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Description: | bound volume (dimensions 54 x 38 x 7) title inscr. on plate b.c. "Katharin Queen Dowager"; inscr. on plate b.l. "I. Smith excudit." CRE BECKETT, Isaac; (English; 1653-1688) AFTER LELY, Peter, Sir (Pieter van der Faes); (Dutch; 1618-1680) Part of William Hunter's original bequest, this is one of three volumes which together contain 488 mezzotints, almost all made or published by John Smith. About two thirds are portraits of eminent late Stuart, early Hanoverian persons, and one third fancy and mythological subjects.
Instrumental in raising the standard of mezzotint portraits, Smith was the first British printmaker to gain a European reputation, and examples of his work were essential for any serious early to mid 18th century European print collection.
Hunter's set of volumes is a rare surviving example of a comprehensive collection of mezzotints compiled in the 1730s.
This print, after a portrait by leading portrait painter of the day Sir Peter Lely, was made by Smith's teacher Beckett, one of the earliest English mezzotinters and many of whose plates Smith bought and republished after his death. 32 of them appear in these three volumes, providing a context for Smith's own mezzotints.
Catherine of Braganza was the Queen of Charles II after whose death this portrait was made. She was childless and survived Charles by 20 years. The print is among a group of royal portraits toward the end of volume two. | License: | http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/spirit/rights/ | Publisher: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Rights holder: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Subjects: | PORTRAIT : HEAD : ALBUM : OVAL : NECKLACE : EARRINGS : JOHN IV, KING OF PORTUGAL : ELEANOR DE GUZMAN : CHARLES II : QUEEN : REGENT : VOLUME : HUNTER VOLUME : | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Creator: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Identifier: | http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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