Eighteenth century colour prints : an essay on certain stipple engravers & their work in colour

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EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
COLOUR PRINTS

Un livre est toujours un moyen
de faire un raeilleur livre.

MiCHELET.

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Eighteenth Century Colour

Prints : an Essay on certain
Stipple Engravers ^ their Work
in Colour

COMPILED, ARRANGED, AND WRITTEN BY

JULIA FRANKAU

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MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1906

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First Edition, S^uarto, 1900
Second Edition, S-vo, 1906

College
library

vS5e
PREFACE

A CLOUD of mystery and misunderstanding has
gathered around the eighteenth-century Colour-
Print. The alphabet of the subject is scarcely
classic ; the very words convey different meanings
to different people, and are translated, or mis-
translated, variously. It offers us no system of
orthography to make it clear that " Printer in
Colours" and " Print -Colourer" are not inter-
changeable terms, that the two men had little
or nothing in common, that the same work-
shop could seldom accommodate them both, and
it was impossible for them to share the same
palette. Yet this is the first important lesson
for the student. And after the alphabet the
grammar has to be mastered, the prosody of
the medium, the syntax of the method.

There were certain colours used by the old
printers, the secret of which seems as irretriev-
ably lost as the secret of that wonderful varnish
which plays over a Guarnerius or an Amati.
Many Villaumes in the trade are diligently seek-
ing for it, but up to the present there are some

11S1628

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

tints, flesh tints, that have absolutely escaped, that
are apparently beyond recapture, as fascinating
and elusive as the resin of Straduarius. There are
cognoscenti who affirm that Time is the missing
ingredient, while others maintain that it is the
old paper that makes the essential difference —
the soft " rotted " paper with its uneven surface
and faint sepia tint. But practical workers accept
neither explanation.

That many, even the large majority, of the
prints in question were obviously finished by
hand is a fact which, when acknowledged, does
not give the key to the idiom. Eyes and lips,
draperies and appendages, were accentuated after
the print had left the press. But it was the
purchaser often who made these additions, the
print-colourer sometimes, the printer never. His
colours, mixed with burnt linseed-oil, thick and
pasty, did not accommodate themselves to the
paint-brush. Nor to him must we look for
the painted foregrounds, for the gold ornament,
the brown size, for the " fakements " that
supplemented, or discounted, his honest effects.

The charm and the value of the old colour-
print, however, are due to him alone, to his
light hand and wary, delicate manipulation of
the plate ; to the secret, so carefully guarded, of
his grounds, and the mysteries, never betrayed,
of his mixtures.

To recognise his handiwork is the third
lesson, for the individualising of the printer is
essential to a sympathetic insight into his work.

PREFACE

The later issues from the old plates — there were
many produced early in the last century —
lack all the quality, all the vague, indefinable
charm that distinguished the originals. They
are less crude than the more recent ones, per-
chance, but the tone has vanished.

In simple truth, the colour-printer died with
the stipple-engraver, early victims both, to the
inventive genius of Senefelder, the lithographer.

It is unfortunate that so rare, so charming a
branch of the fine arts should have been per-
mitted to decay without an attempt being made
to trace its genesis or disinter its formulae.
Of all the many virtuosi who have made the
eighteenth century their happy hunting-ground,
not one has, apparently, got upon the scent of
that delicate art of the colour-printer which was
born, which flourished, and decayed within the
last forty fruitful years of the century.

There is no question as to the need of a book
dealing with these old colour-prints, a book that
should be at once an authority for connoisseurs,
and a guide to collectors. Hardly a day passes
in our national treasure-house of this art, the
Print Room of the British Museum, without an
inquiry being made that proves the public in-
terest. Yet on this subject there exists neither
treatise nor tract, neither book nor pamphlet.
Perhaps the insufficient data have stopped the
aspiring historiographer, and, more modest than
I, he has hesitated to tell the little he knows.

But the story of the short-lived union of

vii

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

engraver with colour-printer is full of interest.
It is the only phase in the history of chalco-
graphy, from the time when Ugo da Carpi
made his first experiment in chiaroscuro, to a
recent day when Mr. Theodore Roussel made
his latest in colour-etching, that has escaped the
attention of experts and print - lovers, or, at
least, has eluded their pens. From the Floren-
tine engravers of the fifteenth century to the
engravers of the present day, whether in line,
mezzotint, stipple, or aquatint, every school has
had its advocate, every great Grecian his Homer.
Only the Iliad of the Colour-Printer has remained
unsung.

I am venturing, perhaps with foolhardiness,
into the gap. I do not propose to compete with
bibliographers or poets, lacking the admirable
patience of the one and the gifted inspiration
of the other. But, being an enthusiast and a
modest collector, I offer, to those whose pursuits
and inclinations are sympathetic with my own,
a short resume of the little that is on record of
the art of printing copper-plate engravings in
colour, from the inception of the idea to its
grand climacteric.

I apologise in advance for all that I have
omitted, and all that I have included. The sub-
ject-matter proved engrossing, and it was difficult
to confine it within a narrow area. Colour-print-
ing, once introduced, was practised in connection
with every description of the engraver's art, line
work by Hogarth and Strange, mezzotints by

viii

PREFACE

M'Ardell and Dawe, mixed methods by Bartolozzi
and Mather Brown. Yet, to have attempted
anything like a complete account of eighteenth-
century engravings would have necessitated tra-
versing ground already admirably covered by
Beraldi and Duplessis, Redgrave and Bryan,
Fielding, and, more recently, by Mr. Tuer ; it
would have been a task far beyond my ambi-
tion and my capacity. Even a cursory glance
through the work of stipple -engravers alone,
and the painters who inspired them, might well
comprehend a survey of the Georgian era, of
contemporary manners and morals, the subtle-
ties of Court intrigues, and the intricate details
of political imbroglios, not only in England but
in France. For all these and much more, did
the engravers and the colour-printers who worked
with them, illustrate with burin and rubber.

The inclination to linger and gossip about a
period so near to, and yet so far removed from, our
own, so eventful, so pregnant, was strong ; but I
have tried, successfully I dare to think, to be
desultory within reasonable limit. Gillray and
Rowlandson, for instance, have had their bio-
grapher ; and although no essay on eighteenth-
century colour-prints would be possible without
mention of these artists, I have never taken any
special interest in their work, and have omitted
them from my pages as from my own collec-
tion. Personal predilection, I admit, has also
been responsible for more notable exclusions.

I started my own collection of colour-prints

ix b

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

in the most amateurish manner. I bought one
or two because they looked well between a
tall grandfather's-clock and an oak dresser full
of " blue " ; a few more because they were
illustrative of events, personages, or anecdotes
with which I had grown familiar in the pages
of Mrs. Delany or Walpole, Fanny Burney or
Huish. Then followed, as the charm grew, a
specimen or so of fine stipple- engraving, and,
finally, some examples valued only for the tone
and balance of the printing.

It was through this indiscriminate collecting,
nevertheless, that I became aware gradually it
was a new language I was learning, a limited,
lisping baby-tongue, perhaps, but full of music,
a babble chorusing the epithalamium of printer
and engraver. And, as the language became more
and more familiar to me, so did its restrictions
become more distinct and definite. I learned that
it could express a ballade, but not an epic ; a
villanelle, but not a threnody.

I began to perceive the value and relation of
the stippling to the delicacy of the result attained,
and rapidly to realise that an engraving printed
in other than brown, or black, or bistre, was an
engraving spoilt, if it had originally been exe-
cuted in line, etching, mezzotint, or woodcut.
Without the stippling, the song was out of tune,
the diction harsh, the phrasing abrupt.

In this view I know I differ from many good
judges, and from many interested friends, who
treasure mezzotint work in colours, after Rey-

PREFACE

nolds and Morland, Romney and Hoppner, with
admiration and even enthusiasm. They do not
miss the subtle undercurrent of sound, or note
the absence of sympathetic gradation.

I must admit, however, that I have rarely
seen pure colour- printed mezzotints. Almost
invariably, upon investigation, I have found that
the most highly priced and valued specimens
have been finished by hand, the details added or
altered on the print itself; and these alterations,
rather than the art of the colour-printer, have
been the source of admiration. And I am certain
this disillusionment is inevitable. For the rocked
ground of a well -laid mezzotint plate is not
suited for colour, the lights and the shades come
out with the wrong values, the engraver's
intention is spoilt, and the painter's effect not
produced, while the printer has, as it were,
become tongue-tied.

I want to make my creed clear to my readers
at the very outset of my book. For, if they are
prepared to disagree, it is at least as well that
they should have placed clearly before them the
formula with which to quarrel. That creed,
that dogma, is — that the printing in colour of
copper -plate engravings was an art invaluable
only to the stipple- engravers, adding to the
sweetness, detracting nothing from the grace
that was always the greatest of their charms,
giving depth where depth was greatly needed,
and, above all things, warmth to a method
deficient chiefly in that quality.

xi

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

And though the colour-printer was a wonder-
ful accompanist to the stipple-engraver, I would
further lay it down as an axiom that both artist
and accompanist went outside the limits of their
talents when they attacked a large plate. The
twin art practised by them, closely approximated
to that of the " painters in little," is successful
and beautiful the nearer it approaches the art
of the miniature-painter ; the further it departs
from this ideal, the coarser and more ineffective
is the result.

Admitting then my contention that only the
stipple -engraving carries eloquently its need of
colour, and repays its application, it will be
seen that the zenith of the united arts is to
be found between 1768, when the unfortunate
Ryland made the so-called " chalk manner "
fashionable, and 1 802, when Bartolozzi, old and
broken, crept back to Portugal to die in poverty
and obscurity, forgotten by the school he had
founded and neglected by the print -dealers he
had enriched. It is to these full years that we
owe the fascinating miniature-like portraits and
figure-subjects, which, by reason of their intrinsic
beauty, no less than by the vagaries of fashion,
are now justly exciting the cupidity of collectors
and the attention of art-lovers. These years saw
Bartolozzi, Burke, and Collyer at their best ;
Gaugain, Tomkins, Jones, in excelsis.

It is really necessary, in order to understand
fully the value of these prints from an historic
and anecdotic as well as from an aesthetic point

xii

PREFACE

of view, to consider a little the period in which
they were produced.

The utter artistic stagnation characterising
that tumultuous period of English history which
ushered in the reigns of the four Georges had
given way to an activity little short of marvel-
lous. England, hitherto ignored and despised for
her artistic productions, England that had been
obliged to look abroad not only for her portrait-
painters but for her landscapists, having only a
Walker and a Dobson to oppose to a Vandyck,
while she could not boast even a fifth-rate Cuyp,
suddenly awoke to a sense of her responsibilities,
suddenly answered to the call of her prosperity.

The Incorporated Society of Artists, faction-
torn and divided under such men as Michael
Moser and Paul Sandby, grew, in the passing of
a night, into the virility of the Royal Academy
under the patronage of the third George, under
the presidency of Sir Joshua Reynolds. And
from the date of the birth of the Royal Academy,
for fifty glorious years, the artists, working boldly
under the aegis of the throne, luxuriantly and
brilliantly emblazoned the cold north with the
tropical magnificence that had passed from Italy
and Spain. These were the years of Reynolds
and Gainsborough, Romney and Hoppner, Wilson,
Lawrence, and Wright of Derby ; it was the era
when the art of English landscape was to be
found, and the comparatively new one oi gouache
painting was to be pursued.

In the wake of the great artists followed

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the great mezzotint engravers ; M'Ardell and
Valentine Green, J. R. Smith and Earlom, trans-
lated the painters into language which the
cultured read with avidity.

But the stipple-engravers appealed to a larger
public. The age was no less great in politics and
in literature than in art, Pitt and Fox were rivals
in the Senate, the eloquence of Burke and Sheri-
dan rang in the ears of the people, Johnson still
rolled his eccentric gait and magnificent periods
in the neighbourhood of Fleet Street and the
Mitre, Goldsmith and Gibbon were writing
their way in among the immortals, Horace
Walpole was carefully penning his fascinating
letters. Although Pope was dead and Byron
hardly yet living, the memory of the one lingered
in that wonderful coterie that surrounded the
hospitable table of the President of the Academy,
and here also the rich soil was preparing to
fructify the other.

It was indeed a wonderful period. I have
apologised already for being discursive, but the
temptation to dwell upon the society which,
luxurious, immoral, and brilliant, in high feathers
and big hoops, in powder and in patches, walked
in the Mall, gambled at Lady Archer's, danced
at Ranelagh and Vauxhall, and masqueraded at
Mrs. Cornelys', would be irresistible even to a
Hume. The Burney Diaries, the Selwyn Letters,
the Garrick Papers, the Memoirs of poor "Perdita,"
rush so easily to the memory that it is difficult
to pursue a single aim.

xiv

PREFACE

The social history of the time is inextric-
ably mingled with the old colour-prints. The
artists, histrionic, pictorial, and plastic, clamour-
ing for notice from Sir Joshua, shouted to him
the gossip almost before the wits had time to
write their lampoons. The caricaturists aided
the polemicists. But the stipple-engravers, with
their quick and easy methods, were the real
society-journals of the day, the real mirror of
society's taste.

Those were days rent with political convul-
sions, pregnant with events which in their final
happenings gave England the command of the
sea ; tempestuous, restless days. Yet, notwith-
standing revolt and irreparable defeat in America,
rebellion in Ireland, wars with France, Spain,
and Holland, constant campaigning in India, and
a reign of terror close to our shores ; notwith-
standing political and social conflicts at home,
the arts flourished and literature became enriched.

In an England scarcely recovered from the
Stuarts, and still torpid from the phlegm and
accent of the earlier Hanoverians, this remark-
able artistic revival wrote contemporary history
in a hundred new forms, wrote its sociology and
ridiculed its foibles. Nollekens rivalled Flaxman
in the wonders of his modelling ; Chippendale
competed with Sheraton in guiding the curves
and fashions of our furniture ; beauty grew
familiar, and ornament part of the daily life of
the nation. The century rolled majestically to
its close, gathering impetus with its splendour,

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

breaking gloriously on the shores of Time, and
its multitudinous voice was Form. But the
Song of Colour was in the wind that blew the
glittering spray along.

On this great art-wave that flooded our land
in the reign of the third George ; on the wave
which at its flood gave us Reynolds, and at its ebb
Turner ; the colour - print was the foam that
whitened softly its crest. The debris of that
wave, the very wreckage in its wake, is as rich
and rare as the shells brought to the surface by
deep-sea dredging. There are artistic pearls of
great price in it, and strange, quaint reminiscences.

This may not be a great art, this art
left to us by the refluent wave, and found
entangled in the sand and seaweed of oblivious
years ; but through its delicate aid " Mrs.
Clarke " lolls again impudently on her couch,
red-lipped, black-eyed, fair-skinned, and lures to
their undoing princes and potentates ; " Mrs.
Robinson" fascinates us no less than she fasci-
nated her faithless " Florizel " ; " Master Betty,"
" Lunardi the Aeronaut," and " Topham Beau-
clerk," the exquisite, the friend of Johnson, the
wit and the libertine, reawaken to life. " Mrs.
DuflF" and the "Linleys " in strange juxtaposition,
the virtuous " Mrs. Siddons " and the frail " Mrs.
Crouch," the beautiful "Duchess of Devonshire"
and " Emma " of the many histories, smile back
at us through the century in all the charms of
their mingled talent and beauty.

