James Watson, “The Revd. Mr Zachariah Mudge, Prebend of Exeter”, 1765, after Joshua Reynolds

James Watson (1730? –1790)

“The Revd. Mr Zachariah Mudge, Prebend of Exeter”, 1765

Edward Hamilton (1874) gives the following insights about the Reverend Zachariah Mudge: “Prebendary of Exeter; Vicar of St. Andrew's, Plymouth; author of an ingenious Essay for a New Version of the Psalms. Reynolds' earliest friend.” (p. 40; see digitised copy via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn00hamiiala/page/40/mode/2up)

Technical Details & Condition:

Mezzotint on fine 18th-century French laid paper. The sheet features a classic Auvergne countermarked structure: one half of the sheet bears the “T [Bell-Tower symbol] DUPUY FIN” watermark of the famous Thomas Dupuy paper mill, while the corresponding half displays the regional countermark “AUVERGNE 1742”. While the watermark bears the mandatory tax year of 1742, the paper itself dates between 1742 and the late 1780s due to prolonged regional use of the 1742 mould layout.

This sheet survives with generous full margins well beyond the platemark. This publication state was issued in London between 1765 and 1766 by the publishers Ryland & Bryer (William Wynne Ryland and Henry Bryer), after the celebrated oil portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792).

The impression is strong, deep, and well-printed, beautifully retaining the rich, velvety black tones characteristic of a fresh mezzotint plate. Aside from minor, professional spot-touches to tiny dot breaks within the deep velvety areas of the mezzotint, the sheet is in very good condition—completely free of tears, folds, significant stains, or handling marks.

Dimensions:

• Sheet: 39.9 x 31.5 cm
• Platemark: 33.2 x 23 cm
• Image borderline: 28.1 x 23 cm

In-Plate Lettering (below the image borderline):

• Left: “Reynolds pinx^t.”
• Centre: “The Rev^d_ʺ M^r_ʺ Zachariah Mudge, Prebend of Exeter &c.&c. / Sold by Ryland & Bryer at the Kings Arms Cornhill.”
• Right: “Watson fecit.”

References:

• Edward Hamilton, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Engraved Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., London, P & D Colnaghi and Co.: 1874 edition, p. 40 (for biographical details; see digitised copy via Internet Archive); see also the expanded 1884 edition, p. 52, state III
• Gordon Goodwin, “British Mezzotinters: Thomas Watson, James Watson and Elizabeth Judkins”, 1904, London, A H Bullen, pp. 81-208
• British Museum: Museum No. 1902,1011.6475 (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1902-1011-6475)

Price & Shipping:

AU$267 (approximately US$183,72 / €161.05 / £138.72), including worldwide express shipping. Import duties and taxes (if any) are the buyer’s responsibility.

To acquire this magnificent mezzotint—please contact oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com. Secure payment is handled via PayPal invoice for a smooth, protected transaction.

This print has been sold

Richard Earlom, “The West Window of the Chapel, New College Oxford”, 1785, after Sir Joshua Reynolds

Richard Earlom (aka [pseud.] Henry Birche) (1743–1822)

“The West Window of the Chapel, New College Oxford”, 1785, an open-letter proof before colour showing the Nativity, and a row of seven Saints and allegorical figures below (description by the British Museum [inv. no. Aa,13.42]), after the stained-glass window design by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), published in London by John Boydell (1719–1804),

Stipple engraving on laid paper trimmed around the image borderline and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 64.7 x 46.6cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.”; (left of centre) “Publish’d Sept^r. 1^st. 1785, by John Boydell.”; (centre [broken by the Oxford College coat of arms: “HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE/ MANNERS MAKYTH MAN”]) “John Boydell excudit 1785./ THE WEST WINDOW OF THE CHAPEL, NEW COLLEGE OXFORD./ Painted on Glas’s by M^r. Jervaise./ To the Rev^d. John Oglander, D.D. Warden, and to the Society of New College/ This PLATE is Dedicated by their Obliged humble Servant, John Boydell.”; (right of centre) “Engraver in Cheapside, London.”; (right) “Engraved by Richard Earlom.”

Wessely 6 (J E Wessely 1886 “Richard Earlom, Verzeichniss seiner Radirungen und Schabkunstblätter”, Hamburg, cat. no. 6).

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression trimmed around the image. The sheet has defects in keeping with its huge size (e.g., tears, restored chips and flattened folds), but these issues have been largely addressed by the sheet having been laid upon a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper that also provides a margin.

I am selling this exceptionally rare (proof state) and large stipple engraving, for the total cost of AU$348 (currently/approximately US$232.67/EUR214.63/GBP178.75 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU$348) as this is my currency.

If you are interested in purchasing this important engraving by Richard Earlom—described by the National Portrait Gallery in its biographical details about the artist, as one “of the greatest mezzotint and stipple engravers of his day”—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Johann Elias Haid’s mezzotint, “Portrait of Printmaker, Francesco Bartolozzi”, c.1773, after Sir Joshua Reynolds

Johann Elias Haid (1736–1809)

“Portrait of Printmaker, Francesco Bartolozzi” (aka “Francis Bartolozzi Esqr.”), c.1773, mezzotint after the portrait of the famous printmaker and founder member of Royal Academy of Arts, Francesco Bartolozzi (1728–1815), by the first President of the Royal Academy in 1768, Sir Joshua Reynolds (aka Joshua Reynolds) (1723–1792), published in London by James Birchall (fl.1781–1794).

