4 results found

 
 
ANDREWS, Joseph and Hezekiah Wright SMITH after Chester HARDING

Daniel Webster

Boston: Published by R. Andrews, 116 Washington St. Boston, circa 1850. Mixed method engraving with added hand-colour. Printed on heavy wove paper. In excellent condition with the exception of a tear along the right margin. Image size: 25 1/8 x 17 1/8 inches. Plate mark: 29 x 19 7/8 inches. Sheet size: 29 5/8 x 21 1/4 inches.

A handsome portrait of Daniel Webster, one of America's most noted orators.

This dramatic, mixed-method engraving was executed by Joseph Andrews and H. W. Smith after a portrait of Daniel Webster by Chester Harding. Now housed in the Boston Athenaeum, Harding's painting of Webster is considered one of the finest portraits of this great orator. During his much-hailed career, Webster became one of the nation's best speechwriters. He was appointed Secretary of State under three presidents, and enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a politician in the Senate. Webster's speeches made him a household name during the nineteenth century and his words gave a voice to America's political ideology and helped to shape the language of our nation's ideals.

Joseph Andrews and H. W. Smith were both noted portrait engravers who worked in association with each other in Boston in 1850. The artistic pairing of Andrews and Smith resulted in many superb engravings, most noted of which is this distinguished portrait of Webster, which is regarded as one of their finest plates.

Stauffer, American Engravers on copper and Steel Vol. I, p. 10-11, 251.

#14138$1,500.00
 
 
HARDING (publishers)

Sacripant by Rockingham. The property of The Honble. J W Coventry, beating Mr Whaley's Tuneful & Mr. Ladbroke's Chuckle, over Epsom Odds at starting 10 to 1 against Sacripant after the Start, 2 to 1 on him, Sacripant was rode by Mr Samuel Barnard, Tuneful by Mr W Cliff & Chuckle by Mr Dennis Fitzpatrick

London: Harding, 1 March 18 ??? (circa 1802, see watermark). Aquatint, coloured by hand, on laid paper (watermark '1802') (Publication line at foot of plate shaved with slight loss, some expertly repaired tears to margins). Image size (including text): 16 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches. Sheet size: 19 3/4 x 25 inches.

An anonymous work of quality.

Unusually, the present work does not include either the artist responsible for the original or the engraver who worked on the plate. The publication line is very faint: sometimes an indication of a later issue, but the early watermark does not support this. None of the standard reference works include either this print or mention of the horse Sacripant. This suggests that this image is rare, and the absence of names allied with the early watermark may indicate some sort of proof issue.

#5174$2,850.00
 
 
HARDING, James Duffield (1798-1863) after Clarkson STANFIELD (1793-1867)

Barnbougle Castle

[London: Published by E. Gambart & Co. and Joseph Hogarth, 1854]. Tinted lithograph with additional hand-colouring and touches of gum arabic, mounted on card in the manner of a watercolour. Lithographed by Harding after a work by the celebrated marine painter Clarkson Stanfield. Signed in pencil by Stanfield in lower right corner and title written in pencil in lower left-hand corner. Very good condition apart from some minor foxing in the image, a bit of light soiling on the mount and a small water stain at the edge of the top margin. Image size (including text): 10 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches. Sheet size: (of card) 17 1/2 x 22 3/8 inches.

A beautifully coloured plate from the rare, deluxe edition of 'Scotland Delineated', a comprehensive series of lithographs of Edinburgh and its environs.

Published between 1847 and 1854, Scotland Delineated was essentially a picturesque visual survey of Scotland assembled by Harding and the historical writer John Parson Lawson, who resided in Edinburgh. It was comprised of a number of plates engraved by various artists after the works of prominent artists including J. M. W. Turner, Joseph Nash, Thomas Creswick, and George Cattermole.

Born in Deptford in 1798, the landscape painter and lithographer J. D. Harding was renowned for his prolific works as well as the pioneering innovations he introduced to the mediums of lithography and watercolour. Harding began his artistic training at an early age and exhibited his first drawings at the Royal Academy at age thirteen. After a brief apprenticeship with the engraver Charles Pye, he began working with watercolours and regularly exhibited his landscape paintings at the Society of Painters in Watercolours after 1818. He started experimenting with the medium of oil painting in 1843, and after years of exhibiting at the Royal Academy and attempting to become an academician, was reinstated as a member of the Watercolour Society in 1856.

In addition to being a successful artist, Harding was a respected instructor, and he published numerous educational handbooks that were extensively used as textbooks in England and Europe. His untraditional practice of using bodycolour as well as conventional transparent colours (a technique derived from Turner) significantly influenced the course of modern watercolour painting and was widely adopted by the artists of the period. Harding also excelled in the art of lithography, and he published several popular series of plates including Sketches at Home and Abroad (1836), The Park and the Forest (1841), and Scotland Delineated (1847-1854). His works were extremely well received, and his introduction of the 'lithotint' technique and innovative use of tinted papers of various textures, which later became known as 'Hardin's paper', were extremely influential.

Cf. Abbey, Scenery of Great Britain and Ireland, 1770-1860, #493; cf. Dictionary of National Biography.

#12905$600.00
 
 
SARTAIN, John after Chester HARDING

Washington Allston

Mezzotint. In excellent condition apart from some very faint foxing on sheet. Image size: 12 1/8 x 9 3/4 inches. Plate mark: 15 x 12 inches. Sheet size: 17 x 13 1/4 inches.

A wonderful impression of John Sartain's striking mezzotint of Washington Allston, the famous American painter who introduced Romanticism to the United States.

John Sartain was the preeminent portrait engraver in Philadelphia. His success was unusual for a nineteenth century engraver and can be attributed mainly to his adaptability as an artist and his skill as an engraver. Although most of his attention was focused on mezzotint engraving, he also turned variously to lithography, etching, bank-note engraving, portrait painting in oils, and photography. Sartain was held in great esteem, and he worked closely with the leading artists of the day, establishing himself as an eminent figure in the Philadelphian art world. This fascinating portrait of Washington Allston is a wonderful example of Sartain's unique skills as a mezzotint engraver. His fine engraving style brings continuity to the surface of the print, which is almost photographic in its fine texture and subtle effect, producing a truly striking image of this celebrated American artist.

Washington Allston was a seminal figure in the development of American art after the Revolution. His beautiful landscape paintings ushered in the age of Romanticism in America, but his work ranged in subject matter from biblical paintings to portraiture. Allston drew the inspiration for his paintings from poetry, novels, and Biblical texts, all of which demonstrate his deep understanding of nature and civilization. He was part of the famous Hudson River School, an elite group of landscape painters who worked in the Hudson Valley after the Revolution.

Reaves, American Portrait Prints p.135-161

#8844$600.00
 
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