So rich and so rare is this debris that the

PREFACE

difficulty in forming a representative collection
without excluding others equally representative,
perhaps still more rare, is the first to be over-
come by an aspiring amateur. A hundred points
of interest, legitimately aroused, continually
arrest attention and demand recognition. The
interchange of thought between colour-printer
and engraver, the way the one had to interpret
and the other to invent, the proportion of
responsibility, the infinite variety in impressions,
the difficulties of classifying and comparing
" states," are, perhaps, among the least of these.
The pursuit of the artist in the printer is not
always successful ; he played Jekyll and Hyde
to the infinite bewilderment of his Boswell ; he
had a distracting habit of signing his worst work.
The inscription "printed in colours by . . ."
which occurs on many large plates is almost a
synonym for crudity. And although tongue-
tied and crippled by their medium, the best men
did nevertheless sometimes paint a mezzotint
plate successfully ; to the distraction of judgment
and the confusion of taste. The dogma of the
natural selection between stipple-engraving and
colour-printing has to be kept prominently in
view to prevent an admiring side glance at a fine
impression of " The Angling Party," or an
envious one at " Lady Hamilton as Nature."

There were nearly three hundred stipple-
engravers at work during the last forty years
of the eighteenth century ; scarcely one of them
who did not at one time or another have recourse

xvii

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

to the colour - printer ; scarcely fifty of them
devoid of talent or interest either in themselves
or their subjects ; scarcely half of them that
do not deserve a position in a representative
collection.

My book is written for the amateur and not for
the expert. I learned what little I know without
a text-book or a formula. All my sisters and
brothers in the Cult of the Colour-Print were
steering, like myself, when I started, through
the shallows and backwaters of sale-rooms and
curiosity-shops, without a compass. But when
they knew that it was my wish to be a pilot,
then one and all extended to me a generous
sympathy, an untiring help, without which it
would have been impossible to realise my desire,
howsoever inadequately. Never has a hazardous
undertaking enjoyed more encouragement from
the outset to the close ; and the only flaw in
my gratitude is the fear lest rny work should
be found unworthy of all the kindness and help
I have received.

Prominent amongst the many friends of the
book, I should like to mention Mr. Harland-
Peck, whose wide experience has been as open
to me personally as his fine and varied collection
has been for the purpose of the work ; Major
Coates, of Thrale's Hall, Ewell ; Lord Burton,
the late Sir Henry Irving, Mrs. Lionel Phillips,
Mr. Henry Percy Home, and Mr. Frederick
Behrens.

And it is not only in facilities for cataloguing

xviii

PREFACE

and examining prints that I have been materially
assisted. To the industry, enthusiasm, and
research of the late Mr. Hull, of the Prints and
Drawings Department of the British Museum,
I owe much. Mr. Emery Walker, and Mr.
Haward, of the firm of Messrs. Brooker and
Company, have placed their unique technical
knowledge entirely at my disposal.

Nothing then remains but to see if the Press
is as tolerant in its judgment as the collectors
were generous in their help. All I have hoped
to do is to add something of classification to the
general knowledge of a subject fraught with
peculiar difficulty but no less peculiar charm. It
is in this hope, and the further one that I shall
interest even if I am unable to instruct, that I
somewhat diffidently lay my work of love before
the public.

XIX

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

The early history of engraving and its paucity of record —
The story of the Cunios — Giulio Campagnola and his
stipple-work at the end of the fifteenth century

CHAPTER II

Chiaroscuro the first step to Colour- Printing — The earliest
Chiaroscuro Engraver : Ugo da Carpi, his right to the
title, his history, and the source of his inspiration . . 24

CHAPTER III

Early Colour-Prints — Sulphurs, Paste Prints, and Emboitage :
all fifteenth-century experiments — Andrea Andrcani's
Chiaroscuros in the sixteenth century — Hercules
Zeghcr's experiments in Colour-Printing in the seven-
teenth century — Johannes Teyler and his wonderful
book, produced at the end of the seventeenth century,
of line-engravings printed in colours from one plate . 50

CHAPTER IV

Jakob Christoph Le Blon, his life and his invention of Colour-
Printing mezzotints — His process described, and its
evolution from Chiaroscuro traced — His influence on
contemporary engravers — Coloritto .... 69
xxi

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

CHAPTER V

PAUB

Le Blon's influence at work — Colour-Printing in England in
the first half of the eighteenth century — Elisha Kirkall
— Jakob and Jan L' Admiral — The Gautier D'Agotys —
John Skippe — Pond and Knapton — John Baptist Jack-
son, the last of the experimentalists .... 92

CHAPTER VI

The meeting of Stipple- Engraving and Colour-Printing in
France — Jean Fran9ois and his artistic relationship to
Jan Lutma — William Wynne Ryland's journey to Paris,
his meeting with Fran9ois — Imitations of Chalk Draw-
ings after Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard, printed in
colours from one plate under the inspiration of Comte
de Caylus — The method finds little favour in France and
is brought to England by Ryland, where it is at once
firmly established in public favour for the reproduction
of Water- Colour Drawings by Angelica KauiFmann —
Ryland's career and execution, and the true story of his
supposed confession . . . . . . .ill

CHAPTER VII

The state of manufactures in England previous to the intro-
duction of machinery — Furniture, China, Paper — The
prosperity of the middle classes and their desire for the
beautifying of their homes — The art of Stipple-Engraving
explained — The art of Colour-Printing Stipple-Engrav-
ings described — The existence of Colour-Prints in proof
state queried and confirmed . . . .137

CHAPTER VIII

Bartolozzi — His character as a man and its effect upon his
reputation as an artist — Some representative prints
described, and a short list given of other desirable speci-
mens of his Colour-Printed stipple-work . . .156
xxii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX

The Stipple-Engravers and their works — Burke, Cheesman,

Collyer, Conde, Dickinson, Gaugain, Hogg . . .169

CHAPTER X

Jones, Knight, Marcuard, Nutter, Schiavonetti, J. R. Smith,

Thew 198

CHAPTER XI

Tomkins, Chas. Turner, W. Ward, Thos. Watson, White,

Wilkin ......... 224

CHAPTER XII
Other Stipple-Engravers — .-Apologia and Conclusion 249

INDICES 291

XXIIl

CHAPTER I

The early history of engraving and its paucity of record — The story
of the Cunios — Giulio Campagnola and his stipple-work at the
end of the fifteenth century.

The art of engraving is at least as old as the story
of Moses. The art of transferring engravings from
gem or metal to material or paper came into vogue
about the fifteenth century. There is a mass of
evidence, with which, however, I do not intend
to weary my readers, as to the exact date of the
discovery. How it branched off into typography,
and evolved from wood-blocks to metal-plates,
from line to mezzotint, mezzotint to stipple,
stipple to aquatint, is equally beyond my scope.
In the pages of Vasari and Bartsch the battle of
Chalcography in its primary stages is fought out
under the respective banners of Maso Finiguerra
and Albrecht Diirer. The curious in chrono-
logy will find further gratification in Heinecken,
Ottley, and Zani. Papillon, who contradicts
most of what the others affirm, but who is always
vivid and entertaining as an author, however
unreliable as a man, will add the necessary zest
to the study.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

It is incidentally interesting to note that
nearly every engraver of worth became emulous
at one time or another of the painter's effects,
and that almost every experiment in engraving
was followed by an attempt to get colour into
the work by direct methods. In order, there-
fore, to trace the progress of colour-printing,
it is essential not to lose sight of the steps of
the engraver. Although engraving and colour-
printing never really dovetailed until the stipple
joined them, the dream of such a happy union
was the mirage in the sandy desert of the
years between the Renaissance and the eighteenth
century, actuating alike the chiaroscurist and the
printer.

One sees an art through the medium of a
temperament, and mine being rather imaginative
than studious, the personalities of these old
engravers and colour-printers have engrossed my
attention and interest, to the exclusion of the
obscure points raised by different writers as to
the exact month, in the exact year, in which
they made their various experiments. I no
less than Whistler have scant sympathy with
the art critic who considers a date an accom-
plishment, and is satisfied when he has filed
the fifteenth century and pigeon-holed the
antique.

It is for this reason that the early specimens
of engraving, stipple - engraving, and colour-
printing have appeared to me, primarily, as so
many illustrations of the histories of the Cunios,

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

of Giulio Campagnola and Ottavio Leoni, of Ugo
da Carpi, Andreani, and Teyler. I have skimmed
the pages of the authorities above quoted, and
culled from them that which has guided me in
the order of the following pages. But I have
not blindly followed their lead, and have searched
outside accepted authority for details of more than
one romantic career. The footprints of these
pioneers of Xylography and Chalcography are so
faint, the scent is so often lost, that to trace them
has all the excitement of a hunt. I hope I shall
enable my readers to share some of the pleasures
of this delightful chase.

The Cunios, for instance, have eluded pursuit so
often, that a large number of print-collectors, and
writers upon prints, have discarded them as mere
myths ! Yet to me the Cunios are more real,
more certain, and more living than the sceptics
who have doubted them. That their story, if
its veracity be admitted, demolishes the claims
of Germany to have been first in the field of
Xylography, and gives the coveted place to Italy,
the legitimate pioneer of the Arts, has never
been a stumbling-block to my belief in it. It
also puts back the date of the discovery of
wood -engraving two centuries, and leaves us
that period with its use apparently in abeyance.
But that the Chinese antedated Europe in this
discovery is, in any case, beyond question.

The story of the two Cunios resembles, in its
spiritual essence, the story of *' Li Amitiez de
Ami et Amile " in the Bibliotheque Elzevirienne.

3

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

It has the strain of the troubadours in it, and the
romanticism that forges another connecting link
between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
It was first related by Papillon, the son of that
Jean Baptiste Papillon who is familiar to the
inquirers into eighteenth-century products from
his dispute with Jackson for the credit of having
invented, or adapted, the use of wood-block
printing for paper-hangings.

Jean Baptiste Michel Papillon tells us that in
the year 171 9 he was sent by his father to the
village of Bagneaux, near Mont Rouge, to paper
a room for Monsieur De Greder. He papered
the room for him, and he was then asked to
paste certain coloured papers, in imitation of
mosaic, between the shelves of the library. M.
De Greder, on going into the room to see
how the work progressed, found the young
paper-hanger had abandoned the task and was
occupied instead in poring over an ancient Latin
tome. He asked the lad what it was he found
to interest him in a book which it seemed im-
possible he could understand. Of course it was
the engravings and not the letterpress which had
caught the attention of the young artisan. I omit
the description of the prints, as they are to be
found in all the authorities previously named.

Young Papillon had been brought up in a
family of wood-engravers. Three generations of
them were at the very moment engaged in various
branches of the art. It had been part of their
education, indeed it was a family creed, that

4

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

wood-engraving was first practised in Germany,
or the Low Countries, and that the 141 8
"Virgin" in the Brussels Library, or the 1423
" St. Christopher," furnished the first authentic
example. Yet here was a set of Italian engrav-
ings, obviously taken from wood, with an inscrip-
tion nearly two centuries earlier ! What wonder
that the lad ceased from his uninteresting pasting
and hung with absorbed attention over the
prints.

They were eight in number, including the
cartouche, or frontispiece, and the inscription,
engraved in bad Latin, or ancient Gothic Italian,
ran as follows : —

The Heroic Actions : represented by Figures of the
Great and Magnanimous Macedonian King the Bold
AND Valorous Alexander : dedicated, presented, and humbly
offered to the Most Holy Father, Pope Honorius IV., the
Glory and support of the Church, and to our illustrious and
generous Father and Mother, by us, Alessandro Alberico
CuNio Cavalliere and Isabella Cunio, twin brother and
sister. First reduced, imagined, and attempted to be executed
in relief with a small knife on blocks of wood made thin, and
polished by this dear and learned sister. Continued and finished
by us at Ravenna. There are eight pictures of our invention
painted six times larger than here represented, engraved, explained
by verse and thus marked on the paper to perpetuate the number
of them, and to enable us to present them to our relations and
friends in testimony of gratitude, friendship, and affection. All
this was done and finished by us when only sixteen years old.

The date of the engravings was 1284. The
book in which they were found had the follow-
ing legend, badly written in old Swiss characters,
with ink so pale as to be scarcely legible : —

5

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

This precious book was given to my grandfather Jan. Jacq.
Turine, a native of Berne, by the illustrious Count de Cunio,
Magistrate, who honoured him with his friendship.

Of all the books I possess I esteem it the most, on account
of the quarter from whence it came into our family, the science,
the valour, and the beauty of the amiable twins Cunio, and
their noble and generous intention of thus gratifying their
relatives and friends. Behold their singular and curious history
in the manner in which it was several times related to me by
my venerable father and according to which I have caused it to
be written more legibly than I myself could have done it.

Here follows the history, which I have slightly
compressed, leaving, however, as far as possible,
the archaic words and expressions of the ancient
chronicler.

The young and amiable Cunios, twin brother
and sister, were the first children of the son of
Count de Cunio, by a noble and beautiful Vene-
tian lady connected with the family of Pope
Honorius IV. The young nobleman espoused
the young lady clandestinely, without the know-
ledge of the relations of either of them. When,
through her pregnancy, the affair was discovered,
these relations caused the marriage to be annulled,
and the priest who had married the two lovers
to be banished. The unfortunate lady, fearing
equally the anger of her father and her father-
in-law, took refuge in the house of one of her
aunts, where she was delivered of these twins.

Count de Cunio forced his son to espouse
another more richly endowed lady, but he per-
mitted him to take these children and bring
them up in his own house, which was done
with every instruction and tenderness possible.

6

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The son's new wife conceived such an affection
for the children that she loved and cherished
Isabella as if she had been her own daughter,
loving equally Alessandro Alberico Cunio, the
brother. They were both full of talent and of
a most amiable disposition. They made rapid
advance in the various sciences, and at thirteen
years of age Isabella was already considered a
prodigy. She perfectly understood and read
Latin, composed verses, had acquired a know-
ledge of Geometry, was skilful in Music, and
played upon several instruments ; moreover she
was practised in Drawing, and painted with
taste and delicacy.

Her brother, urged on by her example, en-
deavoured to equal her, often, however, acknow-
ledging that he could not attain so high a degree
of perfection. He himself, nevertheless, became
one of the finest young men in Italy ; he
equalled his sister in beauty of person, and pos-
sessed great courage, elevation of soul, and an
uncommon degree of facility in acquiring and
perfecting himself in whatever he applied him-
self to. They became the delight of the house-
hold, and they loved each other so perfectly that
the pleasure or chagrin of the one or of the
other was shared between them.

His father having, in consequence of the
troubles of Italy, taken up arms, was induced
by the repeated solicitations of this valorous
youth to allow him to make his first campaign
when he was but fourteen. He was entrusted

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

with the command of a squadron of twenty-five
horse, with which in his first essay he attacked,
routed, and put to flight, after a vigorous resist-
ance, some 200 of the enemy. But his courage
having carried him too far, he unexpectedly
found himself surrounded by many of the fugi-
tives, from whom, notwithstanding, with a valour
not to be equalled, he succeeded in disengaging
himself without sustaining any other injury than
that of a wound in his left arm. His father,
who had flown anxiously to his succour, found
him returning with one of the standards of the
enemy, with which he had bound up his wound.
He embraced him, full of delight at this glorious
achievement, and at the same time, as his wound
was not considerable, and as he was desirous of
rewarding such bravery upon the spot, he
solemnly made him a knight, dubbing him in
the same place where he had given such great
proof of his extraordinary valour. The young
man was so transported with joy at this honour,
bestowed on him in the presence of the troops
commanded by his father, that, wounded as he
was, he instantly demanded permission to go and
see his mother, to inform her of the glory
and of the honour that he had just acquired.
This was granted the more readily, because, his
grandfather being dead, the Count de Cunio was
glad to take the opportunity of testifying to the
dear and deserted lady (who had always remained
with her aunt a few miles from Ravenna) the
love and esteem which he ever continued to

8

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

entertain for her. He certainly would have
given her more solid proof, by re-establishing
their marriage and publicly espousing her, had
he not felt it his duty to cherish the w^ife his
father had obliged him to marry, and who had
brought up their children so devotedly.

