Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rising, John
RISING, JOHN (1756–1815), portrait and subject painter, had a large practice in London, and was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1785 until his death. Among many distinguished persons who sat to him were William Wilberforce, Lord Melville, Lord Nelson, Sir William Blackstone, Arthur Young, and Robert Bloomfield. His portraits are pleasing in colour, and executed with great truth and vigour; many of them have been engraved. Rising also painted various fancy and domestic subjects, such as ‘Juvenile Employment,’ ‘Ballad Singers,’ the ‘Sentimental Shepherd,’ and the ‘Infant Narcissus,’ some of which were mezzotinted by W. Ward, J. Jones, and others. His portrait of Blackstone is in the Bodleian Library, that of the first Marquis of Downshire at Hatfield, and that of Wilberforce in the possession of the Earl of Crawford. Rising is said to have at one time assisted Sir Joshua Reynolds with the backgrounds of his pictures. He died in 1815, aged 59.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Seguier's Dict. of Painters; Cat. of National Portrait Exhibition, 1867; Royal Academy Catalogues; list of members of the Artists' Annuity Fund.]