James Walker (1748 - 1808)

James Walker

James Walker was a British artist and engraver, academician of the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts.

In England, James Walker was famous as an outstanding master of the mezzotint technique. At the invitation of Empress Catherine II in 1784, Walker arrived in St. Petersburg and was appointed engraver to Her Imperial Majesty. He was commissioned to create mezzotint engravings of Old Master paintings from the Imperial Collection, which were then published in two albums entitled A Collection of Engravings of the Most Famous Paintings in the Gallery of Her Imperial Majesty Catherine the Great. Walker also engraved portraits of the imperial family and the Russian aristocracy. He spent a total of about 20 years in Russia.

James Walker also collaborated with the artist Atkinson John Augustus in the creation of an illustrated work "A Pictorial Representation of the Manners, Customs and Amusements of the Russians in One Hundred Colored Plates", published in London in 1803-1804.