(b Dublin, 1749; d London, 31 Dec 1815). Irish engraver, active in England. He first trained, according to Carey, in the Dublin Society's Schools under Robert West, moving c. 1770 to London, where he studied mezzotint-engraving under John Dixon. Most of Burke's mezzotints were engraved after Angelica Kauffman for William Wynne Ryland, although other examples included a mezzotint in 1773 of the racehorse Eclipse after George Stubbs for the publisher Robert Sayer. Burke presumably learnt stipple-engraving from Ryland, and in 1775 he gave up mezzotint for this newer technique, engraving many fine plates for Ryland after Kauffman, who according to an obituary of Burke in New Monthly Magazine had 'always preferred him to engrave her designs'. Francesco Bartolozzi is said to have praised proofs of these prints in terms of the 'mellowness, delicacy, power and richness of their effect' (Carey). Burke's Lady Rushout (O'Donoghue, ii) after Kauffman, published by William Dickinson in 1784, is one of his finest prints. The Nightmare, engraved in 1783 after Johann Heinrich F?seli, was so successful that it was reputed to have made
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