Robert Bowyer

Robert Bowyer (/ˈboʊjər/; bap. 18 June 1758 – 4 June 1834) was a British miniature painter and publisher.

Bowyer was born in Portsmouth to Amos and Betty Ann Bowyer and baptized on 18 June 1758. His first job was as a clerk to a merchant in Portsmouth and then London. Two different accounts of his career shift survive. The first claims that he had decided to voyage to America, and before leaving wanted to obtain a portrait of himself for his fiancée, Mary Shoveller. Unable to afford to commission one, he painted one himself and eventually gave up the idea of going to America and became a miniaturist. The second claims that he was simply looking for a job and decided to paint. On 14 July 1777, Bowyer married Shoveller; the couple had one daughter.

Bowyer probably began to train with the miniature painter John Smart in the late 1770s and exhibited his first works at the Society of Artists in 1782 and at the Royal Academy in 1783. Bowyer had a successful career, painting the Duke of Rutland, the Marchioness of Salisbury, and Lord Nelson. On 4 March 1789 Bowyer was appointed Miniature Painter in Ordinary to the King, following the death of Jeremiah Meyer.

In the 1790s, Bowyer became a print publisher, starting with his own works. His two major endeavors were an illustrated edition of the Bible and David Hume's The History of England. Bowyer's Bible, begun in 1791 and finished in 1795, included 32 engravings by James Fittler after Old Master paintings. Bowyer also bought prints in France that he incorporated into a later edition known as "Bowyer's Bible"; he had an agent purchase even more during the Napoleonic wars. These were added to Thomas Macklin's illustrated edition of the Bible, extending it to 45 volumes.

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