Burt, Albin Roberts

Introduction:

An engraver, portrait miniaturist, portrait painter, drawing master, printer and son of a London grocer, ALBIN ROBERTS BURT (1783-1842), though crafting few silhouettes painted a considerable number of creditable coloured profile miniatures and coloured full-length compositions. By and large an itinerant artist, for the last decade of his life he resided in Reading, Berkshire.

While other profiles surely exist, only 4 are recorded; three in London auction rooms in 1932, and a fourth in 2009. The latter, painted in 1811, unusually has the sitter's name, age and date inscribed below the bust-line termination. Unusual too is the papier-mache frame's brass hanger. Cast specifically for him, an artist's palette garlanded with flowers and foliage bears the inscription 'A.R.Burt, Miniature Painter'.

Painted on card, the profile itself  is a workmanlike study of Yorkshireman and former boarding school master and apothecary, George Alderson Taylor (1746-1812). Black bodycolour is highlighted with gum arabic shading, hair with Chinese white and thinned black watercolour. Cursory brushwork indicates a waistcoat's pattern.

Curiously, plain or highlighted profiles are never mentioned in his newspaper advertisements or 6 known printed trade-labels which collectively describe a broad skillset. A ca.1812 Bath trade-label, possibly his first, promotes him a miniature painter, portrait engraver and teacher of drawing and miniature painting. In June 1815 the CHESTER CHRONICLE printed 'Lines on seeing Mr Burts' Likenesses'. Clearly enraptured by the positive prose, Burt included all 5 verses on later trade-labels, one of which offered portraits in oil at 4 guineas; cameo likenesses carved on shell, 3 guineas; miniatures on ivory, 3 guineas, full-length 2 guineas; sketches in colour £1.11 shillings 6 pence; pencil sketches 15 shillings and coloured profiles 10 shillings 6 pence. Miniatures and portraits could also be '...faithfully copied and Oil Paintings Cleaned and Repaired'.

Additionally, in the WORCESTER JOURNAL 6th August 1812, Burt offered miniatures (possibly sillhouettes) on ivory, for rings, bracelets and lockets fom 3 guineas upwards. Commissions were likely sparse as no jewellery work is recorded. Few portrait miniatures are extant, none are of high order, though the quality of his coloured profile miniatures compares well with the best of those painted by contemporaries. Judging by the quantity recorded, characterful watercolour full-length portraits were his most popular offering. In whatever form, virtually all his output was signed 'Burt' or 'A.R. Burt' , often with date, occasionally with location. He also advertised using a 'Newly Invented Machine' to trace the outline of sitters' profiles, and exhibited twice at the Royal Academy in 1807 and 1830, both from London addresses.

Initially apprenticed to gifted, self-taught engraver Robert Thew (1758-1802) and Benjamin Smith (1754-1833), one of London's foremost engravers, while not wholly abandoning the craft, it is said Burt assessed himself unlikely to excel in the field and turned his hand to portraiture.

December 1805 saw 22-year-old Burt's first commercial endeavour. From an address in London's Clerkenwell, and doubtless hoping to cash in on a Nation awash with Admiral Nelson (1758-1805) memento mori, he engraved, printed and published 'Britannia crowning the bust of our late hero Lord Nelson' after the work by accomplished porcelain painter Thomas Baxter Jnr (1782-1821).

Suffering, according to his obituary, lifelong bouts of 'severe indisposition', Burt nevertheless was an active itinerant artist for more than 3 decades. Marrying in Birmingham in 1810, his first child was born in Bath in March 1812. In August he advertised in the WORCESTER JOURNAL then the CHESTER COURANT in December, as Mr. Burt, Miniature Painter from Bath. Evidenced by the press and an offspring's baptism, at least 16 months were spent in Birmingham before the CHESTER CHRONICLE recorded his return in February 1815.

In 1817, Burt worked in Oxford long enough for an Oxford-specific trade-label ro be printed. However, between 1815-1832, his family abode was in Chester's Crane St., from where, according to the CHESTER COURANT 5th June 1832, a 'valuable collection of paintings and prints...[household goods and furniture] ...including a piano-forte and 8-day clock' were to be sold at auction. For reasons unknown, Burt relocated to Reading, Berkshire.

Though the family Burt were domiciled in Reading for the next 10 years, the artist was again regularly on the road. His works attest to him being abroad in Norfolk, Essex, Hampshire and London with, the year before his death, a final visit to Oxford in 1841.

Regarding his personal circumstances

To be continued.