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| John Faber Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Name | John Faber Sr. |
| Birth date | c. 1660s |
| Birth place | The Hague, Dutch Republic |
| Death date | 1721 |
| Death place | London, Kingdom of Great Britain |
| Occupation | Engraver, portraitist, printmaker |
| Nationality | Dutch |
John Faber Sr. was a Dutch mezzotint engraver and portraitist active in early 18th-century London, known for reproductive prints and a prolific workshop that produced portraits of prominent continental and British figures. He trained in the Dutch print tradition and emigrated to England where his engraving output intersected with the careers of painters, publishers, and collectors in London and across Europe. Faber's prints circulated among patrons of the arts connected to the courts of William III of England, the House of Stuart exiles, and the artistic networks linking The Hague to Amsterdam and The City of Westminster.
Faber was born in or near The Hague in the Dutch Republic and likely received training influenced by Dutch printmakers associated with Hendrick Goltzius, Melchior Lorck, and the workshop traditions of Rembrandt van Rijn and Jacob Jordaens. His apprenticeship would have brought him into contact with publishers and engravers operating in Amsterdam, Leiden, and Rotterdam, following conventions established by practitioners such as Claude Mellan, Cornelis Bos, and Willem Hondius. The cosmopolitan milieu of the Dutch Republic exposed him to collectors linked to the Dutch Golden Age and networks that supplied prints to patrons in Paris, Hamburg, and Antwerp.
Faber settled in London by the closing years of the 17th century, working amid print-sellers and publishers operating from districts including Fleet Street, Covent Garden, and St Martin-in-the-Fields. In the metropolis he engaged with figures tied to the courts of William III, Queen Anne, and the early Georgian era, producing images for audiences that included members of the British aristocracy, expatriate Huguenot communities, and Dutch émigrés. Faber's London activity placed him in proximity to contemporaries such as Sir Godfrey Kneller, Peter Lely, Charles Jervas, and print-publishers like John Overton and Edward Cooper. His prints were distributed alongside works by continental engravers active in England, including Pierre Lombart and Jacobus Houbraken.
Faber specialized in mezzotint, a printmaking technique refined in the late 17th century and associated with innovators such as Ludolf Bakhuizen and John Smith (engraver). His style combined tonal modelling with fine etched lines to reproduce painterly effects popularized by portraitists like Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller. He employed compositional conventions found in portraiture exemplified by Anthony van Dyck, using chiaroscuro and oval formats favored in collections assembled by patrons in Whitehall Palace and by collectors of the Royal Society. Faber's workshop practices echoed the division of labor used by continental studios linked to Giacomo Leoni and print dealers in Leipzig and Amsterdam.
Faber produced sheets after paintings and drawings of leading figures such as statesmen and cultural luminaries connected to the Glorious Revolution, the Act of Settlement 1701, and the courtly circles of St James's Palace. His engraved portraits reproduced likenesses by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Peter Lely, and Charles Jervas, and depicted sitters comparable to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, William III of England, and other personages circulating in aristocratic portrait series. Faber's prints appeared in collections alongside works by Hogarth, William Kent, and continental printmakers such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Jacob Christoph Le Blon, contributing to illustrated books and print portfolios assembled by London bibliophiles and collectors linked to institutions like the Bodleian Library and the British Museum.
Faber ran a workshop that collaborated with portrait painters, etchers, and print publishers; his enterprise was part of a network involving Sir Godfrey Kneller, Peter Lely, John Smith (engraver), and print-sellers such as Robert Sayer and John Bowles. Assistants and pupils in Faber's studio used mezzotint and etching to reproduce portraits for sale to patrons and for inclusion in publication projects associated with Samuel Pepys-era collectors and later antiquarians. His workshop exchanges mirrored partnerships seen in studios of Rembrandt van Rijn, Hendrick Goltzius, and London publishers who commissioned plates from continental engravers including Claude Du Bosc.
Faber's body of work contributed to the diffusion of mezzotint as a reproductive medium in Britain and to the visual dissemination of portraits across aristocratic and mercantile networks linked to London and The Hague. His prints influenced subsequent generations of engravers in Britain and the Netherlands, informing practices adopted by Jacobus Houbraken, Richard Houston, and others active in the mid-18th century. Collections in institutions such as the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and municipal museums across Europe have preserved his plates and impressions, situating him within the history of printmaking that connects to figures like Ludolf Bakhuizen and Claude Mellan.
Faber lived in London until his death in 1721, leaving a workshop and a corpus of plates that his son and followers continued to exploit. His familial and professional ties linked him to émigré communities from the Dutch Republic and to English artistic circles around St Martin-in-the-Fields and Covent Garden. The continuity of his name in printmaking history passed through descendants and pupils who maintained print enterprises in London and on the continent.
Category:Dutch engravers Category:Mezzotint engravers Category:18th-century Dutch artists