Maxim Gauci

Maxim Gauci (11 February 1774 – 3 November 1854), born Massimo Gauci, was a Maltese lithographer and painter who was active in the United Kingdom in the 19th century. He was an early exponent of lithography for botanical illustration.

Life

Gauci was born in Valletta, Malta on 11 February 1774. He studied painting under Michele Busuttil, and was later sent to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome on the recommendation of Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc.

Gauci eventually moved to Paris, and married there in 1804. While he was there, he was known as Maxime Gauci and he worked in the studio of Jean-Baptiste Isabey. He was father of William Gauci, another printer, and the landscape painter Paul Gauci.

He also produced the lithography for John Forbes Royle, Illustrations of the botany and other branches of the natural history of the Himalayan Mountains, and of the flora of Cashmere. Vol.II – Plates, London: Wm.H. Allen & Co., 1840.

Gauci also painted portrait miniatures in his early career, and he later produced lithographed portraits. Many of his portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery, London. See here