Gallery of prints for sale

Tuesday 24 March 2020

Valentine Green’s mezzotint, “Roman Charity”, 1783, after Adriaen van der Werff


Valentine Green (1739–1813)

“Roman Charity”, 1783, after the painting in the (Museum: Royal Collection) by Adriaen van der Werff (aka Adrien Vanderwerff) (1659–1722), “Cimon and Pero” (aka “Caritas Romana” [Roman Charity]), c.1695, in the Royal Collection Trust (London), published in London by Torre & Co (fl.1760–99)—in collaboration with Valentine Green and his son, Rupert Green (1767/8–1804).

Mezzotint with a small margin around the platemark backed with a support sheet.
Size: (sheet) 64.9 x 47 cm; (plate) 63.9 x 46 cm; (image borderline) 61 x 45.8 cm.
Lettered on plate below the image borderline: (left) “Painted by Chev.r A.Vanderwerff.”; (centre) “ROMAN CHARITY./ From the Original Picture in the Possession of Edmund Antrobus Esq.r/ Publish'd June 20th. 1783, by V. Green & Son No,, 29, Newman Street, Oxford Street, London./ Se vend chez les Freres Torrè, Marchands des Estampes.”; (right) “Engrav'd by V Green Mezzotinto Engraver to his Majesty & to the Elector Palatine.”

Whitman 280 (Alfred Whitman 1902, “Valentine Green”, London, A H Bullen, p. 173, cat. no. 280 [see this catalogue online:

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:
“Pero visiting her father in prison, standing on the right and offering him her breast, while he languishes chained to the wall; Pero's baby lying behind her, and two Roman soldiers …[watching] from the window above”

Condition: well-printed impression with restored abrasions and tears, trimmed with a small margin around the platemark and laid onto a support sheet of millennium quality washi paper.

I am selling large and spectacular mezzotint by one of the most famous mezzotinters of his time illustrating the slightly bizarre account from the Roman historian, Valerius Maximus, about a chained prisoner left to starve, but kept alive by his daughter’s milk, for the total cost of AU$544 (currently US$323.49/EUR297.90/GBP274.85 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this darkly beautiful mezzotint from the 18th century, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.












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