(b London, 7 Nov 1798; d London, 28 Feb 1873). English engraver. In 1812 he was apprenticed to John Romney (?1786–1863) and he first exhibited at the inaugural exhibition of the Society of British Artists, London, in 1824. Most of his book work was published before 1836, when he was elected Associate Engraver of the Royal Academy on the death of James Fittler (1758–1835). He did plates for J. Caulfield’s Portraits, Memoirs and Characters of Remarkable Persons (London, 1819–20), Dove’s English Classics, some portraits for J. P. Neale’s History of the Abbey Church of Westminster (London, 1818–23), plates for such annuals as Amulet, Forget-Me-Not, Iris, Literary Souvenir and Keepsake Français, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (London, 1839), Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Waverley’ novels (Edinburgh, 1871), John Milton’s Poetical Works (London, 1841) and G. Burnet’s History of the Reformation (London, 1838). He contributed eight plates to the Art Journal between 1850 and 1872. After 1836 he worked mainly for print publishers, including his brother Henry Graves. Most of his important engravings were exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1836 until his death, commencing with The Abbotsford Family (1817; Edinburgh, N.P.G.), after Sir David Wilkie. An Illicit Whisky Still in the Highlands (1826–9; London, V&A), after Edwin Henry Landseer, first published by the Art Union of London in 1842, was considered to be his best plate. His last completed work was a portrait of Charles Dickens after William Powell Frith for the second volume of John Forster’s The Life of Dickens (London, 1872–4). He left a portrait of Lady Feversham after Thomas Gainsborough unfinished at his death; the work was completed by James Stephenson (1808–86). His only pupil was John Richardson Jackson (1819–77).

• Graves, Robert
  • Jackson, John Richardson