Henry Meyer after J. Jackson

John Nichols F. S. A. AETAT LXVI

12.5 x 14.5 inches

A half-length mezzotint portrait engraved by Henry Meyer after the portrait by J. Jackson; published in London in 1811.

In this disarmingly charming study, we see John Nichols (1745-1826) at the age of 66, facing the viewer full on and staring through his spectacles. Nichols was editor of The Gentleman's Magazine for forty years and as such had great influence in London's literary life. He was also a tremendous antiquary producing seminal research on the antiquities of Leicestershire and reprinting the 1783 edition of the Domesday Book. Away from his desk Nichols was kept busy on the domestic front with a tally of two wives and eleven children. He lived to the ripe old age of 81. Henry Meyer (1782-1847), the engraver of this delightful print, had excellent artistic pedigree: he was the nephew of the painter John Hoppner and studied in London under the inestimable Francesco Bartolozzi.