Thomas Macklin

"The Cottagers" (inspired by Thomson) painted by Reynolds and commissioned by Macklin in 1788, featuring his daughter, Maria, (left), and his wife, Hannah (right) and friend (Jane Potts (Edwin Landseer's mother), standing).

Thomas Macklin (1752/53 – 25 October 1800) was a British printseller and picture dealer. He commissioned many noted painters and engravers for his "Poets Gallery" project and his illustrated folio Bible project.

Life Macklin was born in 1752 or 1753 and his father may have been the Reverend Garrard Macklin of the Kingdom of Ireland. He also held an annual exhibition in Pall Mall, like John Boydell and his Shakespeare Gallery. However, the war with France cut into his profits, as prints could not be traded across the channel, and his partner, Edward Rogers, died. The project produced paintings by Joshua Reynolds, Henry Fuseli, Thomas Gainsborough, John Opie, Angelica Kauffman, Thomas Stothard, and Francis Wheatley. A new typeface and a new kind of paper were designed for the work. The finished Bible had 70 engraved plates, 16 of which were by Philippe Jacques de Louthenbourg. Many of the same artists who were participating in the Poet's Gallery worked on the Bible project. 703 people signed the subscription list, including George III. Macklin's Bible project was expensive to produce: he paid Reynolds £500 for his Holy Family, for example, and the total cost was estimated at £30,000. To realise this project, he was forced to sell some of the paintings from the Poet's Gallery by lottery in 1797.

Macklin died on 25 October 1800,

Macklin's influence was felt in the world of the arts not only as a publisher but also as a patron. The Dictionary of National Biography records that he may have spent as much as £300,000 as a patron of the arts.

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