It has been said that the young artist helped Gravelot design the decorative surrounds for Jacobus Houbracken's engravings for Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain, though it is difficult to discern his contribution. Hogarth's revival, in 1735, of the St Martin's Lane Academy, where Hubert-François Gravelot was employed as the drawing-master until 1745, must have provided a framework for Gainsborough's education. Rather more important were the influence of William Hogarth and Francis Hayman, who were at the centre of so much artistic activity at the time. William Hogarth had been taught engraving by a silversmith twenty years before, and Gainsborough may have thought this a natural means of learning his craft however, the laborious process did not suit his temperament and, although he experimented with the medium in the 1750s, he did not form a serious interest in printmaking until the 1770s.
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