(b ?London, ?1740; d Twickenham, Middlesex [now in Greater London], ?14 Jan. 1813). English landscape and marine painter. He was a pupil of Samuel Scott, 1754–9, and is also said to have studied with Richard Wilson. His early landscapes were topographical views, including ‘portraits’ of country houses, but after a visit to the Continent (1765–6) he painted largely from his memories of France and Italy. He was a director of the Society of Artists and declined membership of the Royal Academy when it was founded in 1768. In the 1780s he went into semi-retirement, devoting himself to making scientific instruments. See also capriccio.