Robert White was an English draughtsman and engraver. A Londoner, he was a pupil of David Loggan

David Loggan

David Loggan was an English baroque engraver, draughtsman and painter.-Life:He was baptized 27 August 1634 in Danzig, then a semi-autonomous city within Prussian Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League...

, and became a leading portrait engraver. White was celebrated for his original portraits, drawn in pencil on vellum

Vellum

Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...

 in the manner of Loggan. He died in reduced circumstances in Bloomsbury Market, where he had long resided, in November 1703.

Works

His plates number about four hundred. They include many of the public and literary characters of the period. A large proportion of them were executed from the life, the rest begin from pictures by Lely

Peter Lely

Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin, whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.-Life:...

, Kneller

Godfrey Kneller

Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...

, Riley

John Riley (painter)

John Riley, or Ryley, was an English portrait painter. He painted portraits of Charles II and James II, and was court painter to William III and Mary II...

, Beale

Mary Beale

Mary Beale was an English portrait painter. She became one of the most important portrait painters of 17th century England, and has been described as the first professional female English painter.-Life and work:...

, and others.

Among the plates engraved by White from his own drawings are individual portraits of: Prince George of Denmark; the Earl of Athlone

Earl of Athlone

The title of Earl of Athlone has been created three times. It was created first in the Peerage of Ireland in 1692 by King William III for the Dutch General Baron Godard van Reede, Lord of Ginkel, to honour him for his successful battles in Ireland. The title also had the subsidiary title of Baron...

; the Duke of Leeds

Duke of Leeds

Duke of Leeds was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1694 for the prominent statesman Thomas Osborne, 1st Marquess of Carmarthen...

; and the Earl of Seaforth

Earl of Seaforth

Earl of Seaforth was a title in the Peerage of Scotland and Peerage of Great Britain. It was held by the family of Mackenzie from 1623 to 1716, and again from 1771 to 1781....

. There are also groups of the seven bishops, the bishops' council, the lords justices of England, and the Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

 captains who declared for King William.

White engraved the plates to Francis Sandford's account of the funeral of the Duke of Albemarle

Duke of Albemarle

The Dukedom of Albemarle has been created twice in the Peerage of England, each time ending in extinction. Additionally, the title was created a third time by James II in exile and a fourth time by his son the Old Pretender, in the Jacobite Peerage. The name is the Latinised form of the ancient...

, 1670; the first Oxford Almanac, 1674; a set of portraits of members of the Rawdon family; the plates to John Guillim

John Guillim

John Guillim was an antiquarian and officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He is, perhaps, best remembered for his monumental work A Display of Heraldry which was first published in London in 1610....

's 'Heraldry' and Gilbert Burnet

Gilbert Burnet

Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian...

's History of the Reformation; as well as many book-titles and frontispieces. A few mezzotint

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

 portraits of noblemen bear White's name as the publisher, and are assumed to have been executed by him. A portrait of White was engraved by W. H. Worthington for Wornum's edition of Horace Walpole's 'Anecdotes.