The young knight therefore immediately set
out, escorted by the remnant of his troop, out of
which ten men had been killed or wounded.
With this equipage and these attendants, who
bore testimony to his valour wherever he passed,
he arrived at the residence of his mother, with
whom he stayed two days, after which he re-
paired to Ravenna to show a similar mark of
respect to the wife of his father. This lady was
so charmed by his noble actions, as well as by
his attentions towards her, that she herself led
him by the hand to the apartment of his amiable
sister Isabella, who, seeing him with his arm
bound up, was at first alarmed, but easily re-
assured.

It was during the time that he was resting at
home, in order that his arm might be perfectly
healed, that he and Isabella began to compose
and execute the pictures of the actions of Alex-
ander.

He then made a second campaign with his
father, and was again wounded ; after which he
returned and worked upon the pictures, con-
jointly with Isabella, who applied herself to
reduce them, and to engrave them on blocks of
wood. After they had finished and printed these

9

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

pieces, and presented them to Pope Honorius
IV., and to their other relations and friends,
Alessandro again joined the army, this time
accompanied by a young nobleman called Pan-
dulfio, who, having become enamoured of the
lovely and brilliant Isabella, v^as desirous of
distinguishing himself that he might become
worthy of her hand. But this campaign, alas I
was fatal to the Cavaliere Cunio. He fell,
covered with wounds, by the side of his friend,
who, whilst attempting to defend him, was also
dangerously wounded.

Isabella was so much affected by the death of
her brother, which happened when she was
barely nineteen, that she languished and died
before she had completed her twentieth year.

The death of this beautiful and learned young
lady was followed by that of her lover, and also
by that of her mother, who could not survive
the loss of her beloved children.

This quaint and typical narrative has too
much in it recommending it to credence for it
to be lightly dismissed. If it be not true, it
deserves to be. It is charming to see the twin
brother and sister, the one so valorous, the other
so cultured, assisting each other in perpetuating
these deeds of bravery. But one suspects that
Isabella did most of the work, whilst, with
aching heart and anxious thoughts, she followed
in imagination her brother to the seat of war.
Alessandro may have only assisted her in the
placing of the men, in the outlines of the arms

lO

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and helmets. It is not unlikely that his was the
slower wit, that he neither invented nor executed
with his sister's facility, but only stood by, in
picturesque costume, with his wounded arm in
a sling, suggesting alterations, commenting, and
criticising. It was expressive of her amiable char-
acter to give him half the credit ; but who shall
say whether it was due to him ? He was chival-
rous and brave ; it was a fine thought of his to
go first to his own mother, unhappy and deserted
lady, to relate to her the story of his exploits.

I believe that the pictures awaited him on his
return to Ravenna, that Isabella had executed
them for his surprise and pleasure, and that
only later, when the confinement consequent on
his wounds became irksome, the idea of trans-
ferring them to wood and from wood to paper,
and presenting the impressions to their friends,
was suggested by her to wile the weary time
away. It is possible he executed the drawings,
and she cut the blocks during his next absence.
It was during his third and last sojourn at home
that they transferred the impressions laboriously,
after inking the blocks, by rubbing the back of
the paper with their hands.

I see the two eager heads bending over the
paper, full of enthusiasm and excitement in
the new game, as unconscious that they are
making history as two children playing in the
nursery. To believe that the whole pretty
story is a figment of Papillon's imagination
is absurd ; such a possibility seems to me

II

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

far more inherently incredible than the story
itself.

Although, as I have said, it is no part of
my purpose to follow the history of engraving
through the thirteenth or the fifteenth century
in its various stages of evolution and develop-
ment, to sift evidence or collate example, it has
interested me to search for the germ of the
seed, of w^hich the charming flowers are my
Eighteenth-Century Colour-Prints. And to me
at least, since I read the story, that germ has
always been in the rough wood-blocks of the
two Cunios. I like to think of that fair Italian
maiden fashioning with her delicate hands the
first faint phantom of the colour-print, and her
fragrant memory hovers over my collection and
lends it additional charm.

Then having paid my tribute to Isabella, two
other figures detach themselves from the misty
past and seem to take form and substance about
my portfolios : the first Stipple-Engraver and the
first Chiaroscuro - Engraver. They are both
Italians ; there were no Germans, no Dutch
amongst those ghosts of the portfolio, until
Johannes " Speculatie " from Nymegen, won his
place in Rome, and kept it in Holland.

The first Stipple-Engraver was Giulio Cam-
pagnola, sculptor and scholar, artist and musician,
noble inheritor of Isabella's inspiration, himself
another and yet more prodigious prodigy, a lad
of such brave parts that before he is fourteen
Titian welcomes him in his studio, Matteo Bosso

12

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

exhausts panegyric in writing of his achieve-
ments, and almost ere he has reached manhood
Hercules I. bids him to that marvellous Court
of Ferrara, v^here all the arts are encouraged and
all the artists find patrons.

And the first Chiaroscuro-Engraver was Ugo
da Carpi, whose tragic story seems to deepen the
lines of his harsh face, and to bow, with peculiar
sadness and humiliation, the hunchbacked figure.

As the engraving was prior to the press-work,
and Campagnola gave us the stipple, whilst poor
Ugo's chiaroscuros only affected the printing, I
give the former the first place in my narration.

It is my view that the stippled copper-plate
was the legitimate successor to La Maniere
Criblee or Opus Mallet found in the very earliest
engravings, ha Maniere Criblee is a mode of
engraving in which the subject is worked out
with a varied combination of dots, lines, and
scratches, detaching themselves white from a
black ground, assisted by lines and scratches
detaching themselves black from a white
ground. Famous controversies have raged round
the prints executed in this manner. Whether
they are wood-blocks or metal-plates ; whether
they have been engraved in relief or intaglio ;
whether they have been punched or cut .? Those
I have seen, notably an early fifteenth-century
" Book of Hours," with the figures in white line
and the background black, with stars and dots
and tiny scratches printed white, certainly suggest
wood ; but others again leave the question more

13

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

doubtful. What is certain is that Giulio Cam-
pagnola, living in the midst of the most artistic
and cultured society of Padua, and proceeding
from there straight to such an art-centre as
Ferrara under Hercules I., must have seen these
criblee prints, and may have been indebted to
them for the strange use to which he put his
graving tool.

The family of Campagnola was one of the
oldest in Padua. Giulio's father, Girolamo
Campagnola, held high office in the State of
Venice, and was eminent among his contempo-
raries for his great learning and exemplary life.
He was the author of several works, amongst
them an Italian translation of the Psalms of
David, a 'Dissertation on the Jews^ some poetry,
and two volumes bearing the titles of T)e Laude
Virginitatis and De Proverbiis Vulgaribus. He
was not only versed in philosophy and literature,
but, like most high-born Italians of this era, was
deeply interested in antique, as well as con-
temporary, art. Among his intimates were
Leonico Tomeo and Pietro Bembo, both inde-
fatigable collectors and connoisseurs of reputation.
At one time Girolamo seems to have had the
idea of writing or compiling a history of the
Art-Treasures of Padua ; and had even com-
menced it, in the form of a series of letters to
Tomeo. Vasari quotes from the work passages
which serve to indicate that the author had an
exaggerated view of the claims of Mantegna.
The work was abandoned, probably when the

14

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

tragic death of Giulio dashed to the ground the
many hopes and dreams that had centred around
him, and seemed to destroy the energies, and
render futile the ambitions, of his eminent
father. For Giulio had been his father's com-
panion when the elder Campagnola had been
busy in the libraries and studios of Padua, that
fair city " gemmed with gardens, set in green
meadows."

The brilliant lad of whom Matteo Bosso, his
godfather, wrote so enthusiastically to Hector
Theophanes, had acquired Greek and Latin
before he was thirteen, and was " so familiar
with Hebrew that he might have assimilated its
principles with his mother's milk." Everything
he learned he remembered, everything he saw he
was eager to copy. In addition to acquiring his
knowledge of languages, he drew and painted,
and modelled and executed bas-reliefs ; in the
intervals he taught himself " to play the lute,
he sang and he wrote and composed verses."
The only thing this pioneer in stipple-engraving
seems not to have done in those brilliant youth-
ful days at Padua was to engrave !

Little or nothing of these early works of his
has descended to us, and it seems possible that
his contemporaries, led away by his gaiety and
charms, by his grave father's delight and pride
in him, by a hundred personal graces and a never-
failing wit, overrated the talents that were so
bewildering in their multifariousness. The pride
these most learned citizens of Padua took in the

15

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

phenomenal boy bubbled over in their letters
and records. We find the precise and religious
Matteo Bosso placing on record his opinion that :
" Giulio Campagnola may rival his greatest
masters — there are no pictures, however perfect,
of Mantegna or of Bellini which he cannot faith-
fully reproduce. ... As to living people, he can
render them so vividly and with such perfect
expression that it is impossible not to recognise
every feature of the subjects. ... If God should
see fit to grant him a long career, if his ardour
does not cool and he only fulfils the intention of
Providence, who has dealt out her gifts to him
with such lavish hand, this youth, whom many
old men of renown might well envy, will be the
pride, not only of his father but of his country.
A ray of his renown will, perhaps, even be
reflected upon me, for he is also my cherished
son, my son in God. His father, in the exercise
of his duty as a magistrate, had brought him
with him to Ravenna, when I saw him, and
although we had little conversation together, he
impressed me in an extraordinary manner. I do
not ignore the fact that children do not always
fulfil their promise, and I should perhaps reserve
my prophecy for a safer age ; but when I think
of all this young man intends and has achieved,
I cannot help becoming enthusiastic. ... If ever
father was worthy of such an offspring, assuredly
it is Girolamo, who has brought him up with
such assiduous care in order that he may carry
out the traditions of his illustrious family."

i6

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

I have given a free translation of this letter,
because it was probably on the strength of it
that Hercules first sent for the young pheno-
menon to the Court of Ferrara. Hercules spared
no effort in his desire to draw to his Court the
most distinguished men of the Peninsula. And
it did not matter to him in what direction
Giulio's talents might ultimately develop ; he
would be able to find employment for him. If
languages were his forte, there were recently
discovered Greek and Latin masters to translate
into the vernacular ; if architecture, Hercules
was devoting a great deal of time and thought
to the adornment of his chapel, — already it
was said to be the finest in Italy, and musicians,
specially imported from France, made its services
notable. Also he was adorning the courts and
staircases of his delightful palace near the Cathe-
dral with wonderful sculpture, and with marble
fountains, and he was ornamenting the oratories
of several Brotherhoods with frescoes.

It is difficult to learn in what capacity Giulio
was first received at the Court, whether as savant,
musician, or artist, and what was his position in
the midst of the illustrious men brought together
by the Prince, — whether the reputation that had
preceded him made them doubtful of his claims,
so exaggerated, so phenomenal ; whether he was
accepted as an equal or laughed at as an impostor.
His name is not mentioned by the most pro-
minent historians of the day. Giambastista,
Geraldi, Muratori, and Bartoli ignore him

17 c

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

unanimously. Yet it is assuredly an irony of
fate that of all that he achieved, or that was
claimed for him in Padua, so little remains, and
that his fame, for us at least, rests upon the deli-
cate stipple-engravings he executed at Ferrara, of
which there is no contemporary comment.

His career must have been comet-like in its
brilliancy and its sudden eclipse. A sonnet on
the death of Pope Julius II., a few drawings, a
dozen engravings, are his scattered remnants.
No sculpture, no authentic paintings, not even
the wonderful dead Christ supported by two
angels that he painted for Bembo on the walls
of his studio, live to confirm the eulogies of
Matteo Bosso.

I think we must look for the cause of his
collapse in the pages of Panfilo Sasso and Pom-
ponio Ganrico. To reconstruct history from
such sources has a never-failing fascination. It
is there that we read of his passion for the fair
and lovely maiden destined for Caesarc Borgia.
This is probably the maiden, immortalised in
the print of two figures and a landscape. The
beautiful young girl holds a lute in her hand,
her eyes are resting upon it, shyly, downcast ;
the young man is gazing at her passionately.
His rich Venetian costume and guitar, the draw-
ing of the figure, the whole composition, recall a
picture of Giorgione's, now in the Louvre.

That Giulio Campagnola loved this young girl,
and that she returned his passion, Ganrico has told
us ; that the shadow of Borgia hovered over their

i8

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

love, and that, by some means or another, they
were separated before marriage had consecrated
their vows, appears early in the narrative. A
profound mystery rested on the fate of the maiden
— a mystery terribly hinted at, but never actually
revealed. There was a poisoned cup in it, and a
face once beautiful, horribly marred, but details
are lacking.

Giulio, spoilt child of fortune, whose lightest
wish had almost ruled in Padua, found himself
thus hideously thwarted and opposed in Ferrara.
All his ambitions, and all his work, became sub-
ordinated to a feverish desire first to discover
the fate of his inamorata, and then to avenge it.
Passions ruled high among the Italians of the
sixteenth century. In the eagerness of his pur-
suit he crossed the path of those in authority,
and such crossing was not to his advantage.

If he had proved himself worthy, if he had
established his claim to the title of genius with
which he entered Ferrara, the protection of Her-
cules might have been extended to him, and his
story might have run differently. But he showed
himself pre-eminent in nothing, save in gallantry,
and there were many noble youths in Ferrara,
before Savonarola taught them abnegation, who
were his equals even there. Away from the
wise control and fatherly pride of Girolamo, the
gaiety and temptations of the capital had proved
altogether too much for Giulio's strength and
self-control.

The unhappy love-affair was apparently only

19

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the climax of the dissolute years. Rumours of
his falling -off must have reached Padua, for
Girolamo sent his nephew, Domenico Campa-
gnola, to question him, to help him, if need be,
to reclaim him, though his friends in Padua could
scarcely credit the stories that reached them.

Domenico was of a very different nature
from his mercurial, unhappy, brilliant cousin.
Whether he used his influence wisely with
Giulio, whether he used it at all, history does
not relate. And he was not the man to attract
the attention of the poetasters. We know that
he set up a studio, and received apprentices,
achieving also a measure of artistic success on
his own account.

Meanwhile Giulio, in a vain attempt to
release his lady from a situation " in which he
imagined she was placed," came into contact
with the hirelings that guarded the sacred per-
son of the Borgia, and received a wound which
" seemed less to him than the wound that
rankled ever in his breast." From this wound,
however, he never recovered.

The glamour and poetry inseparable from
the period, make this story of Campagnola
prettier in the reading than in the analysis. We
see Giulio in purple velvet doublet and silken
hose, in mantle and plumed cap, playing the
lover bravely in the forest. But we could see
him more plainly, if we would, in the shadow
of his cousin, restless, discontented, and unhappy,
sneering at the talents he was too idle to emulate.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

dashing off with his fatal facility the sketches he
would never have the patience to elaborate into
pictures, now railing against the Government,
now caricaturing its leaders, now helping Dom-
enico with his own far more brilliant brush, now
interrupting him and his pupils with snatches of
song and recitation. His versatility seems to have
continued, meandering in a shallow stream, but
never becoming a broad river of progress.

Idly he picked his lady's lineaments with the
point of a graver on the yielding copper prepared
for his cousin's graving-tool. He invented his
process, his method to which we are so deeply
indebted, with even less thought for posterity
than did the Cunios when they wrote the title-
page to the history of the whole art of engraving.
He was so eager to perpetuate his lady's charms
that he had no time for studied line or laborious
hatchings ; that, and that only, was the motive
that drove his rapid pricking - graver. The
copper yielded him her features almost after a
morning's work. It was to secure this very
speed, by the way, that Bartolozzi, nearly three
centuries later, gave up his magnificent line.

