James Watson (engraver)

He came while young to London, where he is supposed to have been a pupil of James Macardell.

Watson published some of his works himself at his house in Little Queen Anne Street, Portland Chapel; but the majority were done for Sayer, Boydell, and other printsellers.

Watson died in Fitzroy Street, London, on 20 May 1790.

Watson produced plates from pictures by Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Francis Cotes, Catherine Read, Anthony van Dyck, Gabriel Metzu, Godfried Schalcken, Peter Paul Rubens, and others.

He engraved about fifty portraits after Reynolds, among them those of the Duchess of Cumberland; the Duchess of Manchester, with her son; Countess Spencer and her daughter; Barbara, Countess of Coventry; Anne Delaval, Lady Isabella Stanhope, and Nelly O'Brien.