John Simon

Jean Simon, anglicized as John Simon (also spelled Simons; c. 1675–1751) was an English mezzotint engraver and print publisher of French Huguenot birth, particularly known for his portraits. Notably associated with the German-born portrait painter Godfrey Kneller, Simon had an active career that spanned at least three and a half decades, and was regarded as one of the mezzotint medium's most prolific masters of his generation, along with the older contemporaneous engraver John Smith. Life Born Jean Simon c. 1675 in Normandy, he was said to belong to a Huguenot artist family that was connected to the protestant church at Charenton-le-Pont near Paris. In Paris, he studied line engraving. Early in the 18th century, Simon moved to London and began working in mezzotint, quickly adapting to the market demands; his earliest known prints were published from Cross Lane, Long Acre, during the middle years of Queen Anne's reign. In c. 1708–1709, Simon gained the attention of Godfrey Kneller, who fell out with his principal engraver, John Smith. Until the dispute with Smith was settled, Simon obtained several of Kneller's commissions. This assured Simon's reputation, allowing him to become a founding member of the Academy for Artists in Great Queen Street, set up under Kneller's patronage in 1711. In his notebooks, George Vertue listed Simon among leading mezzotint engravers working in London, along with Smith, John Faber the Elder, John Faber the Younger, and George White; from Vertue's notebooks, it is also known that Simon was an associate of the renowned Rose and Crown Club. From early in his career, Simon began working extensively for the prominent print seller Edward Cooper (–1725). Particularly noted was a c. 1707–1710 publication by Cooper of a set of mezzotints by Simon after the Raphael Cartoons in Hampton Court Palace, devoted to the 2nd Duke of Devonshire. After Cooper's death in 1725, Simon succeeded him as chief publisher of Michael Dahl's paintings. Beside from Cooper, Simon was employed by such notable publishers as Thomas Bowles II (c. 1689–1767) and John Overton (c. 1639–1713); since c. 1720, he mostly published his own prints from a series of addresses around Covent Garden. After at least three and a half decades, Simon retired from active printmaking c.