Besides the landscape with the lovers, Giulio
Campagnola left eight other authentic engrav-
ings. They differ very little in execution, and
they all owe to the stippling a great softness and
delicacy of effect. It is not, however, so sur-
prising that they failed in receiving contemporary
notice or praise, when we remember with what
comparative contempt the eighteenth-century

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

cognoscenti treated stipple-engraving. Campa-
gnola's dot is very small, and is mixed with a few
hatchings lightly scratched in with the point.
In some instances he has etched his figure in
double lines with dots between ; in others he has
discarded line altogether and depended for effect
on dot alone. His " St. John the Baptist " is an
example of the former ; a nude figure asleep,
generally known as " La Femme Couchee," of
the latter, manner. It is intensely interesting
work, not only for its intrinsic charm, but
because it seems like faint tracing on the walls
of time, writing " Rheu fugaces " to a wasted
talent.

To advance from the Cunios to the Campa-
gnolas, from la maniere criblee of the fifteenth
century to the sixteenth-century stipple of Giulio
Campagnola, needs perhaps the gossamer bridge
of fancy. But there is no difficulty in finding
solid foothold between Giulio Campagnola and
the seventeenth-century Ottavio Leoni, and from
him onward to the earliest eighteenth-century
stipple-workers in France — Fran9ois, Bonnet, and
Demarteau, who preceded and inspired all the
others. This method of engraving was never
wholly in abeyance ; isolated specimens are
dotted, in every sense of the word, over work in
wood and metal from the time of Campagnola to
the time of Lewis.

Ottavio Leoni was an artist who excelled in
portrait-painting. His fashionable atelier was
thronged with Pope and Cardinal, Conte and

22

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Contessa, all who aspired to be in the forefront
of Roman society in the early part of the seven-
teenth century. He was a painter by profession
and an engraver only incidentally, but his graver
owed to his brush the knowledge of the value of
stippling in flesh-tints, which is the fons et origo
of successful colour-printing. He engraved a set
of heads of his brother artists, all dated between
1620 and 1625, in which everything but the
flesh is executed in line, the faces and hands being
stippled in while the etching-point is used lightly
to scratch in the shadows. They are very curious
prints, and very rare. Their existence did not
prevent Louis Martin Bonnet claiming to be the
inventor of stipple-engraving a hundred years
and more after Ottavio Leoni had left only his
work to testify to his priority.

From Bonnet to Bartolozzi is less than a step.
Before taking it, it will be well, however, to
pause and show how the workers in chiaroscuro
followed each other with equal desultory slowness
to the great goal of Colour.

23

CHAPTER II

Chiaroscuro the first step to Colour-Printing — The earliest Chiaro-
scuro Engraver: Ugo da Carpi, his right to the title, his history,
and the source of his inspiration.

Far cry as it would seem from the chiaroscuro
to the colour-print, from the most charming
stipple-engravings printed in colour to the most
glaring polychromatic posters that disfigure or
decorate our great city, the root idea of all three
lay in the first invention of an engraving that
gave light and shade by other means than
laborious line-work. This invention consisted
of successive printings from a series of wood-
blocks, the first block carrying the outlines and
deep shadows, and the following ones the broad
effects of light, shade, and colour. The results
of this process were called cameos, or engravings
in chiaroscuro. For over two centuries this
method, with various combinations, additions,
and alterations, remained the only one employed
in the production of so - called " picture
engravings."

There are many reasons to justify the naming
of Ugo da Carpi as the first engraver in chiaro-

24

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

scuro ; and Ugo da Carpi was a very remark-
able character. There was romance in his
struggle after the reproduction of the works of
the great contemporary Masters. The rights
of Germany in general, and Cranach in parti-
cular, on which he may have encroached uncon-
sciously, need count for nothing, when we mark
how, under influences purely personal, and in
circumstances negativing piracy, he saw and
seized the advantages of the brush over the
burin, dispensing with laborious outlines and
line-shadings, roughing in his contours in a
manner which is now called " Italian " but the
merit of which was his alone. For the perfecting
of his own invention he used everything that
was known of the art of engraving on stone,
on wood, and on metal, from 1491 b.c. to a.d.
1 500 ; and he claimed the credit of his origin-
ality without reserve. It is but just therefore to
call him the first ancestor of the Colour-Printer;
time has hallowed his claim, and to dispute it
were ungenerous.

The celebrity of Ugo da Carpi, according to
Bryan's Dictionary of Engravers^ " rests on his
wood-engraving " ; but it has always seemed to
me that his celebrity, and the vital interest his
very name evokes, are due rather to his person-
ality, the age and influences that produced him,
and the misfortunes that at once moulded his
destiny and directed his ambition.

He was born in or about the year 1480.
Passavant places it earlier, and other authorities

25

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

later ; but it will be seen that internal evidence
confirms this as nearer the right date. His birth
occurred during the lull that came before the
storm, it was at that period, comparatively peace-
ful, before the eager hand of Ludovico Sforza
had given the first wrench to the pivot on which
turned the political destinies of his unhappy-
country ; a wrench that sent Italy ultimately
struggling and spinning through the years, pur-
sued by invaders from France and Spain, from
Switzerland and Germany. It was comparatively
peaceful ; but Popes and Despots, in the intervals
of their encouragement of Art and Letters, in-
trigued against each other, and against the States
they governed ; the real masters of the situation
being the lawless bands of soldiery, paid first by
one and then the other, in money or honours, in
dignities or lands, for the use of their arms and
the loyalty of their leaders.

Ugo's lot was cast in the wrong place ; he
was born in the mountains instead of in the city,
amid rough surroundings instead of in the home
of luxury and art. He was a misshapen imp of
the Renaissance, struggling for existence in a
wild community of Condottieri. Something he
took from his surroundings, inherited or imbibed,
but a baptism of blood was necessary before he
could enter into his great inheritance. It was
not possible for him to work out his destiny in
the calm and peaceful manner of his happier con-
temporaries, he suffered, and he inflicted suffering.
His life was full of incident, and his work is

26

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

eternal. Yet history has ignored him, fable has
left him out, and it is only in the descriptions of
Marsiglio Ficino and the lyric pages of Pietro
Bembo that the story of his dreams and of his
art, of his exile, his great love and its tragic con-
sequences, can be found at all. And the novelist
has so enwrapt this in obscurity, and the poet in
shabby Petrarchisms, while together they have
made it so vague and shadov^y and indefinite,
that imagination has to rend the veil, and sym-
pathy to unwind its mystifying folds, before the
tale stands out in all its primal and realisable
simplicity.

Ugo da Carpi was the tenth child of Count
Astolfo da Panico, some authorities say the
tenth son, but the point is obscure. The en-
nobled and ancient family of the Counts of
Panico had held possession of their home in the
mountain fastnesses nearly two hundred years,
their patent of nobility dating from the thir-
teenth century. Time had taught them nothing ;
apparently no new movement had reached them,
they were picturesque remnants of Medievalism
dwelling outside the limits of an encroaching
civilisation, sallying forth whenever the clash of
battle sounded, casting the weight of the sword
indifferently on the side of Pope or Despot.
Their records show that the cunning and per-
fidious policy of the Visconti, the scheming
intelligence and lawless will of the Sforzas, had
never lacked Panicos to support their ventures.
When Filippo Maria had taken from poor

27

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Beatrice di Tenda her money and her troops,
her influence and her person, it was a Panico
who presided over her mock trial for adultery,
it was a Panico who signed the death-warrant
under which her execution followed.

Their trade was slack when Lorenzo the
Magnificent reigned in Florence and Alexander
VI. ruled in Rome. It was in this dull time
that Ugo's misfortunes began. He, poor de-
generate son of a great race, had inherited
neither the thews nor the sinews of his stalwart
father and tall brothers ; he was misshapen,
hunchbacked, weak. He made no show at the
tilting-ring, his horsemanship was the ridicule
of his relations, story of intrigue or faction
moved him not at all. He grew up solitary and
silent, in the shadow of a contempt never dis-
guised, of a derision loudly expressed.

Two confidants he had — two only. One was
the Frate Senzio who ministered at the Church
of St. Francis, tucked away under the hills, who
heard his confessions and absolved him, when
he owned to feints or subterfuges, resorted to
in order to avoid brutal contests and trials of
strength ; when he confessed that sword-play
was abominable to him, and that his brothers
and his father aroused in him feelings of hatred ;
that, as they despised his aims, his life, his ways,
so did he condemn theirs.

The other was Giorgio Barbarella from Castel-
franco, familiarly known as " Giorgione," from
his great size, who stood by him when he hewed

28

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

strange heads out of the fallen branches of trees,
helped him when he drew weird figures with
burnt sticks, admired him when he moulded the
red earth into quaint forms.

These two friends were no less important
elements in the formation of his character than
his uncongenial surroundings. Giorgione's sym-
pathy had almost made an artist of him, the
Frate had made a scholar of him, and almost a
Christian. But fate intervened before either had
finished his task ; a task which, had either
accomplished it, would have eliminated, per-
chance, the brutal Condottieri element, and thus
averted the tragedy that followed.

But because he was weak, because in that
community of soldiers and adventurers he could
never be anything but a drag and a drawback, a
council of his father and brothers decreed that
he should espouse Jiulia Pontana, his kinswoman,
a gentle maiden who lived near the town of
Castelfranco, in the cool neighbourhood of the
lagoons, under the protection of the beautiful
ex-Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro.

This girl had the misfortune to belong to
the Ghibellines, and the Ghibellines and the
Panicos were as one name. The lands and the
monies that were her portion, were deemed fit
compensation for the fortune that the weak arm
of her deformed kinsman could never gain for
himself. So before eighteen summers had
passed over his head they buckled on the sword
he had no strength to wield, and sent him in

29

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the train of his brothers to do his wooing, in
the brave trappings that could not hide his
crooked spine. His scant locks floated under
the broidered cap, his purple mantle left exposed
the thin throat girdled with white linen — his
poor, shrunken throat. They dressed him up,
and jeered at him. Ugo hated his prospects,
hated leaving his mountains and his comparative
solitude, but it was useless to demur. One
favour he had asked which had been granted to
him. In that request poor Ugo's luck pursued
him. He asked that Giorgione, the handsome
stripling who was his only friend, who had
sympathised in his pursuits, who had watched
with him the golden sunsets and purple hazes at
even, who had seen, as he saw, the mystery and
the glory of colour, under whose plastic fingers
grew wonderful pictures of angels and Madonnas,
that Giorgione, who was his friend, should go
with him in his wooing. And Giorgione was
by his side when the cavalcade rode through
Castelfranco.

The square-windowed turrets of Asola, the
turrets the lads had so often gazed at from the
distance, melting into the vast background of a
vague Alps, grew solid before their eyes. They
rode through the night only ; by the light of
the moon they saw fair homesteads purple with
vines and black with olives ; against her pale
light the forest arabesques shaped mysteriously.
The scene was bathed in mist in early morn, but
it struggled into gorgeous tints as the sun rose

30

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

in its splendid noon, the fields grew yellow, and
even the cypress had golden threads.

Catherine herself sallied forth to meet them,
with all her maidens around her, and she was
preceded by armed hirelings, by soldiers on
horseback, their steeds gaily caparisoned, by all
the pageantry her fallen state allowed. Con-
spicuous among the maidens in her train was
Jiulia Pontana. She was very pale, but her noble
young head was poised above her square -cut
dress of green brocade, with an air at once sweet
and proud. Her head-dress was high, inter-
plaited with cloth of gold ; in the middle of her
forehead gleamed a jewel, held there by a chain
of gold. Fairer sight no man's eyes could gaze
upon, but, at first, it was not upon her their
glances rested. The mountain clouds, now
enveloping, now disclosing the panorama of the
landscape, the high rectangular tower composing
itself in cool colour and tranquillising line, the
glow of pageantry in the foreground, filled their
eyes.

It was not until later, not until the feasting
had begun, that Ugo saw Jiulia was fair. And,
alas, Giorgione saw it at the same moment.
Jiulia in her turn could not but see that Giorgione
was straight and tall, with clustering golden
locks, blue eyes that spoke traitorously ; and that
Ugo was hunchbacked and lowering, a melan-
choly youth with lank black hair. But in those
days there was no dallying with family decrees.
Each had scarcely time to flash the discovery to

31

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the other ere it was already too late. In pomp
and in state, with rejoicings at the castle and
feasting in its halls, the pontifical blessing rested
on the heads of the ill-matched pair, and joined
an unwilling bride to the wrong groom. Thirty
days they feasted and kept high state ; the
granaries were emptied and the wine -butts
replenished again and again.

Meanwhile the three young people passed
strange hours ; Ugo using his privileges timor-
ously, gazing at Jiulia till he learned by heart every
line and every curve in that fair face, every flush
that came and went in that delicate cheek, every
shadow that haunted those blue eyes, every golden
tint in that mass of hair ; Giorgione, more bold,
overbold, teaching whilst Ugo was only learning.

And here the story must halt a little ; deeds
were done in those days of which the very rela-
tion were impossible in ours.

Jiulia was an obedient maiden who had given
her hand where she was bid, and yielded herself
to the husband who was allotted to her, as was
the fashion of her age. But love was a flower
that bloomed apace in the rich soil of Italy in
the fifteenth century, and it grew and grew in
her breast. Ugo was her husband ; he was a
scholar and an idealist, a boy unlearned in the
ways of women. He was the husband of the
richest heiress in Castelfranco ; he was courted
and flattered, the warriors pledged him, and the
poets brought him their odes. It was all new
to him — flattery, adulation, even ease of body

32

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and freedom from taunts. He may have been
absorbed in his new duties and his new position ;
he may be to blame for having so feebly guarded
the treasure that had been committed to him.
His love was too new to be exacting, and when
his cares allowed him and his flatterers and
myrmidons left him, it was sweet to wander
alone in the enchanted gardens of Asola com-
posing sonnets ; pursuing the beautiful, elusive
imagery of his happiness.

It was perhaps in the hours that he was en-
grossed with these sweet thoughts that Jiulia
was absorbed in still sweeter deeds. Giorgione
painted her, as already he had painted her
beautiful mistress. Whilst he sang in honour of
the wedding, he sang also in praise of the bride,
such songs to which she could but give ear.
His gold curls floating beneath his tufted hat,
his lithe tall figure in his handsome doublet,
his voice that thrilled and penetrated, his lute
attuned to every key, were in strange contrast
to poor Ugo, tongue-tied in her presence by his
love and bewildered by his authority.

This part of the tale needs no telling ; every
age and every clime has had its counterpart.

Ugo's honour was the honour of the Panicos.
And if his own arm was weak, there were six
strong ones, ever ready with their swords, in
causes just or causes unjust, for the very love
of the fight, the rapid lunge against the soft
resisting flesh, the blood-flow.

Ugo dreamed over his happiness while Gior-
33 D

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

gione seized his. There came one day when
there was a sudden incursion into a room,
tapestry-hung and lofty, where a fair maid sat
listening to a sweet song ; there were cries of
alarm, a rush of colour to a pale cheek, there
was quick sword-play, an inrush of the Cornaro
retainers. They were all eager to fight, it
was their pastime, without caring or knowing
why, or for whom. Giorgione had his friends ;
Ugo had only his rights. There was the clash-
ing of swords, the shrieking of women, and the
flowing of blood. And in the end the finest and
tallest of the Panicos was lying with a dozen
wounds in throat, and side, and chest, never to
fight more for Pope or Despot. Giorgione had
disappeared, and poor Jiulia was left to the tender
mercies of her lord.

