John Young (1755 - 1825)

John Young

John Young was a British engraver, illustrator and publisher, and a curator of the British Institution.

Young worked exclusively in mezzotint and was a master of this technique; he executed some eighty portraits of contemporary characters from paintings by famous artists. In 1789 he was appointed mezzotint engraver to the Prince of Wales.

In 1815. Young published an album, Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey from the Founding of the Monarchy to 1808, consisting of thirty color plates with text in English and French. It is interesting that this series of portraits of Turkish emperors based on the album of miniatures of the XIX century was commissioned by the 28th Sultan Selim III, who ruled from 1789 to 1807, and after his death under Sultan Mahmud II the work was continued, which testifies to the high interest of the Ottoman Empire in European art.