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Description: | bound volume (dimensions 54 x 38 x 7 cms) inscr. on plate b.r. "B. ex:"; inscr. on page t.r. hand-written in brown ink "60" PUB BECKETT, Isaac; (English; 1653-1688) AFTER UNKNOWN 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. The remaining third are subject prints after a wide range of artists and subjects, from mythological and religious scenes after old Italian and Dutch and Flemish masters such as Titian and Rubens to fancy subjects after contemporary French and English painters.
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 first half of the 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 was published by Smith's teacher Beckett, one of the earliest English mezzotinters, it may also have been made by him. Smith acquired and republished many of his plates after his death including them in collections such as this to give context to his own work. Small prints depicting Venus and Cupid were popular and there are several in the volume (Glaha 16713). | 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: | GREEK MYTHOLOGY : CUPID : EROS : AMOR : LOVE : VENUS : BEAUTY : BLINDING : BLIND FOLD : BOW AND ARROW : 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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