And rumour did not spare details of those
tender mercies ; Ugo's character, so terribly tried
at so critical a period, was twisted out of its
natural bent. It grew, for a short time, as mis-
shapen as his person, incredibly spiteful and
vicious, but above all things wretched. There
were rumours of a malignancy that did not stop
at words, of persecution that never slept, of
barred doors and windows, of cruel deeds. Gal-
lantry pitied the lady ; but she, at least, had her
unpoisoned memories. Ugo had nothing but his
deformities and deficiencies, his trust and its
betrayal, with which to console himself.

Soon rumours of Giorgione's successes at
Court reached Castelfranco, of cunning portraits

34

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

that his hand had wrought, of friezes and
frescoes, of commissions from the State, of his
friend Titian, and of the triumphs of both.
Ugo's jealousy grew to burning -point : even
thus had his ambitions soared in those days that
seemed now so far off, when no Jiulia had come
between him and his dreams of colour and form.
Ugo could hardly bear his life. The torture to
which he put his helpless victim contented him
no more ; in very truth she could hurt him
more with a word than he could hurt her with
a blow. For he loved her. And she ? The
very sound of his voice, of his step across the
floor, the sight of his crooked shadow against
the sunlight, were hateful to her.

At last he betook himself to the Padre with
his troubles, that Padre who had helped him so
often before. Wise counsel was given him in
that narrow cell. The priest sat with out-
stretched arms, and pointed to the Cross on
which was nailed the figure of Him who had
suffered more than poor Ugo. He preached
patience, he preached hope, he told Ugo of the
higher life, he pointed out to him the narrow
way. Ugo listened. That lean monk, no less
earnest than the famous Friar of Ferrara whose
spirit animated him, had always understood and
pitied the artist-temperament of the unhappy
boy. He bore his new pain badly, though his
life had been one long pain. The Padre preached
patience, and Ugo listened. If Ugo had done
more than listen, if he had given heed, Bembo had

35

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

had no story to tell, and these bald outlines had
needed no filling in. And the Padre gave advice :

" My son, thou art restless and uneasy ; thy
heart burns within thee for jealousy of Giorgione,
for love and for hate of thy faithless wife ; thou
art tortured now with envy and ambition. Leave
this place, it is dark for thee with unhappy
memories. Thy brother's spirit haunts the
chamber where thy pale wife sits forlornly at
the window. Giorgione is ever under the
lattice, the air is ever full of the sound of his
lute and his rich voice singing. Get thee hence.
There are castles where no memories dwell for
thee, cities where thou wilt lose thy pain and
thy bitter hatreds. Go ! my son. Thy wife
will abide here in peace, and I will lead her
thoughts to repentance and her heart to grace."

" Her thoughts are of Giorgione ; there is no
repentance in her," answered the poor boy, his
thin face working, his restless hands plucking at
his beads.

For never yet had torture wrung from Jiulia
confession or sign of sorrow. The good man
spoke, Ugo tried to follow him. But always
that pale wife of his, with cold eyes and ripe
lips, maddened him afresh ; and in a hell of his
own passions, made desperate by his own defici-
encies, he wreaked on her sad vengeance for his
own misery.

There came one black day when Jiulia was
alone with her women. There were moans
from the high turret room wherein she lay, and

36

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

strange sounds, and the echo of hurrying steps,
and presently a new cry, quick and shrill — a cry
at which the women smiled, and Ugo who knew
not how to smile, or had forgotten the art, turned
white and trembled.

If Jiulia's love had been less strong, if per-
chance she had not seen the crystal gates so near,
when he bent over her and asked roughly, " Is
this child mine ? " with anguish and choking in
his voice, she might have spared him that slow
smile, that glance so comprehensive with which
she swept his figure.

" Yours ? Per Dio ! My beautiful babe ! "

The wild passion the words and look wrung
from him was beyond his control ; the gurgling,
new-born cry of the baby lying across her breast
maddened him : it was less than to kill a chicken.
His fingers had stifled the cry before his brain
had time to recognise the inevitability of the
deed.

Her eyes never met his again ; she was gazing
across him to the glimmering square of the
casement, where her lover had climbed so
fatally. Perhaps she saw him there still. Ugo's
last vengeance left her smiling. When her
attendants rushed to her rescue, he was hanging
over her with tearing sobs and shaking hands,
kissing her pallor, the creeping cold of the dead
face . . . telling her for the first time, when she
was beyond hearing, something of what she had
made of him.

Not even the influence nor the power of

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

those famous Condottieri of Panico were enough
to save Ugo from all the consequences of his
crime. Something he was spared thereby, and
that sparing helped to write history differently.
A less powerfully protected criminal would have
been left with sightless eyes and head severed
from his body, dangling in chains outside the
grey towers and battlements of Asola. Or he
might have been taken to Venice to be tried,
dragged through the streets, his hands bound
together by a cord, a rope fastened round his
neck and tied in such a manner that if he
struggled he would be strangled. Had the
latter fate been his, he would not have struggled.
Once he realised that Jiulia was indeed dead, he
faced his accusers with an indifference that looked
callous to any one who failed to read the anguish
in those thin cheeks and sunken eyes. Cords or
imprisonment, or death itself, were nothing to
him. The blood of the only thing he had ever
loved was on his loathsome hands ; all perception
of colour was drowned from the wretched eyes
by tears of agony and acquiescence. They forced
him to escape, that strong, powerful family of
his, they would not have it said a Panico had
hung, or walked in chains. They drove him
forth and covered his retreat. Neither escort or
money would he have, nor help of any kind.

He left Castelfranco before they had envaulted
Jiulia and her baby, one gray, cold morning ere
the mist had risen — a morning that differed little
from the one on which he had ridden up, Gior-

38

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

gione by his side, with nothing on his mind but
a wonderful exhilaration at the beauty of the
scene. Now the mists closed around him coldly,
the cold struck right through to his heart.

It took his chronicler two cantos to tell of his
wanderings from Castelfranco to Florence, but
the incidents can be summed up almost in two
sentences. He had but a few piastas in his
pocket, he had little knowledge of the road, he
had neither desire nor hope. He passed aimlessly
through plains and scattered villages ; he wan-
dered as if in a dream. By the time he came
to Correggio, footsore and weary, his body had
failed him almost as had his mind. He could
not remember his name ; he called himself Ugo
da Carpi, Ugo from Carpi, from the last little
village he had passed through before time and
place had been blotted out from his memory by
illness.

It was in the house of Pellegrino AUegri
that he lay for a space while strength came
back to him, together with something of the
youth he had scarcely known, of the health
he had never enjoyed. The sunshine of the
place revived him, the unwonted sense of freedom,
above all things the spirit that was in the very
walls of that hospitable house. Antonio, the
son of Pellegrino Allegri, who was to become so
famous under the name of Correggio, was a
child — a child at whom he looked with envious
eyes. Always with brush, or chalk, or busy
creative fingers, Antonio reminded him of the

39

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

dawning of his own life. But alas ! with what
a difference ! The little lad so gay, so beautiful,
was full of the joy of life, he was the pride and
embodied ambition of his happy artist father,
he, too, was a genius, but a fostered one.

By the time Ugo was well enough to resume
his journey, he had recaught some of the elder
Allegri's enthusiasm, he had forgotten something
of his trials and of his miseries. He went forth
from Correggio, Ugo da Carpi, for once and for
ever. He wanted to blot out all that had gone
before ; he almost succeeded. Anyway, the
young man who arrived in Florence — there is a
notable description of his entrance — was once
more the artist, nevermore the lover. In that
description of his arrival we see him where a
little group of nobles, distinguished by their rich
apparel, their embroidered mantles, their long
locks and gay caps, were gossiping round a great
block of marble. The great block attracted the
wanderer ; he stood and stared with the rest. He
was a poor figure amid these gay young men.

But one there was whose eyes fell on him
pityingly, a pair of grey eyes set wide apart in
an Apollo-like head. Moved by intuition, by a
fine impulse, Michael Angelo turned towards
him, and would have given him alms. Ugo
knew who he was, the fame of the " Sleeping
Cupid" had reached him already at Castelfranco.
The tears came into his eyes, a sudden new-found
self-sympathy thrilled through him. He shook
his head, he would have no alms.

40

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

" You want to see the marble ? They are
putting a wooden barricade round it. See, this
is what it will be when I have fashioned it."
He no longer offered alms, the tears in Ugo's
eyes had taught him quickly. He held out to
him a waxen model.

" They wanted me to show it them," he said,
simply, indicating his companions. " You too
are an artist .? " For something in the way Ugo
looked at the figure, something in the way he
touched it, gave the intuition this direction.

" Maestro ! " faltered Ugo, and kissed the
extended hand.

They stood together for the space of a
moment, under the blue Florentine sky, in the
shadow of the Duomo. Michael Angelo Buonar-
roti, who lovingly handled his model, with a
side-glance of happy pride at that huge block,
out of which was to leap, under his fashioning
hand, a figure so incomparably beautiful, so noble
in its attitude, so grand in its pose, that all
Florence thronged to see it, and Rome sent an
envoy to bid him to the Vatican ; and Ugo da
Carpi, beggar and hunchback, murderer and
miserable, whom no man knew and no man
helped. But invisible, dim, intangible, no less
over sunken head than over lofty brow, floated
the golden crown of immortality.

I am telling Ugo's story baldly. There are
big lapses in it, strophes that seem to lead
nowhere, but one or two incidents appear to fix
the dates.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

After that meeting with Michael Angelo,
Florence was sacred ground for Ugo. Obsti-
nately he kept to his new name ; he tasted
privation, poverty, almost starvation. We know
that he lodged for a time at the Porta Santa
Croce, where the Franciscan monks had founded
the hospital for strangers. It was characteristic
of his pride that he never appealed to the artist
for help or sympathy, though he well knew
both would have been given to him. He
tried to utilise the pastimes of his childhood for
his living. He modelled in clay, he painted the
portraits of contadine for a few quattrini ; for a
short time he worked in a Majolica factory.
The next we hear of him definitely is that he
was employed in the studio of that wonderful
boy whose fame had preceded him from the
ducal studio of Urbino, that city situated among
the Apennines, on the borders of Tuscany and
Umbria. He ground Raphael's colours and
watched the flesh-tints grow under his marvellous
brush.

In the studio of " II Divine," another change
came over the mind and the life of Ugo da
Carpi. Here, none laughed at his pursuits,
none derided his dreams. A very passion for
work seized upon him ; he ate only to keep
body and soul together, he slept in an outhouse
shaken by the wind, cold in the winter, damp
in the early spring. And then, for the first
time, he found peace. He had been near
happiness at Asola, an exquisite, trembling

42

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

happiness, the unrealised expectation of which
had driven him from his balance. But here
Peace came to him, a beautiful gift to a soul
distraught. He studied early and he studied
late ; he copied his master's work, content when
a line had shaped to his satisfaction, when a tint
had nearly caught the glow of flesh. In that
studio, where none knew his story, he laboured
for nearly two years. Raphael smiled en-
couragement, gave him now a drapery to
sketch in, now a background to prepare, always
a kind word and thought from the depths of
his own generous nature.

Art took the place of jealousy, and the desire
for revenge, the love of women and the image of
Jiulia. There were other workers in that studio,
eager admiring disciples of Raphael Santi, young
men, rich men, noblemen, enthusiasts. Ugo
was something of a drudge amongst them, some-
times a butt for their wit, but trouble had taught
him humility. He cleaned their palettes, he
mixed their colours, in secret he emulated their
efforts, and hope floated golden before his eyes.
It was never to be more than a haze, a mirage
in the desert of his sad life, a dream that faded
in the morning light. We can picture him
during those few years in Florence, dreaming
these happy dreams, the great gift of work in
his hands.

And this was the time when his poor spine,
which had already served him such a scurvy
trick in his growth, chose for serving him

43

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

another ; or perhaps it was the result of his
burning sullen tears, of those sleepless nights, of
those weary wanderings. Whatever the cause,
however, the result was that he found his eyes
growing gradually dim, his fine appreciation of
colour leaving him ; the contours before him
still seemed sharp, but the shades were all blurred
and confused.

At first he knew not what had befallen him.
Each rising day he hoped the blues and greens
would come again, the reds grow steady and
the pinks transparent ; each day fear knocked
louder at his heart, each night his terror-haunted
sleep, drenched with dread and sweat, gave him
snatches of sight, and hideous abysses of dark-
ness. He grew so thin and pale and wretched
that even those gay youths amongst whom he
worked could not but note it, and asked what
ailed him. He shrank into silence, the silence
that had been the habit of his life, that had only
partially forsaken him in the last few months.
It seemed to him if once he gave his trouble
words he would give it life, it would leap into
certainty. Blindness was coming upon him. The
blessed light was going. How could he voice the
words, though they stared at him from wall and
sky, from palette and canvas !

It was Raphael himself — Raphael, whose
ever-tender heart was moved by such obvious
suffering — who questioned him one day, so
gently, with such delicate tact and intimate sym-
pathy, that the flood-gates were burst and the

44

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

trouble was told. How tenderly he was com-
forted, how hope was given to him, is past the
power of prose, or at least of my prose, to tell.
In the end Raphael sent him with a letter to a
friend of his own at Bologna, — not a barber to
cup him (again and again Ugo had tried this
drastic remedy), but a scholar, learned in all
the knowledge of Hippocrates. He journeyed
to Bologna with a heavy heart. Although
Santi had given him hope, his eyes could not
support the promise. The sky was always gray,
whilst grass and mountain-side, and stream and
flowers, had at intervals the one hue. He was
heavy-hearted and sad. But the stars were fight-
ing for him in their course, and the sun of his
destiny was rising, not setting.

When he came to Bologna with Raphael's
letter, he was received at the house of the
learned doctor. He was put to wonderful tests.
Presently it transpired that his was a strange and
almost unique case. All the scholars in Bologna,
learned in medicine, saw him and worked upon
him ; he was passed, as if he had been a rare
gem, from one hand to another. And not only
those of Bologna, learned men from Venice,
lured by the description that had reached them,
journeyed to see him. What had come upon
him was a lesion little known then, but the
description of which is to be found in the pages
of Galen. It was not blindness, but colour-
blindness, an obscure spinal lesion which, while
it bereft him of one sense, left him all the others.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

When they had taught him that he had not the
great darkness to fear, they had given him almost
all the medicine he needed. His body grew
stronger than it had ever been, his weakened
hands, palsied by fear and not by disease, obeyed
once more his guiding will. Of course he had
to give up many hopes, many dreams. Perhaps
if he had known at the beginning, what he knew
now, it would have seemed as if all the joy of
his life was quenched. But he had feared blind-
ness ; when he heard that it was colour, alone,
which had failed him, it was only as if music
had gone out of his days ; and form remained ;
always, they told him, he would see line and
shape, and shade.

He could not go back to Florence, the fair
city of his fair dreams ; he could not return
to that studio, nor work under that master
with whose lesser efforts he had hoped to vie ;
and indeed by this time Raphael was already in
Rome. Ugo sought for work in Bologna, and
found it with Francia, the famous worker in
Niello.

There it was he met Marcantonio ; there it
was he saw the woodcuts of Albrecht Diirer
transferred to metal plates by Raimondi. Ugo
was ever emulous of excellence. In secret he
tried to copy the great engraver, as before he
had tried to follow in the steps of the great
painter. The lines, the cross-hatching, the close
labour, tried his eyes terribly, but once he was
on the track, he would rather they ached, and

46

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

burned, and failed, than that his fellow-workman
should have no rival in his triumph.

