Edward Luttrell (or Lutterell), Crayon Painter and Mezzotint Engraver
(b. about 1650, d. 1710)
Crayon Painter and Mezzotint Engraver
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was born in Dublin about 1650. He went to London as a young man and entered himself as a student of law at New Inn; but turning his attention to art, in which he was instructed by Edmond Ashfield, he adopted it as a profession and gained success by his portraits in crayons. Attracted by the newly-introduced art of mezzotint he endeavoured to obtain a knowledge of the process by bribing Blois, the workman who laid the grounds for Blooteling; but failing in this he began to experiment for himself with a view to obtaining the effects of Blooteling's prints. Eventually he made the acquaintance of J. Van Somer, who explained to him the process. Most of his known prints, which range in date from about 1681 to 1710, were published by Lloyd, and many were after his own drawings. Chaloner Smith catalogues twenty mezzotints, but it is probable that many of those published by J. Lloyd without engraver's name were the work of Luttrell. He also collaborated in several plates with Isaac Beckett. His mezzotints, which are among the earliest done by a native engraver in England, are not as a rule of high quality; the grounding is coarse and the scraper not very judiciously used; they bear evidence of uncertainty and of experimenting in the grounding. Walpole says that he used a roughened roller for his grounds, and that he adopted an "invention of using crayons on copper plates" ("Anecdotes of Painting," Dallaway and Wornum's Ed. II); and Evelyn, in his "Diary," notes the Five Daughters of G. Evelyn "painted in one piece very well by Mr. Luttrell in crayons on copper." A portrait of a man done in this manner is in the National Gallery of Ireland. It is in crayons upon a copper plate roughened or grounded for mezzotint and is signed E. Lutterell fe 1699.
A portrait of "Samuel Butler" in crayons is in the Bodleian Library, and another of the same, on an oak panel, is in the National Portrait Gallery, where there are also portraits of "Sir Edmond Berry Godfrey," "George Morley, Bishop of Winchester," on grey paper, and "Archbishop Sancroft" which was formerly in Lambeth Palace, and was engraved by H. Meyer for Dr. D'Oyley's "Life of Sancroft." Other engravings after Luttrell's drawings are "William, Duke of Bedford," mezzotint by R. Williams, E. Lutterell pinx.; "Michael Hewetson, Archdeacon of Armagh," mezzotint by J. Simon, Luttrell pinx.; "John Barefoot," engraved by M. Burghers, E. Lutterel ad vivum del., and "Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury," engraved by J. Vandergucht. Luttrell also drew a series of portraits which were engraved by Vanderbanc for Bishop Kennet's "History of England." The first state of his plate of "Francis Higgins" is inscribed Sold by M. Luttrell in Westminster Hall, from which it would appear that he or his wife had a shop or stall in Westminster Hall.
Luttrell is said to have died in 1710.