biography of John James BARRALET (1747-1815)

Birth place: Dublin, Ireland

Death place: Philadelphia, PA

Addresses: Philadelphia, PA, from 1795

Profession: Painter, designer, and engraver

Exhibited: Society of Artists (Phila.); PAFA

Comments: Before coming to the U.S. and settling in Philadelphia in 1795, he had a successful career in Dublin and London as a portrait and landscape painter, book illustrator, and drawing master. In Philadelphia, he worked as a book illustrator, working for a time with the engraver, Alexander Lawson. Barralet is also known to have invented a ruling machine for the use of engravers and making improvements in the ink used in copperplate printing.

Sources: G&W; Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists; Graves, Dictionary; Phila. CD 1797-98, 1800, 1802-03, 1805-07; Rutledge, PA; Port Folio, June 1809, frontis.; Bolton, Miniature Painters; Snow, Delineators of the Adams-Jackson American Views," 18; Smith, British Mezzotint Portraits, IV, Part I; Davidson, I, 487, repro."