{{Short description|Irish mezzotint engraver (1721?–1775)}} {{other people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} [[File:George Grenville.jpg|thumb|Mezzotint print of George Grenville, after a portrait by William Hoare.]] '''Richard Houston''' (1721?–1775) was an Irish mezzotint engraver, whose career was mostly in London.
==Life== Born in Dublin about 1721, he became a pupil of John Brooks, who was also the master of James McArdell and Charles Spooner.<ref>{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=84 |isbn=}}</ref> He came to London about 1747, and some of his early plates bear the address "near Drummond's at Charing Cross".
In debt to Robert Sayer the print-seller, he was arrested and confined to the Fleet prison; according to Sayer this in order that he might know where to find the dissipated Houston. He was released in 1760, on the accession of George III. As a free agent he was commissioned by Henry Carrington Bowles.
Houston died in Hetton Street, London, on 4 August 1775, aged 54.
==Works== [[File:Richard Houston - Morning - B1970.3.965 - Yale Center for British Art.jpg|thumb|Mezzotint of ''Morning'', from a set]] Houston's major works are engravings after Sir Joshua Reynolds, which include portraits of:
* Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, full-length; * Caroline, Duchess of Marlborough, and child; * Mary, Duchess of Ancaster; * Maria, Countess Waldegrave, later Duchess of Gloucester, with her daughter; * Elisabeth, Duchess of Argyll, and her son; * Lady Selina Hastings; * Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough; * Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield; and * Richard Robinson, archbishop of Armagh.
He engraved also:
* seven portraits of George III, of which four were after Zoffany; * six of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, after Mary Benwell, Thomas Frye, Zoffany, and others; * two, after Antoine Pesne, of Frederick II, King of Prussia, one full-length, the other on horseback; * John Manners, Marquess of Granby, on horseback, after Edward Penny; and full-lengths of * General Wolfe, after Schaak; * Pasquale Paoli, after Pietro Gherardi; * Voltaire, after Sen; * Julines Beckford, after Nathaniel Dance; and * Catharine Wodhull and master James Sayer, both after Zoffany.
A series of portraits by him is in Richard Rolt's ''Lives of the Principal Reformers'', London, 1759. Besides portraits, he executed a number of subject plates, such as:
* 'The Virgin and Child,' after Raphael; * 'The Temptation of St. Anthony,' after Teniers; * 'The Death of General Wolfe,' after Edward Penny; * 'The Senses,' five plates after Francis Hayman; * 'The Sciences,' six plates after Jacopo Amiconi; * 'Avarice' and 'Innocence,' after Philip Mercier; * 'The Elements,' four plates, and 'The Times of the Day,' two different sets of four plates, also after Mercier; * the 'Miraculous Onyx Stone;' and * plates of running horses, in which he excelled.
Houston's early work included his series of portraits of politicians after William Hoare,<ref>Among them Earl Temple, George Grenville, William Pitt the elder, Henry Pelham, and Henry Bilson Legge.</ref> as well as plates after Rembrandt.<ref>They comprise 'The Burgomaster Six,' 'The Syndics,' 'Haman's Condemnation,' 'An old Woman plucking a Fowl,' 'A Man holding a Knife, 'The Pen-maker,' and some others. Houston also etched two small plates of an old man and an old woman, after Rembrandt.</ref> For Bowles he engraved religious figures.<ref>John Bunyan, William Romaine, Martin Madan, Andrew Gifford, Samuel Brewer, and others.</ref> He painted a few miniatures. {{commons category}}
==References== *{{cite DNB|wstitle=Houston, Richard}}
==Notes== {{reflist}}
;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Houston, Richard}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Richard}} Category:1721 births Category:1775 deaths Category:18th-century Irish engravers Category:Artists from Dublin (city) Category:People imprisoned for debt