say that he produced more than Stothard or Chodowiecki; but it would be more appropriate to compare his unflagging fertility to that of Doré or Gilbert. He was born at Westgate, 13th July 1796, his father being keeper of the Newcastle Baths. At fourteen he was apprenticed to Bewick, with whom he became a great favourite, as may be gathered from the well-nigh parental letter, printed in Chatto's Treatise, which Bewick addressed to him in 1815. Harvey worked with Temple, another pupil, upon the "Fables" of 1818, and, it is alleged, transferred many of Johnson's sketches to the wood. In September 1817 he removed to London. Here he studied drawing under B. R. Haydon, and anatomy under Sir Charles Bell. While with Haydon (where he had Eastlake, Lance, and Landseer for fellow-pupils), he engraved the well-known block after Haydon's "Assassination of Dentatus"—that ambitious attempt to unite colour, expression, handling, light, shadow, and heroic form, of which, if report is to be believed, the proximate destination was a packing-case in Lord Mulgrave's stable. Harvey's engraving has been described as "probably the largest, certainly the most laboured, block that had then been cut in England"; but its manifest and misguided rivalry of copperplate makes it impossible to praise it as highly as its exceedingly skilful technique would seem to warrant. As a work upon INITIAL LETTERS BY HARVEY. (FROM HENDERSON'S "HISTORY OF WINES," 1824.) wood it must be regarded as more ingenious than admirable. Towards 1824 Harvey seems wholly to have abandoned engraving for design, his decision in this direction being apparently determined by the success of the illustrations he drew and in part cut for Henderson's "History of Ancient and Modern Wines." These are some of his most pleasing per HEADPIECE. To face page 209. (DRAWN AND ENGRAVED BY HARVEY FOR HENDERSON'S "HISTORY OF WINES," 1824.) |