aged 77. Her sister, Clara Black, had. some ability. There is a mezzo-tint portrait by her.
BLACKBURN, William, architect and surveyor. Born in Southwark, December 20, 1750. He was a student of the Royal Academy ; and in 1773 gained the silver medal for an architectural drawing. When the state of our prisons was first forced upon the public notice by the philanthropic Howard, he conduced largely to their im- provement by his designs for a mode of construction better suited to the separation and employment of the prisoners ; and in 1782 he received the premium of 100 guineas offered for the best design for a penitentiary prison. He built the county gaol at Oxford, and was appointed archi- tect to St. Thomas's Hospital and to
Guy's Hospital. He was much consulted on plans for the improvement of prisons, but did not live to carry them into execu- tion. On his journey to Glasgow to advise as to the erection of a new gaol in that city, he was attacked by paralysis at Preston, and died there December. 28, 1790.
BLACKLOCK, W. J~ landscape paint- er. Practised in the North of England, and painted the varied scenery of the Northern Counties. He exhibited oil landscapes at the Academy in 1853-54 and 1855. He died at Brampton, Cumberland, in March 1858, aged 42.
BLACKMORK John, mezzo-tint en- graver. Born in London about 1740. He engraved several portraits after Sir Joshua Reynolds : among them Foote, the player, dated 1771 ; and Bunbury, the caricaturist. He also engraved after Frank Hals, Moli- naer, and others. Died about 1780. His work was brilliant : the character of his heads well expressed, hands well drawn.
BLACK WELL, Elizabeth, botanical painter. She was bora about the beginning of the 18th century. The daughter of a merchant in the city of London, she be- came the wife of Dr. Blackwell, physician to the King of Sweden. With great per- severance she drew, engraved, and tinted with her own hands a large collection of medical plants, an undertaking in which she was assisted and encouraged by Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Mead, and the well-known Mr. Thomas Miller ; and for this purpose she resided near the Physick Garden in Chelsea. The first volume of her work was completed in 1737, the second in 1739, and the whole was then published under the title of ' A Curious Herbal, containing five hundred cuts of the most useful Plants which are now used in the practice of Physic, engraved on folio copper plates, after drawings taken from the life/ An edition of her work was published at Nuremberg in 1750, and another at Leip- zig in 1794. Her work had much merit. Her drawings were faithful and character- istic, but by no means possessed that accuracy, particularly of the minute parts, which is required in the present day. She commenced this laborious work to relieve the difficulties of her husband, who, though an educated man, was a restless schemer. She died suddenly in 1774. Her husband, who after many speculations had gone to Sweden upon some agricultural undertak- ing, was involved in a state cabal, and was Eut to the torture and beheaded at Stock- olm, August 9, 1747, on a charge of treason, of which he denied his guilt.
BLAGRAVE, John, amateur. He was an eminent mathematician, who, among other works, published, 1582 ; 'The Mathe- matical Jewel,' illustrated with neat wood- cuts, inscribed, 'By John Blagrave, of
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