| William Home Lizars was born the eldest son of Daniel Lizars' eleven children. Having received his early education at the High School in Edinburgh, he was apprenticed to his
father in the latter's engraving business before being accepted as a student at the Board
of Trustees' Drawing Academy in 1804, already styling himself 'engraver'. There he studied in thecompany of David Wilkie, and according to his obituary in The Scotsman
he was a most ardent student, devoting every leisure hour to his favourite
pursuit, and studying Sir Joshua Reynolds' lectures and whatever works he
thought would contribute to his advancement. In 1806 Lizars was given permission by the Board to extend his period of
study and then in 1807 he asked if he might dedicate to the Trustees his
engraving of Queen Mary's escape from Lochleven Castle.
In 1808 Lizars exhibitedfive works at the First public Exhibition in Scotland by Artists. According to Lord Cockburn in his Memorials
of his Time, at that time Art was scarcely ever talked of. This Exhibition, however, showed that there
were more pencils at work, though obscurely, than was supposed. It was a subterranean stir that had moved
the surface. Even in the photograph of
The Earl of Buclian shown in this exhibition one can see how very
skilled a portraitist Liizars was, and it is of interest that the other works
he exhibited were all portraits. His
personality seems to be breaking through the firm mould of the classical training he must have received at the
Academy, which is displayed in the formal disposition of the muses and antique
paraphernalia surrounding the
finely featured young violinist.
Lizars, one feels, would have been justified in looking forward to the possibility of a distinguished
artistic career. It seems ironic that
in the year when his father died (1812) leaving him with the responsibility of
managing the engraving business and supporting his mother and brothers and
sisters, the youngest of whom had been born only in 1809, Lizars' best known
paintings Scotch Wedding and Reading
the Will were exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. (They are now in the National Gallery of Scotland) These works show a careful almost Hogarthian
observation of character, a pleasant use of colour and an excellent facility in
draughtsmanship. Some of the
expressions may be a little exaggerated and one calls to mind Le Brun whose
work Lizars must have studied as it was engraved in his father's workshop
during his apprenticeship. However, the
finesse of some of the painting acts as an effective counterbalance. It is interesting that both these works were
exhibited a few years before Wilkie's famous treatment of the same subjects.
The little original work
which survives in addition is of great quality: the charming self-portrait of
which a photograph is exhibited here, one wishes for a companion work depicting
Lizars' wife, Henrietta (whose beauty and kindness Audubon described with such
warmth) Other portraits in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; a veryfine pencil drawing of Gothic tracery in the National Gallery
of Scotland; amajestic church interior in the Royal Scottish Academy collection, together with its study. Lizars was an early member
(No. 25) of theRoyal Scottish Academy. It was no mean talent, but of necessity his
energy had to be channelled elsewhere.
The new art of engraving upon copper, which Mr Lizars invented, is a substitute for
wood engraving... It possesses every advantage which cannon engraving does, and
at the same time all the advantages of engraving on wood; and, above all, itenables us to
procure as many impressions as can be taken from types.
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