John Keyse Sherwin, draughtsman and engraver, worked as a cutter of ships' bolts until 1769, when one of his drawings was awarded a silver medal at the Society of Arts. In London he studied painting under John Astley, and engraving under Bartolozzi, with whom he remained until 1774. Admitted to the schools of the Royal Academy, in 1772 he gained the gold medal for an historical picture. Sherwin's first published plate, a Madonna after Sassoferrato that appeared in 1775, was executed in stipple, and he afterwards occasionally employed the same method; but most of his plates are in pure line. Between 1774 and 1784 he exhibited at the Royal Academy fancy subjects and portraits in black and red chalk, which brought him fashionable patronage. From them he engraved many plates, of which the best known is the Finding of Moses 1789, featuring the faces of many of the ladies of fashion of the day, who are said to have competed to appear in it. However, it was as an engraver from pictures by the great masters that Sherwin earned distinction, and his plates of this type rank with those by the best of his contemporaries. In 1785 Sherwin was appointed engraver to the king, and he was also appointed engraver to the Prince of Wales. His career was marred by his 'extravagant and vicious' habits, which kept him in perpetual financial difficulties; he died at a small alehouse in London at the age of thirty-nine.
