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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I attach for your interest a data base of Early Modern British Painters (EMBP) , and I invite you to download and save it as an interim reference source for the subject.
A formal website, also entitled Early Modern British Painters, which will be freely and more conveniently searchable, is in advances stages of production. It will soon replace this data base altogether, and it will be updated on virtually a weekly basis.
(The data base attached here is also being continually updated; small bits will probably be out of date by tomorrow!)
The EMBP data base identifies all those men and women who have been identified as painters of any sort working in England, Wales, Scotland, or Ireland between the years 1500 and 1640. Its current total of 2,504 entries includes a few pre-1500 references where activity following that date may reasonably be assumed, and a few post-1640 references where activity prior to that date may just as reasonably be assumed. It includes those who were native to the British Isles and also those aliens who came and worked there at any time during this era. Finally, it includes those to whom contemporary occupational descriptions refer as pursuing any specialty within the general category of 'painter'. These include, e.g., 'limner', 'picture-painter', 'glass-painter', 'herald painter', 'manuscript illuminator', have been included. It may be searched by using the 'find and select' function on your computer.
This resource is intended to reveal, wherever possible, the origin, place(s) of residence, contemporary occupational description, dates of life and of activity, details of training, known works, and a succinct summary of such biographical information. Each name is accompanied by a list of sources for both the information provided and for further reading, and by the name of the researcher(s) for that entry.
In order to err, if at all, on the side of inclusivity rather than exclusivity, the data includes all those people listed as members of 'painters' or 'painter-stainers' companies (written with upper case: e.g., Painter-Stainer) , despite the undoubted fact that not all members of such companies or guilds practiced that titular occupation. The reverse is also true: not all who worked as painters belonged to painters' companies or guilds, and they of course have been included as well.
Widows of painters have been listed where evidence suggests that they kept a business working after their husbands' deaths, even though they may or may not have been painters themselves.
Given the extremely high drop-out rate of apprentices in all occupations, names of those merely apprenticed to the painters' trade have been omitted save when there is evidence to indicate that such a person did indeed pursue that trade beyond his apprenticeship. Those identified as journeymen, however, have been included.
In addition, as the generic occupational description 'painter' refers to several sorts of activity embraced by that occupation, it should not be assumed that all listed names refer to those who painted portraits or other forms of figurative art on panels, walls, or canvas. A great many, especially those identified as 'painter-stainers' and employees of the Royal Works (who will mostly have produced decorative and heraldic imagery), will not often have done so. On the other hand, anyone designated in their own time merely as a 'painter', etc., may have done painting of any sort save when there is evidence to the contrary.
Both this and the formal website soon to come will always be a work in progress. Though every effort has been made to check sources and correct errors, some no doubt remain. In addition, there are surely painters who would qualify for this list but have yet to be identified. I intend to continue research on every aspect of this project, and promptly to update content as new information accrues, for the foreseeable future. I sincerely welcome queries and/or comments concerning any entry, and any additions and corrections which can reliably be documented. Such responses will be promptly acknowledged and considered. They may be sent to me at: [log in to unmask]
In the meantime, I invite you to use this information however you may find it useful to do so, though I do ask that any use made for publication include the acknowledgement of its use as a source. Citation may be made to: Robert Tittler, 'Early Modern British Painters Interim Date Base', with the name and number of the specific painter to which reference has been made.
Acknowledgements
I am enormously grateful to all those who have contributed specific information on particular entries. Though they should not be held responsible for any errors or infelicities which remain, they have given generously of their time and expertise, and their contributions have been absolutely essential to the whole. Their contribution to particular entries will be indicated in each case, but their names and institutional affiliations are as follows: Malcolm Airs (Kellog College, Oxford), Michael Berlin (Birkbeck College), Cheryl Butler (Eastleigh Borough Council, Southampton), Tarnya Cooper (National Portrait Gallery), Justin Colson (Centre for Metropolitan History/ London University) , Kathryn Davies (English Heritage), Mark Girouard (independent scholar), Gary Jenkins (Birkbeck College), Andrea Kirkham (independent scholar), Mark Merry (Institute of Historical Research, London University) , Alan H. Nelson (University of California, Berkeley), Raewyn Passmore (Canadian Currency Museum), Edward Town (Yale University), Hope Walker (independent scholar), Helen E. Wicker (University of Kent, Canterbury), and Lucy Wrapson (University of East Anglia).
In addition, a great number of people over the past nine years have encouraged and otherwise assisted my efforts to produce this website. I hesitate to list them all for fear of offending those whose names escape me, but the following should be singled out for thanks (and those inadvertently omitted should receive my apologies!): Christopher Foley, Henry French, Elizabeth Goldring, Catherine Gordon, Mark Hallett , Tara Hamling, the late Nigel Hammond, Karen Hearn, Maurice Howard, Debra Lyons, Peter O'Donoghue, Mark Overton, Catherine Richardson, Robin Simon, Mary Peskett Smith, Richard Stephens, Anne Thackray, Edward Town, Jane Whittle, and Joanna Woodall.
Archivists, librarians, and curators are too often the unsung heroes and heroines of scholarly research. I wish to thank the staffs of the many libraries, archives, and galleries in which I have worked, and particularly the following: Adrian Ailes and Stephen O'Connor (The National Archives); Elaine Blake (Reading Museum); Katherine Coombs (V & A); Tarnya Cooper, Charlotte Bolland, Catherine Daunt, Jane Eade, Paul Cox, and Catharine MacLeod (National Portrait Gallery) ; Nigel Cox (Gloucester Folk Museum); Amanda Goode (Emmanuel College, Cambridge); Claire Titley and Wendy Hawke (London Metropolitan Archives); Adam C. Green (Trinity College, Cambridge); David Pitcher (King's Lynn); Annie Lemieux (National Gallery of Canada); Kenneth Reedie (Canterbury Museums); Kate Wilcox-Jay, Mette Lund Newlyn, and Michael Townsend (Institute of Historical Research); Francis Wilmoth (Jesus College, Cambridge); Stephanie Roberts (National Museum of Wales); Sheena Stoddard (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery); Chris James, Wendy Knechtel, Luigina Vileno, Sonia Poulin, Melinda Reinhart, and the inter-library loan staff at Concordia University.
Finally, I am enormously grateful to my wife Anne K. Tittler, who has lived with this project as long as I, and with astonishing forbearance; to Dr. Matthew Milner, friend, colleague, and web-builder; to the Dean of Arts and Science of Concordia University for providing me post-retirement office space in which to work; to the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada which supported the early stages of this work; and to the Andrew Mellon Foundation for the Study of British Art which supported research in Canterbury and Cambridge.
Robert Tittler, PhD, FRHistS, FSA
'Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus'
Concordia University
Montreal, Qc.
Canada H4B 1R6
and
Adjunct Professor of Art History
Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada