5 results found

 
 
REYNOLDS, After Sir Joshua (1723-1792). - Charles TURNER (1773-1857), engraver.

The Penn Family

London: 25 December 1819. Mezzotint over an engraved and etched base, by Turner after Reynolds. Sheet size: 24 9/16 x 17 inches. In good condition. Trimmed to edge of plate mark, small expertly repaired tears at sheet edges.

A charming image, from the golden age of the British mezzotint, of the grand-children of William Penn, the founder and first proprietor of the colony of Pennsylvania


This fine group portrait shows the children of Thomas Penn (1702-1775) and his wife Lady Juliana, daughter of Thomas Fermor, the first Earl of Pomfret. The print is dedicated by Turner in 1819 to John Penn, who is included in the portrait as a young child: "This print of the Penn Family is with Permission dedicated to John Penn Esqr,. By his obliged & humble Servt. C. Turner". Just beneath the image are the names and dates of the four subjects: two of whom, John's mother and older sister, had died by the time the print was issued, thus making it a touching memorial, and an emblem of family life as seen from childhood in general.

Sir Joshua Reynolds executed the original portrait in the early 1760s when he was at the height of his considerable powers as a Society portrait painter.

Charles Turner was an excellent engraver who throughout his memorable career produced an array of wonderful images. Born in Oxfordshire, Turner moved to London in 1795, at which time he was employed by the famous engraver and publisher Boydell. Turner was a versatile engraver working in stipple and aquatint as well as mezzotint. Although, Turner produced a wide array of excellent prints on subjects ranging from topography to genre, his main artistic focus was portraiture. Throughout his career he produced more than six hundred plates, of which about two-thirds were portraits. Turner was a close friend of JMW Turner, and engraved many of the artists' paintings, in addition to engraving some of the plates for 'Liber Studiorum'. As an engraver he combined technical skill with artistic imagination to create beautiful enduring images.

O'Donoghue Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits... in the British Museum V, p.50; Whitman 422.

#21048$750.00
 
 
REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua after (1723-1792), engraved by Eugene TILY (1870- c.1937)

Penelope Boothby

London: circa 1900. Colour-printed stipple. Printed on wove paper. In excellent condition. Image size: 8 1/2 x 7 inches. Plate mark: 12 x 9 1/4 inches. Sheet size: 15 3/8 x 11 1/8 inches.

A charming example of Reynolds's child-portraits expertly engraved by Eugene Tily.

This pretty portrait by Reynolds proved to be one of his most famous paintings. It was the inspiration for John Everett Millais's celebrated work "Cherry Ripe," which became one of the most popular Victorian paintings of the age. Reynolds's endearing image, often known as "The Mob-Cap," pictures Penelope Boothby at the age of three. Penelope was the only daughter of Sir Brooke Boothby, 7th Baronet, and his wife Susannah, and she is pictured here as the epitome of intelligent innocence. Reynolds' portrayal of the little girl, who was a prodigy, came at the beginning of a new view and valuation of childhood, which appeared in many forms throughout the 19th century.

Penelope Boothby, as noted, became a symbol of the inquisitive sweetness she radiates in this image but also of the brevity of life: she died at six, a devastating loss to her parents, who split up.

This charming stipple print by Tily perfectly translates Reynolds's graceful portrait was done at the beginning of the 20th century when a number of excellent British artists revived intaglio techniques fallen into dis-use in nostalgic images of what appeared to be more congenial times .

Penny, Reynolds p. 319, no. 147.

#13310$150.00
 
 
REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua (1723-1792) engraved by Francesco BARTOLOZZI

Hon. Mr. Leicester Stanhope

London: Published by F. Bartolozzi & Co. No. 81 Great Titchfield Street, June 1789. Colour-printed stipple. In excellent condition with the exception of being trimmed on the lower margin with loss to imprint. Image size (including text): 8 x 6 5/8 inches. Sheet size: 11 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches.

A charming image of childhood by one of the greatest engravers of his day, after an original by the first president of the Royal Academy.

Francesco Bartolozzi is undoubtedly England's most famous eighteenth century stipple engraver. An Italian by birth, Bartolozzi was trained in the Florentine Academy and apprenticed to the Venetian engraver Joseph Wagner. He was an accomplished painter and engraver and he began his career engraving plates after the Italian masters. With an invitation from George III Bartolozzi traveled to England where he undertook the massive task of engraving the drawings of Guercino, Tibaldi and other Italian artists housed in the Royal Collection at Windsor. During this period a new French printmaking technique came to the fore in England, and examples of it delicate results could be seen in every print shop window. According to Clayton, colour printing fuelled the vogue for stipple or dotted manner engraving, which dominated print production in France and England. Bartolozzi earned a reputation for himself by mastering this subtle medium, and his name will forever be linked with the introduction and popularization of stipple engraving in England. Bartolozzi's renown was so great that he earned the privilege of being the first engraver to gain full membership to the Royal Academy. His delicate work lives on as a testimony to his skill and innovation, and he remains one of the most sought after eighteenth century engravers.

This charming image of Leicester Stanhope is a wonderful example of Bartolozzi's refined style of engraving. Leicester Fitzgerald Charles Stanhope is depicted here as a young child but he would later inherit the title the fifth Earl of Harrington. Reynolds portrait was painted when Stanhope was under five and was known by the alternative title 'Sprightliness'. Stanhope went on to a distinguished military career in South America and India. He later supported the movements for the independence of Greece and Poland and the introduction of temperance laws in England.

Vesme & Calabi, Francesco Bartolozzi 909; O'Donoghue, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits... in the British Museum 1; Le Blanc, Manuel de L'Amateur D'Estampes VoI I, p.173, no. 609

#6585$300.00
 
 
REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua engraved by Joseph COLLYER (1748-1827)

Felina

London: Published by W. Dickenson, New Bond Street, J. Cary, Strand, M. Darling, Newport Street, T. Simpson, St. Paul's Church Yard, & J. Collyer, No. 16 Dorrington Street, Cold Bath Fields., 1 March, 1790. Colour-printed stipple engraving. Printed on thick laid paper. In excellent condition with the exception of being trimmed within the platemark on all sides. Image size: 10 ¼ x 9 3/8 inches. Sheet size: 14 13/16 x 10 5/8 inches.

A beautiful stipple engraving by Joseph Collyer after Sir Joshua Reynolds's famous painting, "Felina".

"Felina" was Reynold's niece, Theophila Palmer, known as Offie. She and her sister, Mary, were daughters of his widowed sister and spent much of their youths in his care, in fact, Mary was his primary heir. The ever cheerful Offie appeared in several paintings and brightened the Reynolds' household until she married a Mr. Gwatkin and began a household of her own.

Joseph Collyer (1748-1827) was a popular London engraver who acquired a reputation for his remarkable skill with the burin. He learnt the art of engraving from Anthony Walker, but was soon employed by Boydell. He was a valued member of the Society of Arts, and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. He was favored by Reynolds who commissioned him to reproduce a number of his most famous paintings, including this enticing image of Felina. In 1786 he was elected an associate engraver and was appointed official engraver to Queen Charlotte, and in this capacity he produced many fine court portraits and historical scenes. He last exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1822, having earned a reputation as one of the most skilled engravers in London. This charming image of a young girl with a kitten is a superb example of early colour printing in England, which was developed as a means of reproducing the effects of painting in oils. This impression exemplifies the single plate colour printing technique used in England at the close of the 18th century. The effect is achieved by inking a single plate with several different colours by using a rag stump, this process is known as a la poupée. The outcome achieved by this laborious method of inking has a wonderful painterly effect and creates a delicacy of image that is charming to behold.

Dictionary of National Biography.

#15338$400.00
 
 
REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua engraved by Robert THEW

Shakespeare Macbeth Act IV Scene I a dark cave. In the middle a Cauldron boiling. Three Witches, Macbeth, Hecate, &c.

London: John & Josiah Boydell, 1 December 1802. Stipple engraving. Printed on wove Whatman paper. In perfect condition. Image size: 17 1/4 x 23 1/8 inches. Plate mark: 19 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches. Sheet size: 21 7/8 x 31 3/4 inches.

A superb impression of one of the greatest images in Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, from the original painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds

"This is Shakespeare on a grand scale, the Shakespeare of titanic emotion, of compelling gesture and vivid gaze...the greatest of the engravings...are by any standard powerful works with an inescapable emotional force behind them. They speak directly to us." (A. E. Santaniello, The Boydell Shakespeare Prints, New York, 1979)

In 1786, the printseller John Boydell (1719-1804) "embarked upon the most important enterprise of his life, viz. the publication, by subscription, of a series of prints illustrative of [the works of] Shakespeare, after pictures painted expressly for the work by English artists. For this purpose he gave commissions to all the most celebrated painters of this country for pictures, and built a gallery in Pall Mall for their exhibition. The execution of this project extended over several years. In 1789 the Shakespeare Gallery contained thirty-four pictures, in 1791 sixty-five, in 1802 one hundred and sixty-two, of which eighty-four were of large size. The total number of works executed was 170, three of which were pieces of sculpture, and the artists employed were thirty-three painters and two sculptors, Thomas Banks and the Hon. Mrs. Damer. It appears from the preface to the catalogue of 1789, and from other recorded statements of Boydell, that he wished to do for English painting what he had done for English engraving, to make it respected by foreigners." (DNB)

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was considered in his time the greatest artist of the era, and the brightest star of the constellation of artists who contributed to Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery. Here, in a great whirlwind of otherworldly beings, he shows Macbeth confronting, as it were, his true fate, having been deceived by a partial revelation at the start of the action. Macbeth's muscular, commanding figure waves his long dagger uselessly at the insubstantial spirits and ghosts, while the ghoulish witches and their entourage black magical beings calmly watch him.

Cf. Santaniello (op.cit.).

#16708$950.00
 
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