Sherwin, John Keyse

1751

1790

Sherwin was born in Sussex, the son of a labourer. He spent three years with Bartolozzi and was admitted as a student at the Royal Academy Schools in 1772. He was a skilled engraver although a much less able history painter. According to Redgrave, his ‘Installation of the Knights of St Patrick, 50 or 60 feet long … was an absolute failure.’ His initial comparative success went to his head, making him idle and careless. He died ‘forlorn and comfortless,’ in a poor lodging at a public-house in Oxford Street, on 24 September 1790, aged 39.