He began his career as an engraver of book plates and shortly afterwards started a second career as a print publisher. He expanded rapidly in the 1760s and the mid 1770s saw the publication of his Liber Veritas. Some of the finest mezzotint engravings in the history of British art belong to Boydell's series known as The Houghton Gallery. Beginning in 1781 Boydell commissioned England's best mezzotint artists to engrave the paintings by Italian Rennaissance artists in the collection of the Empress of Russia at Houghton. The set was completed in 1788. 1791 was the beginning of Boydell's ill-fated, most ambitious and final undertaking. His new publishing house The Shakespeare Gallery, commissioned the famous painters and engravers in Britain to create and design large stipple engravings based on the plays of William Shakespeare. By the time of his death thirteen years later the Shakespeare Gallery had published 170 large engravings. The expenses for this vast undertaking had been so large that England's foremost publisher of art ended his life as a pauper.
Boydell, John, 1719-1804
Reni, Guido, 1575-1642 :The Doctors of the Church consulting upon the immaculateness of...
Date: 1785
By: Reni, Guido, 1575-1642; Sharp, William, 1749-1824; Boydell, John, 1719-1804; Farington, George, 1752-1788; Canterbury Museum (Christchurch, N.Z.)
Reference: C-045-003
Description: A group of clerics disputing Quantity: 1 b&w art print(s). Physical Description: Engraving (trimmed), 24.7. x 15.4 inches
Brill, Paul, 1554-1626 :Europa ; in the gallery at Houghton / Paul Brill pinxit ; figur...
Date: 1776
By: Bril, Paul, 1554-1626; Zampieri, Domenico, 1581-1641; Farington, Joseph, 1747-1821; Bartolozzi, Francesco, 1727-1815; Boydell, John, 1719-1804; Canterbury Museum (Christchurch, N.Z.)
Reference: B-111-002
Description: The mythological figure Europa Backed with linen Quantity: 1 b&w art print(s). Physical Description: Engraving, b&w ; plate mark 290 x 374 mm on sheet 380 x 480 mm
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764 :Sigismonda. From the original picture in the collection of...
Date: 1736
From: Hogarth, William 1697-1764 :The original works of William Hogarth. London, sold by John and Josiah Boydell, 1790
By: Smith, Benjamin, 1754-1833; Boydell, John, 1719-1804
Reference: D-020-021
Description: Sigismundia is dressed in an exotic costume with flowing skirt, full sleeves, topped with an overdress. A band, with a sapphire and a rope of pearls, holds down her soft scarf. On her wrist more pearls clasp her father's portrait. Her right arm is resting on a metal box which is on a marble table. Her left hand is slightly tilting the bottom of a jewelled cup or urn inside which is the heart of Guiscardo. The lid of the cup is on the table beside the box. Sigismundia's expression is haunted, exhausted as if with hours of tears. When a portrayal of Boccaccio's heroine Ghismondia, by the Florentine artist, Furini, was sold at auction for £400, Hogarth was outraged and convinced he could do just as well. He approached Sir Richard Grosvenor, one of the unsuccessful bidders, proposing to paint his own version of the subject intended to display Bristish painters capacity to rival and even surpass the Old Masters so prized by the connoisseurs. [Source: Museum of London Picture Library]. The story of the picture came from Boccaccio. Against the will of her father Tancred, Sigismundia marries Guiscardo, Tancred's lower-class protege, whom he has bought up as his page and then his squire. The vengeful Tancred, doubly portrayed, pursues the couple and kills Guiscardo, sending his heart to Sigismundia in a jewelled cup. Wracked with grief, she fills the goblet with poison, drinks and dies before her father's eyes. [J Uglow. Hogarth, a life and a world. London, 1997] Other Titles - Sigismundia mourning over the heart of Guiscardo Inscriptions: Recto - beneath image - Title Quantity: 1 b&w art print(s). Physical Description: Engraving, 410 x 445 mm, on sheet 490 x 635 mm
Romney, George 1734-1802 :Lord George Germain, one of His Majesty's principal Secretari...
Date: 1780
By: Romney, George, 1734-1802; Jacobe, John, active 1780s?; Boydell, John, 1719-1804
Reference: B-050-002
Description: Portrait of George Germain, first Viscount Sackville Quantity: 1 b&w art print(s). Physical Description: Engraving 500 x 348 mm
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764 :The good Samaritan. ... Willm Hogarth pinxit. Ravenet & De...
Date: 1772
By: Hogarth, William, 1697-1764; Ravenet, Simon Francois, 1706-1774; Delatre, Jean-Marie, 1746-1840; Boydell, John, 1719-1804
Reference: C-048-005
Description: A man pouring balm from a small bottle on the wounds of robbed man in a bush landscape. A dog is on the left, a horse on the right. Three other men are in the background From a very large painting completed in 1737 by Hogarth, in situ, in the stairwell at St Batholomew's Hospital, London, a companion-piece to The pool at Bethesda. The story is based on a parable in St Luke's Gospel, Chapter 10, verse 30. Quantity: 1 b&w art print(s). Physical Description: Engraving, 481 x 561 mm (platemark) on cream wove paper, 493 x 652 mm