John Skippe

English painter, printmaker, and woodcutter
British (English), (1742–1811)
Early in Skippe's career as an amateur artist he briefly experimented with chiaroscuro woodcuts, described as being done in the manner of Antonio Maria Zanetti. Although he later published two sets of woodcuts in 1782 and 1783, and a political print in 1784, Skippe turned to painting and drawing. He painted religious and mythological subjects, all of which were distributed to his friends, including a painting of Thetis and Achilles (untraced) given to Sir Joshua Reynolds. Skippe aptly used his sketches and watercolors from his tour of the Levant as well as his ideal and topographical landscape studies as the basis for his painted works. Skippe had a notable collection of drawings including works by Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, Lorenzo Lotto, and Salvator Rosa.