Quick Facts
Biography
William Oakley Burgess (c.1818–1844) was an English mezzotint engraver.
Life
Oakley was the son of the surgeon to the parish of St Giles in the Fields, London. He became a pupil of mezzotint engraver Thomas Goff Lupton and remained under his tuition until the age of twenty.
Some of his best productions are plates after the works of Sir Thomas Lawrence, published in the "Lawrence Gallery". He also engraved a large plate after Lawrence's portrait of the Duke of Wellington, remarkable for its admirably graduated tones, and the last works on which he was employed were three other portraits after Lawrence — Sir John Moore, the Duchess of Northumberland, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The extraordinary delicacy which characterizes the work of this artist must have acquired for him the highest reputation in his art, had his life been spared.
His death on 24 December 1844, at the age of 26, was caused by an abscess in the head, said to have arisen from a blow of a skittle-ball some years before.