SCHIAVONETTI, Niccolò

(c.1771–1813), print-maker, was born in Bassano del Grappo and moved to England after his brother Luigi. Described by a contemporary as ‘an engraver of great eminence’, he produced a number of outstanding works, including The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultan (after Henry Singleton, published 1802) for the Seringapatam series; New Mackrel (stipple, 1795), for Cries of London, and several military prints, one, of the Westminster volunteer cavalry (stipple, 1801), after Sydenham Edwards, being nearly all portraits. A facility in portraiture ensured that he engraved (and published) Phillips's portrait of Joseph Banks (1812) on the recommendation of the artist, in spite of Banks preferring William Sharp. An ‘amiable … upright and benevolent individual’ (GM, 1st ser., 83/1, 1813, 494), Schiavonetti died on 23 April 1813 at the house of his brother-in-law in Hammersmith, aged forty-two.