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Description: | bound volume (dimensions 54 x 38 x 7 cms) inscr. on plate b.l. "I. Griffier fe:"; inscr. on plate b.r. "I. Smith ex:"; inscr. on page t.r. hand-written in brown ink "77" CRE GRIFFIER, Jan I; (Dutch; 1656-1718) PUB SMITH, John; (English; 1652-1743) 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 made by Jan Griffier, a Dutch painter and mezzotinter who was active in England. The inclusion in the volume of this work by him and others by many other engravers provides a context for Smith's own prints. Griffier is known to have engraved several plates after Francis Barlow who specialised in depictions of birds but an original work by him for this print has not yet been identified. Small prints depicting birds and animals were popular and there are several scattered through the volume. | 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: | LANDSCAPE : RABBIT : EAGLE : BIRD OF PREY : 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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