William Home Lizars

William Home Lizars (* 1788 in Edinburgh, † March 30 1859 in Jedburgh ) was a Scottish painter and engraver.

Lizars was the son of the famous engraver and printer Daniel Lizars. After an initial training from his father, he studied from 1802 to 1805 painting at the Trustees ' Academy in Edinburgh. In 1805 he began to orient themselves towards portraiture and genre painting. After the death of his father he saw, however, forced to give up painting and take over the printing and engraving the family business in 1812.

Lizars graphic works initially had a wide range of topics and quickly helped him a great reputation. In 1820, however, he focused almost exclusively on natural history illustrations, for which he is best known. These stitches are among the best of the early 19th century, no matter whether it is about miniatures, or are large panels such as John James Audubon's publication in The Birds of America.

Lizars constantly strove to improve the printing technology and perfected in 1821 the production of etchings in such a way that the surfaces of the copper plates had similar to a woodcut, a relief. He was a member in 1826 of the founding members of the Royal Scottish Academy and was an honorary member in 1834.