JOHN SCOTT 153 



enjoyment of health. That he realised this and 

 the disastrous results of improvidence would seem 

 clear from the fact that he was one of the eight 

 painters who, in 1809-10, established the Artists' 

 Benevolent Fund for the benefit of decayed artists, 

 their widows and children ; and there is something 

 pathetic in the circumstance that (like Robert 

 Pollard, his first London master), after a protracted 

 illness of six years' duration, he himself became a 

 pensioner of the institution in founding which he 

 had borne a share. 



As an engraver, of course, Scott had eminent 

 predecessors ; among them may be named G. B. 

 Cipriani (born 1727), who came from Florence to 

 England in 1755 ; and Francis Bartolozzi (born 

 1725), also a Florentine who came to this country 

 in 1764. Cipriani and Bartolozzi were the first 

 engravers of real eminence ; to them is due credit 

 for having created a taste for line engraving. 

 The first English-born engravers were: James Mac- 

 Ardell (born 17 10), William Wynne Ryland (born 

 1732), William Mallet (born 1735), Valentine 

 Green (born 1739), Richard Earlom (born 1743), 

 and John Raphael Smith (born 1752). Each one 

 of these established a high reputation as a line 

 and mezzotint engraver, and each has reproduced 

 portraits and subject pictures of our greatest artists, 

 Sir Joshua Reynolds and others. 



