John Samuel Agar
Illustration — Self-portrait, ca. Now at the National Portrait Gallery John Samuel Agar (1773–1858) was an English portrait painter and engraver, who exhibited his works at the Royal Academy from 1796 to 1806 and at the British Institution until 1811. He did not exhibit again until 1836.
John Samuel Agar

John Samuel Agar / After Ramsay Richard Reinagle · http: role=art displayNo=60 rNo=21 · Public domain
- Born
- 1773. · England.
- Died
- 1858.
- Nationality
- United Kingdom.
- Occupation
- painter and printmaker.
- Fields
- portrait.
- Languages
- English.
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Self-portrait, ca. Now at the National Portrait Gallery John Samuel Agar (1773–1858) was an English portrait painter and engraver, who exhibited his works at the Royal Academy from 1796 to 1806 and at the British Institution until 1811. He did not exhibit again until 1836.
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wikidata · Q6256572 · wikipedia · John Samuel Agar
In this article
Identity
Identity
He had been declared bankrupt in February of the previous year. He was at one time president of the Society of Engravers. His engravings were chiefly in stipple. They include works after Richard and Maria Cosway, and a series of allegories of the months after Edward Francis Burney, published by Rudolf Ackermann in 1807–9. His illustrations for Richard Payne Knight's Specimens of Ancient Sculpture, Aegyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman: Selected from different collections in Great Britain (1809), have been described by Nicholas Penny as "the finest ever made of sculpture".
The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are London. Work by John Samuel Agar is recorded in the collections of Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, National Library of Wales, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Ackland Art Museum and Yale Center for British Art.
John Samuel Agar is recorded as painter and printmaker.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1773
John Samuel Agar was born in 1773 at England.
1858
John Samuel Agar died in 1858.
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q6256572: John Samuel Agar
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “John Samuel Agar”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
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Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q6256572: John Samuel AgarWikimedia Foundation
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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