(b Berkeley, Glos, 16 Feb 1800; d Kensington, London, 21 Nov 1872). English printmaker and sculptor. He was born at Berkeley Castle, into an artistic and educated family. His mother was a niece of Thomas Gainsborough and his father a prebendary of Hereford Cathedral. At 16 he was apprenticed to the engraver Charles Heath and on completing his training embarked almost immediately on a successful career. His preferred medium was lithography, which proved to be ideally suited to the sensitive reproduction of sketches (1823) after Gainsborough that established his reputation. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824 and was elected an Associate Engraver three years later. In 1829 he drew Princess Victoria, then aged ten. (His own engraving of this drawing is in London, V&A.) Royal patronage began in earnest in 1837 when the Queen sat to him for three portraits and appointed him Royal Lithographer. In this role he copied many works after Franz Xavier Winterhalter, Victoria’s preferred portrait painter. In 1864 he was appointed Superintendent of the etching class at the South Kensington Museum in London. A rare etching, Displaying by Diagram the Effects of Various Strengths of Acid (1865), suggests that he took his duties seriously. His influence was instrumental in obtaining full Academic status for engravers in 1865. Lane was also an accomplished modeller of statuettes, one of which is a figure of his brother, the Arabic scholar Edward William Lane (1801–76), in Egyptian dress (London, N.P.G.).

• Lane, Richard James
  • Lithography, §II, 2(i): Commercial developments, after c 1818