And Marcantonio was having a veritable
triumph with his copies of " The Life of the
Virgin," his " Little Passion," his " Adam and
Eve " ; he was growing rich and daring. He
laughed at his hunchback satellite. Ugo toiled
after him, but slowly within appreciable distance.
His own invention of chiaroscuro-engraving came
to him suddenly, like a revelation ; probably he
thought it was really one. Possibly, however, for
there is always a possibility of vagrant memory
underlying such artistic coincidences, he had seen,
half unheeding, the rude chiaroscuros of Cranach.
The talk of the adjustment of light, and the
value of shades, heard long ago in the house at
Correggio, had lain dormant in his mind, for-
gotten ; now it was revived in a sudden illumin-
ating flash. Chiaroscuro was a term hardly used
in the studio of Raphael. Light and shade,
shade and light, reiterated themselves until they
thundered, like the sea, in Ugo's ears. He saw
his way to achieve Raimondi's results with less
than half Raimondi's labour, in less than a quarter
of the time Raimondi had to devote to his plates.

We can picture the hunchback artist, dim-
eyed, behind that narrow window-slit, with his
rough wood-blocks, his primitive tools, his
precious parchment, and hands trembling so with
excitement that he could scarcely direct the
brush. It came to him in a flash. Blocks to
carry the outline, blocks to carry the shades,

47

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

successive printings — an effect astonishingly
simple !

Suddenly as the idea had come to him,
months of experiment yet remained, months of
weariness and heart -ache and disappointment.
His industry never flagged, and in truth he
never doubted his ultimate success. But he had
dreamed of himself as a great painter. What he
had never dreamed and barely learned was how
little he needed to become a fine draughtsman.

In meeting Marcantonio, in copying from
him, he learned unconsciously to draw, and to-day
there is no one to deny the quality of the power
he acquired. It was after he had learned to draw
that he mastered the art he had invented, the
art of chiaroscuro-printing, sufficiently to produce
a copy of '* The Death of Ananias," by Raphael,
in so short a time, and with such a bold and
daring effect, that not only Francia, but all
Bologna, crowded into his workshop. It was in
competition with his fellow-workman that he
printed the " Massacre of the Innocents " from a
sketch sent to him for the purpose by Raphael
at Rome. He had finished his print ere Marc-
antonio had much more than prepared his plate.
And, after that, he had not only all Bologna but
all Venice his patrons and admirers.

Comparing the two prints to-day — they are
both in the British Museum — the fine black line
of the one, its vigour and delicacy, with the
rough aspect of the other, its chiaroscuro and
coarse brushwork, it is difficult to give Ugo da

48

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Carpi enough of the praise due to him. It is
necessary to bear in mind the ultimate develop-
ment of the idea, in order to be fittingly grateful
to its originator. It is pleasing to note that, after
all his troubles, the State of Venice, when he
applied for protection against piratical imi-
tators, not only gave him the boon for which he
craved, but showered honours and rewards upon
him. They did not accuse him, like later-day
chroniclers, of being naught but a pirate himself !

There were very few years of life left to the
artist. His first chiaroscuro is dated 1518, and in
1520 the event proved the learned doctors had
been wrong, and that the spinal lesion, of which
they had spoken so lightly, was but a warning of
graver trouble to follow. He had an apoplectic
fit, and died after a few hours' unconsciousness.

Those last years of his, however, had lacked
nothing of consideration or luxury, as luxury was
then understood. He went far afield. The
crooked figure of the first chiaroscuro-engraver
was no stranger even at the Court of Alexander,
but none ever recognised him as one of the
Condottieri, as a Panico. He was never anything
but Ugo da Carpi, until the day of his death,
when a miniature of the unhappy Jiulia was
found hanging round his neck, to give the clue
to the moroseness of his disposition, and the
solitariness of his days.

49

CHAPTER III

Early G)lour-Prints — Sulphurs, Paste Prints, and Emboitage ; all
fifteenth- century experiments — Andrea Andreani's Chiaro-
scuros in the sixteenth century — Hercules Zeghcr's experiments
in Colour- Printing in the seventeenth century — Johannes
Teyler and his wonderful book, produced at the end of the
seventeenth century, of line engravings printed in colours from
one plate.

The idea of colour-printing, of producing
engravings which should more nearly interpret
painted pictures than mere black and white,
always floating, chimera-like, wherever the
engraver set up his workshop, though it can
hardly be said to have developed, was pursued
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
simultaneously in Germany and Italy. From
both we have chiaroscuros of varying excellence,
and a few experiments in colour-printing of
more or less interest.

If I might be allowed to set technicalities and
the Cunios on one side for a moment, I should
be inclined to consider the earliest " sulphurs "
as the very earliest colour-prints, as well as the
very earliest engravings, although the colour was
due more to accident than design, and it is per-

50

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

haps straining a point to apply the word engraving
to what might be more correctly entitled a
" cast." The theory is that these were first
taken from niello-work as proofs, for the satis-
faction of the workmen only, during the progress
of the chasing. It is supposed that the sulphur
print was the first gleam that lit the way to Maso
Finiguerra's wonderful discovery.

To produce the sulphur-print, a mould was
taken from the engraved vessel or ornament,
which was generally of gold or silver metal, and
from this mould a cast was taken on sulphur.
The lines were then filled in with black, in
order to give a complete idea of what the final
result would be when the design was filled in
with nigellum. Comparatively few of these
sulphurs are in existence, as, the material being
brittle, preservation was difficult. Of those
that I have seen, the shadows are blurred
and formless, but the outlines have stood well.
In some the faces, hands, and flesh-tints appear
as if they have been painted in order to
brighten the effect. There is gilding on some
of these sulphurs, over others, metallic powder
would seem to have been dusted, or a light
solution of copper applied. To an ordinary
observer they have a very curious appearance.
It is as if a thin cake of yellow soap, hard and
dry, has been covered by a fine line engraving
on a thin sheet of mother-of-pearl. Whether
it is permissible to entitle them the first colour-
prints may be a debatable point, but there can

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

be no doubt that there is more play on the sur-
face and more colour than was achieved when
such results were more deliberately sought.

There are on record two or three more, very
early and very interesting, attempts at chromo-
engraving, or rather chromo - printing. The
designation applied to these examples by Weigel
and Passavant is generically " impression in
paste," and the sulphur casts were as directly
responsible for them as for the engravings of
Finiguerra. Passavant divides the three known
varieties into " Velvet-like Impressions," " Em-
broidery-like Impressions," and " Impressions in
Paste," properly so called, or metal engravings
printed in relief.

Of Velvet-like Impressions the only known
specimen was found in Upper Germany. Its
date is supposed to be about 1480. It is, or
was, in the collection of Monsieur Weigel, who,
after the habit of collectors jealous of their
treasures, describes it as " unique." The subject
represented is St. George on horseback. The
peculiar character of the impression has been
produced, apparently, by first covering the
ground or paper with a slight paste of a golden
brown colour, and beating or working this with
a wooden instrument, which must have been
something like a nutmeg-grater, until it assumed
a grained appearance. Over this was laid a
stencil consisting of stars, alternating with a
pattern of berries, three on a stalk. The design
was printed on this elaborate ground from a

52

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

wood-block generously inked ; the whole im-
pression was then dusted over with a velvet
powder before it had time to dry. The effect
resembles the velvet or flock paper of the
present day.

Of Embroidery - LIKE Prints the known
example comes from the Franciscan Convent at
Meissen, and is now in Dresden. Its execution
is also supposed to date from about 1480, but it
is considerably more difficult to define the pro-
cess with certainty. This print represents St.
Francis receiving the Stigmata. The Saint is
kneeling and gazing at the Crucifix, from which
proceed five rays of red light. On the right is
the figure of Brother Elias asleep. The flesh
and the rocks are of a reddish tint, while the
drapery of Brother Elias is reddish brown, the
underneath part blue. That of the Saint is
covered with lines laid in curves or patterns,
grey in colour and evidently intended to repre-
sent embroidery. The ground of this print is
black, as are also the folds of the draperies. The
landscape and trees are green.

Other empreintes en pate, or " paste-prints,"
have been found on paper specially prepared in
some manner to imitate fabric. This rep or
roughened paper holds well the gold - ground
paste which is spread over it. A plate, which
has had a design worked in relief, in grey or
whity- brown substance, is pressed on to this,
then the whole design is dusted over, as in
the above-mentioned impression, with a velvet

53

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

powder which adheres to the sticky surface with
peculiar effect.

These were some of the earliest efforts in the
direction of colour - printing. Peter Schoeffer,
of Mentz, one of the most famous of the early
pioneers of the art of printing, who perhaps,
therefore, should be reckoned as a typographer
rather than an engraver, also made, in the middle
of the fifteenth century, an attempt at colour-
printing, which was ingenious and not unsatis-
factory. His desire was to imitate the illuminated
manuscripts, or missals, which had engaged the
attention of the monks before the introduction
of printing. He certainly succeeded in pro-
ducing some initial letters which closely re-
sembled the painted ones. The means he
employed were comparatively simple. He took
an engraved block, the surface of which was
overlaid with colours, and sunk into it another
block coated with a different colour. He got
his impression therefore with one printing, and
obtained by this means the perfect exactitude
and regularity of outline which was the greatest
difficulty that the early chiaroscurist had to
overcome.

A peculiar interest is attached to Peter
Schoeffer's experiments, from the fact that the
essence of successful colour - printing in the
finished art which gives the title to this book is
that the effect should be wholly produced at
one striking. In the interval between Peter
Schoeffer and Johannes Teyler there seems to

54

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

have been no other attempt made to obtain a
result in colour from a single printing.

Although it is outside my purpose to follow
the evolution, it is interesting to note that not
one of the ideas which underlay the foregoing
experiments has been wasted, and that traces of
each are to be found in the ornamental work,
both here and in France and Germany, not only
in the eighteenth, but in the nineteenth century.
The uses of stencil, emboitage^ prepared paper, and
metallic powders, are amongst the commonplaces
of modern decoration.

Among the specimens, by the way, of Ugo
da Carpi's work, which have survived to the
present day, are a few printed in two colours,
mulberry and green. Whilst I was engrossed
in the romance of his life I omitted to give
details of his methods of working. They may
be taken to be the same as those employed in
Germany ; the superiority of the early Italian
work generally to that of Germany and the Low
Countries is still a debatable point, but I confess
to a preference for the former.

Chiaroscuro-printing, then, was actively pur-
sued during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
in the following manner :

On a block of wood were drawn or engraved
the outlines of a design. In some cases the
deeper shades were added to this first outline-
block, but in most instances the deep shadows
were executed on a second block, while a third
block was used for the half- tints or lighter

55

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

shades. With the three blocks to his hand, the
printer commenced his production. No press
was used, but a roller. The first, or outline-
block, was inked black and an impression taken
on paper. The second block was inked brown
or some other colour, and its engraving printed
over the first. The third block carried yet
another colouring, generally green, and finished
the whole impression. The greatest care was
necessary to secure the register ; that is to say,
to ensure each block being exactly the same size,
and placed in exact position, in printing from it
one over the other. It was only by attention to
this detail that the chiaroscuro became effective.
Want of care in this particular is responsible for
the grotesque eflfects so frequently met with in
old prints.

The root idea, in thus printing separately from
these differently inked blocks, was to give to the
work of the engraver those gradations which the
painter effects with the use of the brush, flat tint
and colouring. Sometimes the practice was to
print from the blocks the various effects of light
and shade, in the same colours but with various
consistencies. The German School, in seeking
in their chiaroscuros to imitate the pictorial
eflTect of colour, used two, or at the most three,
blocks ; the Italians used four or more, and with
much greater success.

The next development along the same lines
was through a combination of metal and wood-
block printing. The outlines were engraved on

56

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

metal, and the wood-blocks, inked in colour, were
superimposed on the black impression taken from
this.

Another combination of wood and metal was
that of engraving the outlines and light shades in
intaglio on copper, and using the engraved wood-
blocks to colour over the impressions.

An easier and simpler way, adopted by some
of the German engravers, was to engrave the
outline on a block of wood, and to work off, on
a proof from it, another block, which, carrying
colour, had such parts hollowed out as were
intended to be left white upon the print. These
white, or high lights, were thus formed by the
ground of the paper.

The foregoing examples indicate, if they do
not exhaust, the attempts made to produce en-
gravings in colour during the fifteenth century
and in the beginning of the sixteenth. It is, of
course, well known that the early block-prints —
the " Paxes," " Little Passions," and " Block
Books " — were habitually coloured by hand, but
neither these, nor the stencil-patterns on playing-
cards, are of serious moment in the history of
colour-printing.

Passing over the beautiful chiaroscuros of
Andrea Andreani produced at the end of the
sixteenth century, the next important contribu-
tions to the portfolio history of engravings in
colour were those made by Hercules Zeghers
early in the seventeenth century.

Hercules Zeghers was a Dutchman, and a

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

painter as well as engraver. There were three
Flemish artists of the same name, but they
appear to have been no relatives or connections
of the enterprising experimentalist, Hercules,
who painted landscapes and animals. He seems
to have enlisted the interest of Rembrandt, for
no less than six of his landscapes occur in the
inventory of that Master's effects taken in 1656.
Little is known of his paintings, but, if they are
to be gauged by his skill as a colour-printer, it
is fair to assume that Rembrandt must have been
guided in his purchase by other considerations
than artistic ones. And this supposition can
be supported by the known facts of Hercules
Zeghers' life and death, which excite more pity
than admiration. He was a confirmed toper,
and was in constant pecuniary and domestic
difficulties. His death occurred through lean-
ing out of a window and waving a cup of
greeting with drunken abandonment to an
acquaintance in the street. He swayed and
tottered, and thrust his body so far through the
narrow casement that, unable in his condition to
regain his balance, he fell forward and broke his
neck.

His so-called colour-prints are very curious
productions. There are many of them in the
British Museum ; landscapes executed severally
in brown, green, and blue tints. To judge from
external evidence it would seem that he etched his
plate and printed from it in a thin coloured paste
on specially prepared paper ; a second metal

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

plate carrying the shadows. But imperfect
register, or want of steadiness in the working,
blurred every effect, and the result is generally
more interesting than beautiful. Some of the
impressions that I have seen, have a suspicion of
aquatint, and it is possible that he anticipated
this discovery, using the acid, however, as a
wash, and not through a ground. In the
majority of the prints the etched lines are lost,
the proposed picture-effect is not achieved, and
the shadows are mere smudges. One outline-
proof in the Museum, however, shows Zeghers
to have been a fine draughtsman, with a bold
and convincing line, and a freedom with the
etching needle, suggesting the influence of the
great master, Rembrandt.

But when the whole result of these experi-
ments is summed up, it must be admitted that
colour-printing, up to the time of Johannes
Teyler, had, after all, not yet arrived. A
picture- engraving had not been produced, and
the nearest approach to an imitation of a wash-
drawing was to be found in Andrea Andreani's
uncoloured chiaroscuros. Copper-plate had taken
the place of niello ; the art of engraving, from
being timorous and tentative, had become bold
and definite. The artist, however, still trusted
entirely to his line, and left nothing of import-
ance to the mechanic who transferred it ; and
the colourist, in every successful production he
has left us, worked on the paper itself, as well as
on the plate or block. Chiaroscuro and stipple

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

were not dreamed of in the same connection,
Ugo da Carpi and Giulio Campagnola remained
the pioneers of a movement which had been
arrested.

