first biographical and critical study of Blackburn in 1923, restoring this long-overlooked artist to the attention of scholars and connoisseurs. Dates of birth and death There is a degree of confusion about the dates of birth and death of Blackburn. The most common suggestion for year of death is 1778 (see for instance the Encyclopædia Britannica and the American Artists Bluebook) whereas Microsoft Encarta suggests 1774. 1730 is usually posited as the year of birth but it is at best an estimate. Some sources still give 1700–1765 as Blackburn's years. These most likely derive from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, published prior to Lawrence Park's review, "Joseph Blackburn – Portrait Painter", printed in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society in 1922, which established many of the known works of Blackburn. In 2015 Worcestershire Archives announced that they had located details of Blackburn's burial in Worcester in 1787. Artworks Selected artworks References Attribution External links , which contains material on Joseph Blackburn (see index) Year of birth uncertain 1787 deaths 18th-century English painters English male painters Artists from Boston 18th century in Boston English portrait painters American portrait painters Painters from Massachusetts 18th-century English male artists