Author: Heath, William
Biography:
HEATH, William (1794/5-1840: ODNB)
The public record is largely silent about Heath although he was a celebrated graphic artist for 20 years during the heyday of the political caricature. In her pioneering survey English Political Caricature (1959) and other works, Dorothy George gathered such information as was available about him, indicating that he had been born in Northumberland, might have been brought up in Spain, and probably served in the army. No corroborating evidence has been found for any of these details. He first appears in London as a print-maker in 1808: this youthful start suggests that prints may have been a family business, but it has been ascertained that he was neither a son of James Heath (1757-1834) nor a brother of Charles Heath (1785-1848). His specialties were political caricature, theatrical characters, and military costume; a highlight of his career was a panorama of the Battle of Waterloo (1816), but he was also a prime mover of the first magazine devoted to caricature, the Glasgow Looking-Glass of 1825-6. He issued prints steadily from 1809 until the mid-1830s and his fortunes prospered, as successive London addresses indicate, starting in Lambeth but rising later to St. James’s Place and Chelsea before ending at York House, Hampstead Heath, where the newspapers reported his death on 7 Apr. 1840. He does not appear to have married. His place of burial is not known. (ODNB 11 Apr. 2022; ancestry.com 11 Apr. 2022; findmypast.com 11 Apr. 2022; Morning Post 8 Apr. 1840; Julie Melby, “William Heath [1794/5-1840],” British Art Journal 16:3 [2015-16], 3-19) HJ