Then, almost as simultaneous as had been
the advent of Cranach and Ugo da Carpi, rose
two enthusiasts for colour-printing on the
horizon of Art. Widely separated by race and
country, by language and style, the one using
the new mezzotint, the other the old line, Jakob
Le Blon in England, and Johannes Teyler in
Holland, produced, towards the end of the seven-
teenth century, engravings in colour, which con-
tained, though as yet without amalgamation,
almost every quality essential to the end each
had in view. They brought the art of colour-
printing so near to beauty-point that it becomes
obvious that only the revival and perfection of
the stipple were necessary to establish it com-
pletely as a fine art.

Johannes Teyler antedated his better-known
rival by a few years, but the point is unimport-
ant. The extraordinary work of this master,
however, entitles him to a place in the history
of engraving which, up to now, no writer has
frankly assigned him. Weigel puts him on the
same level with Schenk : Bryan and Redgrave
ignore him entirely. Yet, in the unique and
wonderful book that is known simply as
" Teyler's," there are flowers and classic figures,
landscapes and architectural drawings, birds, an
elephant, and five marvellously articulated studies

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

of the human figure, a variety of subjects that
suggests Hollar, all carefully and delicately
printed in colours. And the date of the book
is about 1680 ! The architectural studies are
ornamented with the wreaths and designs sub-
sequently known as " Louis Seize," and in other
respects the work is remarkable for its prophecy
as well as for its performance.

Johannes Teyler, who is described by Nagler
as painter, draughtsman, and copper-plate en-
graver, was a native of Nymegen, in Holland,
where, early in life, his talents gained him
the position of Mathematical Professor at the
Military College. When this College was
broken up, Johannes Teyler journeyed to Rome
to gratify a taste in Art, which he had hitherto
subordinated to his scholastic position. In Rome
he was speedily recognised as a worthy member
of the Guild of Artists, and generously received
into the Brotherhood, where the nickname of
" Speculatie " was bestowed upon him, probably
in allusion to the restless inventiveness of his
mind. Jacob de Hens, in his biography, alludes
to him freely under this name.

But before Johannes Teyler had had time
to establish himself thoroughly in Rome, he
was recalled to his native land, and offered the
position of Military Engineer to King Frederick I.
of Prussia. The reputation he had acquired in
the Art world at Rome had not, in the opinion
of his countrymen, eclipsed that which he had
already gained for the designing of fortifications

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and the scientific working out of architectural
plans ! In these he was without a rival.

He received this appointment in 1676, when
still, comparatively speaking, a very young man.
But his artistic taste outlived even the rough
routine of his uncongenial work. Although after
this date we hear of no original pictures from
his hand, he seems to have devoted what leisure
he possessed to the reproduction of the pictures
of others, and to the encouragement of decorative
objects generally. His style as an engraver,
judging by the work indisputably his own, is a
curious blend of the Italian and Dutch. He has
something of the grace and correctness of the
former, something of the vigour and variety of
the latter. But there is a hardness in his
shadows, a dryness and lack of freedom in his
line, which eventually led him to the experiment
of adding colour, in the form of printing-ink, to
his unsatisfactory engravings ; and the first few
of these he printed himself. He was so pleased
with the result, he saw such immense possibilities
in the invention, that, on the premises of the
College where he had in his time been so
brilliant a pupil, and so successful a Professor,
he founded a School, or Factory, for the execu-
tion of copper-plate printing in colours, both
of engravings, and for wall- hangings on linen
or other fabric, after the model of the Roman
Art Guild.

Almost at the same time, as will be seen,
Jakob Christoph Le Blon was experimenting in

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the same field. But Le Blon was producing his
effects on the old chiaroscuro lines, though, of
course, with very different results, because he
engraved in mezzotint. That is to say, he was
printing one plate over the other. Teyler, on
the other hand, had struck out a line of his
own, and he painted or inked his copper-plate
once, and procured his complete impression by
one printing from it ; which is the manner, with
variations, finally adopted by the famous colour-
printers of the eighteenth century.

There are several curious points to be noted
about the colour -work from the Nymegen
factory. I say the work from the factory
advisedly, as it is impossible to regard the 173
specimens of engraving and colour-printing in
Teyler's volume as the work of one man, especially
as that very man held a Government appointment
at that time, and was also writing a book on
Military Architecture ! This book, quarto, and
consisting of forty-one sheets, with a title-page
engraved by B. Stoopendaal, was published at
Rotterdam in 1697 ; and contains instructions as
to calculating measurements for land-surveying
and buildings by means of Algebra. Johannes
Teyler was full of surprises, and well deserved
his nickname of " Speculatie." But nothing is
to be gained by ascribing to him more than he
could possibly have achieved.

The prints, then, that emanated from the
Nymegen factory, although they in no way tend
to change my opinion that colour only com-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

pletely serves a stipple-engraver, yet show very
clearly the assistance which a chromo- printer
can derive from an engraver who is working
specially for his advantage. In some of the
figures in this book, for instance, the difficulty
in arriving at flesh-tint by line-work is met by
an alteration in the method. The point of the
graver is used, and a combination of the maniere
criblee, dots and strokes, irregular and abrupt,
with genuine stippling, is employed with con-
siderable advantage to the engraving. The
harshness is subdued, if not entirely overcome.
That consummation was left for Bartolozzi to
achieve ; Teyler had only an intuition as to
where his invention would carry him, not an
absolute knowledge.

As it is unlikely the reader will come across
this book of Johannes Teyler, for it is described
as "unique" in Mullers Catalogue of Rare Books,
published in Amsterdam in 1868, a fuller descrip-
tion of it may be found of interest.

The title in MS. is in an engraved border,
printed in colours ; on the reverse of the title is
a plate engraved in colours, with a medallion and
the following inscription : — Quam nee Parrhasius
palmatn carpsit, nee Apelles, Teilerus punciis atque
colore tulit. Then follow 173 plates of various
sizes, folio, quarto, or octavo, representing nine
portraits (among others G. Kneller in folio, and
two copies after Van Dyck ; eight after Zeghers
and A. Stalbent), eleven views in Amsterdam,
fifteen views in Rome, on the Rhine and else-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

where, ten flower pieces, thirty-four mythologi-
cal and allegorical figures, thirteen Angels, four
marine views, nine academical figures, four ana-
tomical plates, thirty-four birds (among them two
cocks, life-size), quadrupeds, three reptiles, etc.
These prints are mounted on old Dutch paper
of folio size. Only one plate bears a name,
J. D. AvEELE, none of them a date. Among the
plates are one portrait and an academical figure
which seem to have been coloured by hand —
possibly as a pattern.

At the beginning of the book this notice in
manuscript appears, written by one of the few
descendants of Teyler : —

This book, printed by Teyler, is not only rare, but abso-
lutely unique. It is the only copy in existence, and its
existence was unknown, having remained in the family of its
author. Houbraken, Weyermann v.d. Willigen were only
aware of a few engravings in chromotype. This collection is
especially of inestimable value, since it proves in the clearest
manner that chromotype with a single plate was in existence
before 1700.

This inscription, as will be seen, claims for
the illustrious ancestor of the commentator the
invention, the engraving, and the printing of the
contents. But a certain discount may fairly be
allowed for family pride, leaving Johannes Teyler
still with the credit of his discovery : the dis-
covery that it was possible to paint a copper-
plate in coloured inks, in such a manner as to
produce a coloured picture in one printing. All
the rest followed naturally.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The method adopted for the colour-printing
was the same in every one of these 173 engrav-
ings. One of them, by the way, is in mezzotint,
the majority are in line, and there are a few
etchings. My own theory is that the volume
was a specimen-book, and that it comprised not
only the plates Teyler engraved himself, but all
those he could borrow or purchase on which to
try the colour-printing which had for him such
an irresistible fascination. The special difference
between his work and that of the eighteenth
century is that he did not ground his plate.

Roughly speaking, to ground a plate for colour-
printing, means, inking it over entirely with
one neutral tint, wiping it fairly closely, and
then proceeding to colour. Teyler put his
colour direct on his plate by means of printing
balls, which, by the way, were suggested as a
novelty fifty years later by Cochin when writing
of Le Blon's work. The French printers called
these printing balls " poupees." They were
merely pieces of linen or material rolled tight,
and tied in such a manner that they had a point
which carried the ink, and they were used very
much in the same way as a brush would be.
Stumps and camel's - hair brushes, in lieu of
printing balls, or as a supplement to them, were
used by the later workmen, with an improved
effect as far as delicacy and accuracy of touch
are concerned. Most of the Downman prints,
for instance, seem to have been done by the
brush.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

It would be very nearly impossible to get a
good tone, or indeed any tone, in the proper
sense of the word, into an eighteenth -century
stipple-engraving without the use of this neutral
ground of which I have spoken ; a white line of
demarcation between the tints employed would
be very apt to occur. Such white line, or lines,
are certainly to be seen in nearly all the Teyler
colour-prints. Still, though he employed neither
retroussage nor graduated wiping, nor any of the
delicate aids to shading which have combined to
produce the miniature-like effect for which we
look, it is only by means of a magnifying-
glass, or by experiments conducted on a similar
plan, that one can realise how little in concep-
tion Teyler's methods differ from those of the
eighteenth century. He was handicapped by
the method of engraving, and by the absence of
ground, yet in many ways he fell little short of
eighteenth-century performances.

In Teyler's book, for instance, there is a set of
birds with plumage, notably a penguin, in which
every delicate feather has been painted on the
copper-plate by the printer in its special colour.
And not only has this been done, but a trick,
which is generally supposed to have been practised
for the first time in the eighteenth-century work-
shops, has been used to heighten the tints of the
breast and bill. That is, whilst the ink was still
wet in the lines of the engraving, and the plate
slightly warm before being passed through the
press, a little dry colour in powder has been

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

dusted carefully in special places over the plate.
This method of heightening the tint, generally
a red one, may thus easily have been handed
down by international tradition through the
older printers, instead of having been invented,
as was supposed, by the Mr. Gamble who
claimed it as his own about the middle of the
eighteenth century, along with many other
inventions and improvements in colour-printing.
Some of the work in this book by Johannes
Teyler has been finished by hand ; it is a com-
paratively very small portion and by far the
worst. The pure colour-prints ; the birds, the
flowers, and some of the classic figures, are per-
fectly wonderful specimens of picture-engravings,
and would do credit to any century. Johannes
Teyler, therefore, may justly be acclaimed the
Inventor of genuine colour-printing.

68

CHAPTER IV

Jakob Christoph Le Blon, his life and his invention of Colour-
Printing mezzotints — His process described, and its evolution
from Chiaroscuro traced — His influence on contemporary
engravers — Coloritto.

With the appearance of Jakob Christoph Le
Blon the scene changes finally from Italy and
Holland to England. That I might have arrived
at my destination more easily perhaps, via France,
I am well aware. But the history of colour-
printing in France has been so well, and so
recently, written by Baron Roger Portalis that I
prefer to follow the story, once it has reached
the year 1700, through the men more intimately
concerned in establishing the art in this country,
where it journeyed soon after it had met the
stipple, and where it found its legitimate and
final resting-place.

But this meeting with the stipple was not yet.
Another stage of the journey had to be passed
through ; and this stage was the one made memor-
able by the man whose name heads this chapter.

It is not alone what Le Blon himself achieved
in the domain of colour-printing that makes him

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

of such paramount importance in the history of
the art, but the impetus he gave to all the
others. It may have been the personal fascina-
tion of the man, with his brilliant Bohemianism,
it may have been the strength of his character,
it may have been only that the hour had struck
for the establishment of colour-printing. What-
ever the cause, there is no doubt Le Blon inspired
his surroundings with so much enthusiasm, and
so much eagerness, that he became the pioneer
of a whole school, a school that branched off
into by-paths, that sent its pupils into strange
countries, working in strange directions, and
gradually disseminating the art that was its
raison d'etre throughout the whole of Europe.

Le Blon stands out as a prominent figure
at the end of the seventeenth century and the
commencement of the eighteenth. In a sense
he might be called the Robert Louis Steven-
son of the engraving world, although, per-
haps, in some ways William Morris was more
immediately his prototype than Stevenson. A
very slight character-study of Le Blon, how-
ever, while showing the decorative desire
of Morris and his wonderful contemporary
influence, yet proves that the Frankfort colour-
printer had nothing of the modern poet-
decorator's steadiness and solidity, of his fine
simplicity, breadth of sympathy, and power of
work. Le Blon was all dash and invention,
restlessness and spirit. He made his home in
many countries, and was handicapped by cir-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

cumstances as the romantic enthusiast of Samoa
was by health. The analogy between the long
list of books of adventure that followed the pub-
lication of Treasure Island and the long list of
" Inventions " in colour-printing consequent on
the publication of Coloritto, will appear im-
mediately we consider the greatness of the
contemporary enthusiasm aroused in both cases
in relation to the net value of the artistic
production.

Le Blon was already past his first manhood
when he came to London to introduce his
colour-prints. He opened a studio, where he
was surrounded by pupils and apprentices, a
band of young disciples who subsequently spread
his name and his methods both here and on the
Continent. The D'Agotys and the L' Admirals,
Pond and Knapton, Jackson and Elisha Kirkall,
had no other inspiration than his, strengthened
by the example of the early chiaroscurists, in
achieving their widely diflferent results. And
in their hands colour-printing rested, until the
stipple, like a new illuminant, brought copper-
plate chromo-printing to its final brilliancy and
dignity.

That Jakob Christoph Le Blon had genius,
the subtle indefinable quality which cannot be
transmitted to any disciple, is proved by even
a superficial comparison of his work with that
of any of his competitors, either contempo-
rary or subsequent to the melancholy close of his
tempestuous career. He obtained magnificent

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

results, although everything he did was opposed
to what we now feel is the essential spirit of
successful colour-printing. That is to say, he
engraved his plates, for colour, in mezzotint,
and he employed three or more plates for each
picture. The art was only brought to per-
fection when both mezzotint and multi-printing
were discarded. Yet nothing has ever been pro-
duced in the way of picture-engraving to rival
certain fruit pieces of Le Blon's. They are so
astonishingly fine in their modelling, in their
shading, in the general impression of bloom and
richness and fragrance they convey, that, seeing
them side by side with the very best prints in
colours of fifty years later, it is impossible to
deny the possession of genius to their producer.

The artist's life was as varied and full of
interest as his work. He had the misfortunes of
his talents and the disappointments of his tem-
perament. He was born in Frankfort-on-the-
Main in 1 670. Teyler*s factory at Nymegen was
then already established, and I cannot resist the
conviction that some rumour of it must have
reached Frankfort, of which a vague youthful
reminiscence may have influenced Le Blon later,
indirectly, perhaps unconsciously, in his desire to
produce pictures by mechanical means. It is
the more probable that this rumour had at least
reached the ears of Le Blon's parents, since they
were silk-mercers, and were employed in the
manufacture of tapestry-hangings. The German
keenness in matters of business is of no recent

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

growth, and hints of a new covering for walls, of
linen printed in colours, would have been of in-
finite interest to these industrious old burghers.
Doubtless, therefore, they discussed the new
enterprise in their family circle, quoting it, per-
haps, as an incentive to the flagging industry of
their erratic son. Jakob was more than an
erratic son ; he was unsatisfactory in many ways.
The warehouse, high and gloomy, dusty and
dull, repelled him. He played truant often,
and when he was not playing truant he was
playing pranks with the other apprentices.

The elders were of the type immortalised by
Rembrandt, heavy, worthy people, who could
neither understand nor sympathise with vagrant
moods and personal irregularities. Fortunately
Konrad Meyer came to Frankfort while Jakob
was still a lad. Konrad Meyer was a great
painter and a great engraver in that little world
to which Jakob already aspired, and when he
encouraged the ''^fau/enzer^'' looked at his draw-
ings with approval, and told him, in his guttural
tongue, that " he ought to be a painter," the
account books had no longer a chance. Jakob's
idleness became a thing of the past, although it
was pencil and brush, chalk and crayon, that
absorbed him, whilst the gloomy old warehouse,
the phlegmatic old parents, faded into the dim
background of unconsidered things.

