Charles Turner (1773-1851), engraver, was born in Oxfordshire and moved to London at the end of the 1780s. He spent seven years apprenticed to the engraver John Jones and studying at the Royal Academy schools before finding employment with the engraver and publisher Boydell, working in stipple and aquatint as well as mezzotint. Turner became the most important mezzotint engraver of his day and in 1812 was appointed engraver-in-ordinary to the king. He was a close friend of JMW Turner, and engraved many of the artist’s paintings. Charles Turner produced more than six hundred plates, of which about two-thirds were portraits. He was elected associate engraver at the Royal Academy in 1828, and exhibited there until the year he died.
Updated 2018
