Robert Fulton

Engraving of Robert Fulton , Thomas Oldham Barlow . Print, mezzotint, on laid india, 47x39cm., platemark 32.8x23cm., oval image 22.7x18.6cm., HL to R. After an oil by or after Charles Willson Peale ). Facsimile signature, b.r. with pencilled inscription: 'T Oldham Barlow', unpublished proof Prof.B. Woodcroft. Robert Fulton (1765-1815) an american engineer and inventor, developed a commercially successful steamboat, was commissioned by Napoleon to design the first practical submarine and invented among the earliest torpedoes for the Royal Navy. Thomas Oldham Barlow (1824-1889) was an English mezzotint engraver who popularised the work of many painters. Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) was an american painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist.