Samuel Wale

Wale assisted John Gwynn in his architectural drawings, especially in a transverse section of St Paul's Cathedral, which was engraved and published in their joint names in 1752.

He exhibited drawings of scenes from English history, and occasionally scriptural subjects, described as designs for altar-pieces, from 1769 to 1778, when he suffered from a paralytic stroke, and he was placed on the Royal Academy pension fund, the first member who benefited by it.

Unmarried and childless, he left his copperplates, prints, and belongings to his friend and fellow founder of the Royal Academy, architect John Gwynn, with whom he shared his house, and his nurse, Mrs. Mary Gurpin.

A full-length portrait of Shakespeare by Wale, which hung across the street outside a tavern near Drury Lane, obtained some notoriety owing to the splendour of the frame and the ironwork by which it was suspended.

His main work was in designing vignettes and illustrations on a small scale for the booksellers; a large number these were engraved by Charles Grignion the Elder.