William Greatbach (1802-ca. 1885)

William Greatbach (1802-ca. 1885)

William Greatbach (or Greatbatch) enjoyed a lengthy career as a portrait and figure engraver, working, in particular, for the annuals which became popular from the 1820s onwards. He was first published in James's Naval History (1822) and went on to contribute to The Amulet (1828, 1831), The Anniversary (1829), S.G. Hall's Book of Gems (1836), Finden's Royal Gallery of British Art (1841), and Hall's Gems of European Art (1846). From 1849 he engraved regularly for The Art Journal, mostly rendering genre subjects by contemporary painters. He is best known for his engraving of William Salter's The Waterloo Banquet at Aspley House (1839), but his engravings after Sir David Wilkie also proved exceptionally popular. Mostly collected in The Wilkie Gallery (ca. 1849), these include versions of the group portraits The Abbotsford Family and The Entrance of King George the Fourth at Holyrood, both of which feature Scott. Greatbach was an honorary member of the Academy of St. Petersburg, and joined the Artists' Annuity Fund in 1827.

Greatbach's only other Scott-related commission appears to be a frontispiece after William Boxall for the Magnum Opus edition of Count Robert of Paris (click, on thumbnail, below).

Bibliography

Engen, Rodney K. Dictionary of Victorian Engravers, Print Publishers and their Works (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, c1979)
Hunnisett, Basil. A Dictionary of British Steel Engravers (Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis, 1980)

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