(b London, 1743; d London, 9 Oct 1822). English printmaker. Taught by Giovanni Battista Cipriani, he worked in mezzotint, etching and occasionally stipple. His mezzotints of flowers and still-lifes, such as Roses for the Temple of Flora (1805) by Robert John Thornton (?1768–1837) or the Fruit Piece (see Wessely, no. 145) after Jan van Huysum, are also found printed in colours or coloured by hand. Earlom’s most influential prints were a set of outline etchings combined with mezzotint of the volume, then belonging to the Dukes of Devonshire, of Claude’s drawings of his own landscape paintings (now London, BM). The prints were published in 1777 by John Boydell in two volumes as the Liber Veritatis (see CLAUDE LORRAIN, §II, 2), a name that subsequently came to be applied to the drawings. A third volume of prints of Claude drawings from other sources was added when the first two were reprinted in 1819 (W 149–448).

• Earlom, Richard
  • Mezzotint, §2(ii): 18th century
  • Stipple, §2: History
  • works
    • Exhibition, §2: c 1700–c 1850
    • Prints, §III, 5: Technical processes: Mixed and experimental
    • Reproduction of works of art, §2(ii): 18th century