Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Powle, George
POWLE, GEORGE (fl. 1770), etcher and miniature-painter, was a pupil of Thomas Worlidge [q. v.], whose delicate and highly finished mode of etching he imitated, working entirely with the dry point. Worlidge's series of plates from antique gems, issued in 1768, was to a large extent the work of Powle. He at one time resided at Hereford and later at Worcester, where he was associated with Valentine Green, for whose engravings of Lady Pakington and Sir John Perrot he made the drawings. There he also came under the notice of John Berkeley of Spetchley, for whom he etched a portrait of Sir Robert Berkeley, the judge, and one of Berkeley himself in 1771. Berkeley, in his letters to Granger, speaks highly of Powle's character and skill. Powle's other plates, which are not numerous, include portraits of Thomas Belasyse, Lord Fauconberg; the Comtesse de Grammont, after Lely, and ‘Old Parr;’ two candle-light subjects, after Schalken; and a plate in Dr. Hunter's ‘Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus.’ Two anonymous plates in Nash's ‘History of Worcestershire’ are evidently the work of Powle. He also scraped in mezzotint a portrait of Mrs. Worlidge, his master's third wife. Powle exhibited miniatures with the Free Society of Artists in 1764 and 1766, and with the Incorporated Society in 1769 and 1770; but his works of this class are not identified. James Ross of Worcester engraved a set of views of Hereford from drawings by Powle.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Granger Correspondence, ed. Malcolm, 1805.]