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Description: | bound volume (dimensions 54 x 38 x 7 cms) inscr. on plate b.c. "Carolus Ith. &c. of whom the World was not Worthy Heb 11. 38."; inscr. on plate b.r. "I Smith ex."; inscr. on page t.r. hand-written in brown ink "98" CRE SMITH, John; (English; 1652-1743) AFTER DYCK, Anthony van, Sir; (Flemish; 1599-1641) 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.
Smith published this print and may also be its author; it is one of 100 in the volume without an engraver's name. He is known to have acquired and republished many plates from his predecessors and contemporaries, including them in collections such as this to give context to his own work. After a portrait by the revered Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck who won favour with Charles I, this is one of a number of portraits of the King reproduced in mezzotint at the time (Glaha 16345 and 16346). Charles I (1600-1649) was the second Stuart king from 1625 to 1649, a reign marked by civil wars. The print is included in a small group of miscellaneous portraits inserted at the back of volume three. | 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 : CROWN : CROWN OF GLORY : CROWN OF THORNS : BOOK : GLOBE : PILLAR : KING : CHARLES I : ENGLAND : 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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