Johan Faber,^[1] anglicized as John Faber (c. 1660–1721), commonly referred to as John Faber the Elder,^[a] was a Dutch miniaturist and portrait engraver active in London, where he set up a shop for producing and marketing his own work. His son John Faber the Younger was also active in this field.

Born in The Hague, Dutch Republic, Faber initially worked in Amsterdam as a miniaturist. He moved to England in the late 1690s. In 1707 Faber was settled in The Strand, near the Savoy Hospital, where he kept a print-shop, and practised as a mezzotint engraver. He died at Bristol in May 1721.^[4]

Faber was noted for the small portraits which he drew from the life on vellum with a pen, one being of Simon Episcopius. He engraved many portraits from the life, among them being those of Francis Atterbury, Hans Caspar von Bothmer, John Hough, and Henry Sacheverell, besides numerous portraits of dissenting clergy. In 1712 he was employed at Oxford to engrave a set of the portraits of the founders of the colleges; this was followed by a similar set of portraits at Cambridge, making forty-five in all.^[5] To his visit to Oxford were due also the engraved portraits of Samuel Butler, Charles I, Geoffrey Chaucer, Duns Scotus, John Hevelius, Ben Jonson, and others.^[4]

He also engraved sets of portraits, such as 12 Ancient Philosophers, after Rubens, The Four Indian Kings (1710), and The 21 Reformers.^[4]

• Arms, John Taylor (1934). Handbook of Print Making and Print Makers. New York: Macmillan. p. 108. OCLC 609230931 – via Google Books.
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• Bryan, Michael (1903). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan. p. 138. OCLC 1041637252 – via the Internet Archive.
• Calloway, Stephen (1981). English Prints for the Collectors. Guildford, London; Woodstock, NY: Lutterworth Press, Overlook Press. p. 32. ISBN 0-87951-120-6. OCLC 1148926166 – via the Internet Archive.
• Chelsum, James (1786). A History of the Art of Engraving in Mezzotinto. Winchester: J. Robbins. p. 85–86. OCLC 1157144486 – via the Internet Archive.
• Clayton, Timothy (1997). The English Print, 1688–1802. London, New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 20, 61, 293 n. 8. ISBN 0-300-06650-3.
• Cust, Lionel Henry (1889). "Faber, John (1660?-1721)" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 112.
• Davenport, Cyril (1904). Mezzotints. London: Methuen and Co. pp. 113–114. OCLC 1049687052 – via the Internet Archive.
• Feurer, Rudolf (2003). "Faber, John (Johan)". In Kasten, Eberhard; et al. (eds.). Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (in German). Vol. 36. München, Leipzig: Saur. p. 42. ISBN 3-598-22776-0.
• Foskett, Daphne (1972). A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters. New York: Praeger. pp. 52, 265. OCLC 1148791574 – via the Internet Archive.
• Hind, Arthur M. (1963). A History of Engraving & Etching from the 15th Century to the Year 1914 (3rd, fully rev. ed.). New York: Dover. pp. 270, 381. OCLC 1035610203 – via the Internet Archive.
• Kramm, Christiaan [in Dutch] (1858). De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters, van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd. Vol. 2. Gebroeders Diederichs. p. 471. OCLC 1043270752 – via the Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Mackenzie, Ian (1987). British Prints: Dictionary and Price Guide. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club. p. 116. ISBN 0-902028-96-0. OCLC 1244508760 – via the Internet Archive.
• Redgrave, Samuel (1878). A Dictionary of Artists of the English School (2nd ed.). London: George Bell. p. 147. OCLC 1043009709 – via the Internet Archive.
• Salaman, Malcolm C. (1906). The Old Engravers of England in Their Relation to Contemporary Life and Art (1540-1800). London et al.: Cassell and Co. pp. 89, 97. OCLC 1049965266 – via the Internet Archive.
• Sharp, Richard (2004). "Faber, John (c. 1660–1721)". In Matthew, H. C. G. & Harrison, Brian (eds.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 876–877. ISBN 0-19-861368-7. OCLC 1035755389 – via the Internet Archive. Also available via Oxford DNB Online (subscription or UK public library membership required)
• Smith, John Chaloner (1878–1884). British Mezzotinto Portraits. London: H. Sotheran. pt. 1, pp. 266–299. OCLC 1041598596 – via the Internet Archive.
• Strutt, Joseph (1785). "John Faber the Elder". A Biographical Dictionary Containing All the Engravers, From the Earliest Period of the Art of Engraving to the Present Day. Vol. 1. London: Robert Faulder. p. 281. OCLC 1045376483 – via the Internet Archive.
• Thieme, Ulrich, ed. (1915). "Faber, John I (Johan)". Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler (in German). Vol. 11. Leipzig: E. A. Seemann. pp. 154–155. OCLC 1039502179 – via the Internet Archive.
• Vertue, George (1765). Walpole, Horace (ed.). A Catalogue of Engravers. Strawberry Hill: Thomas Kirgate. p. 130. OCLC 1039533429 – via the Internet Archive.
• Vertue, George (1930). "The Note-Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England (I)". The Walpole Society. 18. whole issue. JSTOR i40086539.
• Vertue, George (1932). "The Note-Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England (II)". The Walpole Society. 20. whole issue. JSTOR i40086519.
• Vertue, George (1936). "The Note-Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England (IV)". The Walpole Society. 24. whole issue. JSTOR i40086511.
• Walpole, Horace (1879). Anecdotes Of Painting In England. London: Ward, Lock, and Co. p. 461. OCLC 1039484687 – via the Internet Archive.
• Wax, Carol (1990). The Mezzotint: History and Technique. New York: H. N. Abrams. pp. 32, 54, 74. ISBN 0810936038 – via Google Books.
• Whinney, Margaret; Millar, Oliver (1957). English Art, 1625–1714. Oxford History of English Art. Vol. 8. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 102. OCLC 1150992276 – via the Internet Archive.
• Whitman, Alfred (1898). The Masters of Mezzotint: The Men and Their Work. London: G. Bell and Sons. OCLC 741495781 – via Google Books.

• John Faber senior at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Biography at the V&A