 |
|
|
|
|
SMITH, John after Thomas MURRAY
Thomas Gill
London: Published by John Smith, circa 1694. Mezzotint. State ii/ii, with the engraved inscription. In excellent condition. Image size: 9 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches. Plate mark: 10 x 7 1/2 inches. Sheet size: 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches. In contemporary pear wood frame with gold details. Frame size: 12 5/8 x 10 1/4 inches.
A charming early mezzotint by John Smith depicting a young boy engaged in archery.
Thomas Gill, a child of about ten, is seen half length in clothes of the finest quality. A bow in hand, he appears to have paused momentarily to look confidently at the viewer, before resuming his archery.
John Smith (1652?-1742) studied mezzotint engraving under Isaac Beckett and Jan Vander Vaart. He became the ablest and most industrious worker in mezzotint of his time, and the favourite engraver of Sir Godfrey Kneller, whose paintings he extensively reproduced, and in whose house he is said to have resided for some time. Smith's plates, which are executed in a remarkably brilliant and effective style, number about five hundred, and of these nearly three hundred are portraits of distinguished men and women of the period between the reigns of Charles II and George II, from pictures by Lely, Kneller, Wissing, Dahl, Riley, Closterman, Gibson, Murray, and others... Previous to 1700 his plates were mostly published by Edward Cooper, but about that date he established himself as a printseller at the Lyon and Crown in Covent Garden' (DNB)
Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits 108, i/i; Russell, English Mezzotint Portraits, and their States 108, ii/ii; O'Donoghue, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits... in the British Museum 1
|
#6508 $600.00 
|
© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
