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Description: | bound volume (dimensions 54 x 38 x 7 cms) inscr. on plate b.c. "Richard Thompson."; inscr. on plate b.l. "G. Soust pinxit."; inscr. on plate b.c. "I Smith excudit."; inscr. on plate b.r. "F. Place fecit."; inscr. on page t.r. hand-written in brown ink "99" CRE PLACE, Francis; (English; 1647-1728) PUB SMITH, John; (English; 1652-1743) AFTER SOEST, Gerard van; (Dutch; 1637-1681) 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 Francis Place, on of the earliest English mezzotinters. Smith acquired and republished the work of many of his predecessors and contemporaries and included them in collections like this providing context to his own work. Depicted is the important print publisher Richard Thompson, one of the earliest English publishers of mezzotints with whom Smith is known to have worked only once. The print, after a portrait by skilled portrait painter Gerard Soest, 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 : OVAL : BUST : NECK CLOTH : RICHARD THOMPSON : 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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