Note that there are other reproductive print variations of Reynold’s portrait of Bartolozzi (https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/872094). Five years after Haid’s circular mezzotint was executed, Thomas Watson (1743–1781) published a rectangular mezzotint portrait of Bartolozzi dated 1778 after Reynolds (see https://www.artnet.com/artists/thomas-watson/portrait-of-francesco-bartolozzi-after-sir-joshu-aa-RsuuCPyKax1tSbSQjyAo6g2) and fifteen years after Haid’s mezzotint, Robert Samuel Marcuard (1751–1792)—a pupil of Bartolozzi—etched an oval variation of Reynold’s portrait (1788) showing Bartolozzi holding an etching needle in his right hand; see http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.623579.

Mezzotint with etching on heavy laid paper.

Size: (sheet) 28.1 x 20.2 cm; (plate) 21.7 x 14.3 cm; (image borderline diameter) 13 cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “S^r Joshua Reynolds Pinx^t.”; (centre) “FRANCIS BARTOLOZZI ESQ^r.”; (right) “J. E. Haid fecit.”

Mortzfeld A 959 (Peter Mortzfeld & Herzog August 1996, “Die Porträtsammlung der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel”, Munich, K.G. Saur, p. 124, cat. no. A 959); Drugulin 1025; Singer 5234.

See also the description of this print offered by the British Museum:  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1875-0710-3844.

Condition: a strong impression showing no sign of wear to the printing plate with wide margins around the platemark in a near pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this rare mezzotint—note that the Rijksmuseum does not hold a copy in their large collection of prints by Johann Elias Haid—showing an historically important portrait after Joshua Reynolds of the famous printmaker, Francesco Bartolozzi , who popularised the "crayon manner" of stipple engraving, for the total cost of AU$259 (currently US$173.12/EUR156.64/GBP137.88 at the time of posting 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 skilfully executed and very beautiful mezzotint, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Léopold Flameng’s etching, “The Blue Boy”, 1862, after Gainsborough

Léopold Flameng (aka Léopold Joseph Flameng) (1831–1911)

“The Blue Boy” (aka “L'enfant bleu”), 1862, after Thomas Gainsborough’s (1727 - 1788) famous portrait of the same name (c.1770) in the Huntington Library, San Marino (California), first published in “La Gazette des Beaux Arts”, 1867, vol. 13, p. 113 (see https://archive.org/details/gazettedesbeauxa13pari/page/112/) and republished in c.1890 by Imprimerie Charaire et Cie and printed by Chardon-Wittmann (fl.c.1884–1890) in Paris, in Teodor de Wyzewa’s “Les chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art au XIXe siècle”, p. 120 (see https://archive.org/details/leschefsdoeuvred04michuoft/page/120/). This impression is from the later edition.

The fame of Gainsborough’s painting, reputed to be a portrait of Jonathan Buttall (1752–1805) dressed in a manner similar to Van Dyck's portrait of Charles II as a boy in “The Children of King Charles I of England”, 1637, rests to a large part on it representing a refutal of advice (shown below) advocated by his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792)—founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts:

“It ought, in my opinion, to be indispensably observed, that the masses of light in a picture be always of a warm, mellow colour, yellow, red, or a yellowish white, and that the blue, the grey, or the green colours be kept almost entirely out of these masses, and be used only to support or set off these warm colours; and for this purpose, a small proportion of cold colour will be sufficient. Let this conduct be reversed; let the light be cold, and the surrounding colour warm, as we often see in the works of the Roman and Florentine painters, and it will be out of the power of art, even in the hands of Rubens and Titian, to make a picture splendid and harmonious” (see Ronald Sutherland Gower 1903, “Thomas Gainsborough”, G. Bell and Sons. pp. 77–78).

Etching on buff coloured chine collé (China) on heavy wove paper with margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 31.5 x 20.9 cm; (plate) 22.8 x 11.9 cm; (chine collé) 22.4 x 11.7 cm; (image borderline) 19.5 x 11.1 cm.

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (lower right) “Flameng. S.”

Lettered on plate below the image borderline: (left) “Gainsboroug[h] pinx./ Les chefs-d’œuvre _ 75”; (centre) “THE BLUE BOY”; (right) "L. Flameng sc./ “Imp. Chardon-Wittmann.”

Beraldi 102 (Henri Beraldi 1885, “Les Graveurs du dix-neuvième siècle”, vol. 11, p. 162, cat. no. 102); IFF 104 (“Inventaire du Fonds Français: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Estampes”, Paris, 1930).

The British Museum offers a description of this print: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3610817&partId=1&searchText=Flameng+Mme+Devau%25u00e7ay&page=1.

Condition: richly inked and well-printed impression with margins as published. The sheet is in excellent condition but the are faint marks verso.

I am selling this etching by one of the major printmakers of the 19th century of one of Gainsborough’s most famous portraits for [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this superbly executed black and white etching of Gainsborough’s famously blue painting—note how Flameng has shaded the boy’s further back leg with horizontal strokes to set it into shadow—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold