File:David Charles Read memorial, Salisbury Cathedral.jpg

English: David Charles Read was one of the most fluent original etchers outside the Norwich School to be active in England between the years 1820 and 1845. Essentially a landscape artist, D.C.Read was born in Hampshire and was apprentice to the eminent engraver John Scott (1774-1828). He lived and worked in Salisbury for most of his life, where he became well known as one of the finest local drawing masters. D.C.Read was a friend of Goethe and etched his portrait; however, the majority of his printed works are landscapes, many depicting the countryside immediately surrounding the city of Salisbury and the nearby New Forest. David Charles Read was, for a while, a protégé of John Constable. However, their relationship soured after the young D.C.Read began to impose over much upon Constable’s goodwill in relation to furthering the exhibition of his oil paintings in the main London shows. Possibly as a result of this, D.C.Read began to turn his attention away from oil painting during the mid 1820’s, concentrating more and more upon his particular forte for original printmaking.