Artist

John Thurston

Dean Swift
Print Collection
H Beard Print Collection

Kingdom of Great Britain

John Thurston is a Kingdom of Great Britain Baroque artist. 3 works are cataloged here, principally at Victoria and Albert Museum.

John Thurston (1774–1822) was a British printmaker and illustrator. Thurston began his artistic career as a copper plate engraver, working for James Heath. Then he took up book illustration, and soon totally devoted himself to it. Most of his illustrations were engraved on block, not plate; a writer in the Polytechnic Journal was later to describe him as "at that time the principal, and indeed almost only artist of any talent in London who made drawings on the block for wood engravers". His illustrations include those for James Thomson's Seasons and William Somervile's Rural Sports, as well as Shakespeare's works. He was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1794 to 1812. He died in London, in 1822.

Works by John Thurston

Collections represented

Catalog records compiled from museum open-access collections; the artworks shown are in the public domain. Spotted an error in this record? Tell us.