William Russell Birch
Pioneered American enamel miniatures and landscape views
William Russell Birch was an English miniature painter, enameler, and landscape engraver and designer. Birch was born in Warwickshire, the son of Anne, née Russell, and physician Thomas Birch. He spent his early childhood in Warwick and was apprenticed to a jeweler, Thomas Jeffreys, and to Sir Joshua Reynolds. The enamelist Henry Spicer trained Birch in the art of enamel painting. Birch exhibited enamel portraits at the Royal Academy from 1781 to 1794. In 1785, he received a medal from the Royal Society of Arts. As an engraver he is best known in England for his Délices de la Grande Bretagne, consisting of thirty-six plates of ancient buildings in Norwich and elsewhere, published in 1791. After emigrating to Philadelphia in 1794 he made portrait enamels of many people including copies of portraits of George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart. The engraving series he made in 1800 of Philadelphia vistas was so extremely popular it resulted in three additional editions. William Birch was the father of Thomas Birch, an American portrait and marine painter. His typescript autobiography is held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He died in Philadelphia, aged 79.
Relationship Network
Master student
- Sir Joshua Reynolds Master
Influenced by
Parent child
- Thomas Birch Child
- Tom Gentleman Child
Artworks by this artist
- View from the Springhouse at Echo c. 1808
- The house intended for the President of the United States, in Ninth Street Philadelphia. 1799
- Sweet Briar c. 1808
- Bank of Pennsylvania, South Second Street, Philadelphia. 1800
- The Water Works, in Centre Square Philadelphia. 1800
- George Washington 1810-1820
- Arch Street, with the Second Presbyterian Church. Philadelphia. 1799
- Goal, in Walnut Street Philadelphia. 1799
- High Street, from the country market-place, Philadelphia; with the procession in commemeration of the death of General George Washington, December 26th 1799 1800
- High Street Market, Philadelphia. 1799
- The Water Works, in Center Square Philadelphia
- Girard’s Bank, late the Bank of the United States, in Third Street Philadelphia. 1800
- High Street, from Ninth Street, Philadelphia. 1799
- New Lutheran Church, in Fourth Street, Philadelphia. 1800
- Second Street north from Market St. w[i]th Christ Church. Philadelphia. 1800