John Le Keux (4 June 1783 – 2 April 1846) was a British engraver.
Born in Sun Street,Bishopsgate, London, on 4 June 1783, and baptised atSt. Botolph, Bishopsgate, in September of that year, he was son of Peter Le Keux and Anne Dyer, his wife. The engraverHenry Le Keux (1787–1868), was his younger brother. His father, a wholesalepewter manufacturer in Bishopsgate, was from aHuguenot family.[1]
Le Keux was apprenticed to his father, but tried out engraving on pewter. He turned his attention to copperplate engraving, and was transferred for the remaining years of his apprenticeship toJames Basire, to whom his brother Henry had been apprenticed. Under Basire he became a stylishline engraver.[1]
Le Keux's engravings were found in the architectural publications ofJohn Britton,Augustus Welby Pugin,John Preston Neale, and others; they were an influence in the revival ofGothic architecture. He engraved the plates toJames Ingram'sMemorials of Oxford, and published himself two volumes of engravings,Memorials of Cambridge, with text byThomas Wright andHarry Longueville Jones; some of these plates were subsequently used forCharles Henry Cooper'sMemorials of Cambridge. He engraved, afterJ. M. W. Turner,Rome from the Farnese Gardens forJames Hakewill'sItaly, andSt. Agatha's Abbey, Easby, forThomas Dunham Whitaker'sHistory of Richmondshire.[1]
Le Keux married, on 27 September 1809, at St. Mary's, Lambeth, Sarah Sophia (1836–1871), daughter ofJohn Lingard, by whom he was father ofJohn Henry Le Keux (b. 1813), also an engraver.[1] Le Keux died on 2 April 1846, and was buried inBunhill Fields cemetery.[1]
