William Rogers

Who is William Rogers?

William Rogers was an English engraver. A citizen of London – one of his surviving engravings is signed Anglus et Civis Lond. – he is the first English craftsman known to have practised engraving and the greatest portrait engraver of the Tudor period. The English were extremely late in coming to printmaking, though several artists from the thriving Flemish industry had worked in England already; the engraved print had been invented over 150 years before Rogers began to produce them. Rogers was also a goldsmith, and presumably acquired his technique in that context. His portrait style reflects Flemish models, while his backgrounds are often "overloaded with ornament" that is "redolent of the goldsmith's shop".

Rogers is known for his engraved portraits of Queen Elizabeth I of England, which are very scarce. Eliza Triumphans, celebrating the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, shows Elizabeth surrounded by the allegorical symbols of empire common to her portraiture at this time.