But parental discipline was stricter two cen-
turies ago than it is now, and in this case it was
too strict for Jakob. He ran away from home

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

before he was sixteen, and tramped to Zurich,
having numerous adventures on the way. At
Zurich he found that Konrad Meyer had not
forgotten the idle apprentice, and was willing to
find him employment, to give him incidental
instruction. In Konrad Meyer's painting-room
Jakob Christoph Le Blon received his first lessons
in art, and took characteristic advantage of them.
He had from his very earliest youth a singular
manual skill, an aptitude and quickness of com-
prehension that enabled him immediately to
take special rank among his fellow - students.
Once he had learnt the use of the graving-tool,
he could fill in backgrounds, draw a drapery, and
add ornamentation with equal facility. Konrad
Meyer has left us nearly 900 plates in addition
to his paintings, but it is not difficult to trace, in
many of them, his wayward pupil's freedom of
hand. It was the brush, and not the tool, that
was Jakob Le Blon's first love, and it was as a
painter, and not as an engraver, that he played
the trick on his master which led to his leav-
ing Zurich almost as abruptly as he had left
Frankfort.

Konrad Meyer had a great reputation in his
native city as a portrait- painter, and was very
jealous of his reputation and, naturally, of his
clientele. Relations began to be strained between
him and Jakob Le Blon very soon after the latter
reached his adolescence. Jakob was too vivid,
too prominent, too self-assertive, to please his
autocratic and belauded master. Visitors to the

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

studio took too much notice of the handsome
young man. As for the ladies, they were no less
indulgent to him at this period of his career
than they were later, and, it may easily be
believed, he was no less responsive. Still, it was
not entirely to the fair sex he owed his banish-
ment from Zurich, rather to his own miscon-
duct. Konrad Meyer was taken ill, and his
illness lasted through the autumn far into the
winter, and it seemed as if the spring might
appear before he would completely recover.
Then rumours spread about, that his recovery
was doubtful, that it was hopeless, that he had
lost the use of his hands, that he had painted his
last picture ; his obituary was spoken in Bier-
gUrten and discussed at street corners. Le Blon's
youthful impatience could not await the event,
he engraved, and had printed, a card, of which
the following is a fair translation : —

Konrad Meyer has appointed his celebrated pupil, Jakob
Christoph Le Blon, his successor. This talented young man
is already familiar to visitors to the studio by his attention and
amiability. Many of the engravings, so much admired, of the
heads of leading citizens, owe their principal merit to him, and
he has for some time supplemented his master's failing efforts
with the brush. He will be at home to sitters between ten
and four, and confidently asks and expects the patronage of the
town.

He seems to have been granted the coun-
tenance he expected. Konrad Meyer, returning
to his studio, found him engaged in painting the
abundant figure of Frau Buergermeisterin Von
Meyssens. The old man was not too much

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

shaken by illness, nor too feeble of arm, to fall
upon the aspiring artist with tongue and stick.
Public opinion was all in his favour, and it seems
that even Herr Buergermeister Von Meyssens
was sympathetic, in his official, or perhaps in his
marital, capacity. Jakob might have defended
himself, but he preferred to leave Zurich. He
had learnt all Konrad Meyer could teach, and he
was ever of a roving nature. The old man lived
a very short time after this episode ; he died in
1689. But it was not Jakob Le Blon who suc-
ceeded to his position in Zurich.

Le Blon went back from Zurich to Frank-
fort, but was dissatisfied with himself, or with
his parents, with his neighbours who refused to
recognise his talents, or with his painting, which
always fell short of his conceptions. He went
back for a short time to the factory, but he
never acquired business habits, he never learned
the necessity for keeping accounts. He only de-
veloped the belief that he possessed the first by
right of inheritance, and that the second was un-
necessary : a belief that brought him nothing but
misfortune. The factory was neither light enough
nor beautiful enough for him. Once more he
acted with precipitation. He left Frankfort
abruptly, and went to Rome. There in 1 696, still
in the prime of his early manhood, we find him
studying painting under the famous Carlo Maratti,
a master who taught him to appreciate the master-
pieces of Italian art. Very quickly he fell under
the influence of Guido Reni, the Carraccis, and

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Raphael, an influence of which we see the full
effect later on. He copied assiduously, worked
hard and strenuously during this period of his
career, and nothing, for the moment, was heard
of idleness or dissipation. Always, on the other
hand, we hear of the friends he made, of the
young men who followed him admiringly, and
the old ones who found pleasure in his society ;
always we hear of the wonderful personal fascina-
tion, which nowadays we should call magnetism,
attracting men of all ages, tastes, and dispositions.

That he worked well is attested by the fact
that he became as free with the etching-tool as
he had been with the graver, and mastered the
mystery of colour which, as he himself admitted,
had eluded him in Switzerland. This knowledge
he employed, strangely enough, considering the
boldness of his modelling and the freedom of his
hand, in miniature-painting.

One of the valuable friends Le Blon made in
Rome was Bonaventura Van Overbeck, painter,
engraver, and author, to whom we owe many of
these and subsequent details. So impressed was
Overbeck with Le Blon, that he persuaded him to
leave Maratti, and accompany him to Amsterdam,
with a view to a career as a miniature-painter.
There was never any difficulty in persuading Le
Blon to a fresh move, and in 1702 we find him
established in Amsterdam, already with a repu-
tation among many sitters whose portraits he
painted in miniature, and for whom he afterwards
scraped mezzotint plates.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

It is impossible to overrate the importance
of the next episode in Le Blon's career, for it
changed the bright, gay, if restless, painter of
Bohemian habit, into a man full of domestic
anxieties, carrying always a burden for which
his shoulders were unfitted. Amsterdam, with
its dull phlegmatic people, was a strange place
for adventures, the licentiousness of the Court
being merely a tradition in the town. The line
of demarcation was clearly defined between
citizen and noble. Yet almost from the begin-
ning Le Blon conquered the phlegm of the
people, and overstepped the social barrier : all
classes received him, all classes made much of
him, while he passed his time with wine,
women, and the many arts to which he was
always applying his inventive mind.

His handsome figure was well set off by
the long coat with its wide sleeves and hip
pockets, with flaps all elaborately frogged and
braided, knee-breeches, silk stockings and buckled
shoes. He wore a brown wig, parted in the
middle, with long curls tied back in a fashion
he had brought from Rome, and on which his
three-cornered hat sat becomingly. His bon-
homie^ his privileged air, his easy familiarity, his
fine presence, seem to have worked havoc in the
hearts of the impressionable Vrows who sat
to him. Van Overbeck took a pride in the
successes of his protege, and made him the hero
of a song. Perhaps it was this song that lured
in his direction the admiring glances of that shy

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

young maiden, the Fraulein Amelia Van Over-
beck, the only child of the house. However,
once those admiring brown eyes had been raised,
they could see nothing beyond the bold glances,
the debonair figure, the handsome head of
Monsieur Jakob. Nobody could blame the Herr
Van Overbeck for objecting to any love affair
between them. The miniature-painter had the
finest qualities in the world as a boon companion ;
he could make a merry night of it, drink his
elders under the table, sing his song and tell his
story till the morn, then go home with his
head erect, steady on his feet, ready to chuck
under the chin the first market-woman he might
meet, and take toll of her for her industry and
early rising. He could be content with four
hours' sleep or less, start the morning with a
bottle, and be ready for his first sitter before his
overnight companions had realised their head-
aches. He was the admiration of Amsterdam,
but not only on account of his talents. The
quantity of wine he could carry, and the number
of women with whom he intrigued, excited the
town. None of these qualities are such as to
ensure domestic happiness, and Van Overbeck
loved the child of his old age. He has painted
her in a sitting attitude, her slender girlish hands
folded on her lap, the high head-dress out of all
proportion to the slight young figure. Her
dress is of some white material, duller than
satin, with two flounces wide and full ; her
bodice is of velvet, cut square and laced across

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the white chemisette down to the pointed waist.
The small pale face with its delicate features,
seems to have in it nothing of strength or deter-
mination or passion, the brown eyes are half
frightened, half shy, the lips thin, uncertain,
puckered a little. She looks a child, and a weak
one. Yet that child, looking so quaint against
the background of embroidered curtain, with all
the richly decorated and elaborate accessories, had
strength enough to turn the current of a man's
life, and power enough to wreck his career.

Who was the pursuer and who the pursued
is of no moment. Only we hear that Le Blon
made nothing of barred doors and bolted win-
dows. Though the maiden was shut up in her
father's house and apparently could only see her
lover through the high narrow windows, Van
Overbeck discovered that they still met. Later,
he learned that no precautions were sufficient to
keep two lovers apart when the lady was more
than willing, and the gentleman had a reputa-
tion for gallantry to sustain. Scandal ran freely
through that flat and dyke -cut country. It
buzzed unrestrained about Van Overbeck's heavy
oak door. Finally it drove the child through
church portals into Le Blon's arms.

It was to the influence of Amelia Van Over-
beck that his friends attributed the outburst of
extravagance in living, the decline of sitters,
the gradual reverse from popularity and good
fortune. Le Blon was too proud to ask assistance
of the father-in-law who had rejected him,

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Amelia was too jealous of the husband she
had won with such difficulty to encourage or
assist him in obtaining fresh patrons. Trouble
of all varieties followed the marriage, and Van
Overbeck made no sign of reconciliation.

It was in 1704 that Le Blon issued his first
picture-engraving. He was overwhelmed at the
time with money anxieties, with the exactions of
a spoilt and extravagant wife, unhappy amid her
new surroundings. Misfortune aroused his spirit
and stimulated his inventiveness.

If he might no longer paint portraits of the
stout Dutch ladies who excited his wife's jealousy,
then he would reproduce the works of the great
Masters who had enthralled him in Italy, he
would bring Art, the Art that was greater than
his own, within the reach of these burgesses
who were shunning his studio. Once the idea
flashed across his mind, he pursued it with that
overpowering energy which was characteristic
of him in his middle age as in his youth. He
convinced himself that the interpretation of the
old Masters by engraving only required colour
to make it more than popular, to make it, in
fact, a necessity. He forgot his domestic worries
in the pursuance of the idea. As an engraver
he felt he could call no man his master. Now
the desire to be also a printer, and to do his
printing in colours, so that he might translate,
as it were, not only the spirit, but the vision, of
his Italian idols, became suddenly an absorbing
passion with him. This was his fine aspiration,

81 G

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

although he tried to persuade publishers that his
object was purely commercial ; everywhere he
said there was a fortune in the idea, always he
was experimenting for its accomplishment.

From all that is known of Le Blon, it is im-
possible to believe that the commercial aspect
of the venture presented itself to his mind when
he was actually employed in reproducing the
pictures which had enraptured his boyhood.
The artist in him was always dominant. Of
course, in the excitement of the new scheme he
lost what little remained to him of his practice
as a miniature-painter. Then his wife found
that her old friends held aloof, and her jealous
temper made it impossible for her to attract new
ones. Nor was she content that Le Blon should
gather round him the companions who had
hitherto thronged the studio. In the end she
made him leave Amsterdam.

From the day of his marriage in 1702 to the
day of his death in Paris in 1741 ill-luck never
deserted him. He was always in debt and always
in difficulties. He was never free from conten-
tion with a wife of peevish temper, brought up
in the midst of a luxury he was unable to give
her, spoilt and indulged from her babyhood, as
overbearing as her father, but without his intel-
ligence ; selfish and exacting. Le Blon took
her away from Amsterdam in 1706, when her
father died without having forgiven either of
them. They wandered, unhappily enough, about
the Continent for some time, Le Blon always

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

experimenting to perfect colour-printing, always
making friends whom she quickly lost for him,
always on the eve of winning a fortune which
never came.

It was in 1720 that he arrived in London, set
up a studio, advertised his invention, and won
the appreciation and renown which brought him
everything but cash.

Among Le Blon's ventures in the exploitation
of the new art was the promotion of a company
for the engraving of pictures to be sold at cheap
rates, the manufacture of woven tapestries, and
for printed paper-hangings, all in colours, such
as were then imported only from Brabant. In
this enterprise he had the active support of some
very influential personages, among whom were :
Colonel Sir John Guise, who, a few years later,
distinguished himself so valorously in the dis-
astrous expedition against Carthagena ; General
Lord Carpenter, the gallant dragoon leader, who
had taken so prominent a part in suppressing the
171 5 rebellion, and had succeeded the Duke of
Argyll in command of the forces in Scotland ;
Lord Hunsdon, Lord Percival, and that noble
connoisseur's relative and constant correspondent,
David Dering.

Of these. Lord Percival, the friend not only of
Pope and Bishop Berkeley, but of all the artists
and literati of the day, appears to have given
the most practical encouragement to the venture,
and several references to the " Picture Office,"
as it was called, are to be found in his corrc-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

spondence. He had always taken interest in
the art of engraving, and had some years previ-
ously gratified the Grand Duke of Saxony by the
gift of a book of John Smith's mezzotints. His
letters give evidence that he thought very highly
of Le Blon's colour-printing and its future. He
presented some specimens to his brother Philip
Percival, the Member of Parliament, who ex-
pressed himself delighted with them, and com-
missioned others. The bill for these which
Lord Percival forwarded to his brother shows in
detail the subjects of the prints which the Picture
Office was turning out and the prices charged.

" Two children, hand unknown, i os. ; Rebecca,
after Caretch {sic), 12s. ; Susanna, after Picairi,
I2S. ; Magdalene, after Caratch, los. ; Holy
Family, after Baroccio, 15s. ; Virgin, after
Raphael, 1 5s." Lord Percival writes : — " The
Office has since put out a St. Catherine, after
Correggio, and our Saviour and St. John the
Baptist, after Vandyke," and adds, with a gener-
ous burst of enthusiasm, " Our modern painters
can't come near it [Le Blon's invention] with
their colours, and if they attempt a copy, make
us pay as many guineas as now we give shillings."

But the course of true art does not always
run smooth, especially when it is run as a busi-
ness by unbusinesslike persons. On the 27th
March 1722 Lord Percival writes :

" The Picture project has suffered under a
great deal of mismanagement, but yet improves
much."

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Next we hear of distrust and dissatisfaction
amongst the shareholders, who demand a General
Meeting, very much as nineteenth-century share-
holders would do. Of this meeting we have a
detailed description written by David Dering
to Lord Percival. The gathering numbered
fully fifty, and the chair was taken by the gallant
Colonel, Sir John Guise, whose position can
scarcely have been a sinecure. During the
reading of an account of the Company's history,
which cast several reflections upon Le Blon,
who, by the way, is referred to indifferently as
Le Blon, and Le Bland, the off^ended engraver
constantly interrupted the proceedings, crying
emphatically, " ye declare que cela est faux.''

But the inexorable logic of figures was not to
be gainsaid. Under Le Blon's direction, accord-
ing to the Manager's " Paper of Facts," £s^^'^
had been expended in producing 4000 prints,
which, if all were sold at the prices fixed,
would involve the Company in a loss of ^2000.
Whereas, under the management of a man named
Guine, temporarily appointed by the directors,
an expenditure of jTaooo had in ten months
produced 5000 pictures, which, if sold as they
were priced, ought to render a profit of ^1600.

Evidently the original Company had been
already re- organised, and this M. Guine had
introduced a new method which seemed to
promise quicker and more profitable returns than
Le Blon's ; for the Managers, or Directors as
we should call them, estimated that with the

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

new method, 14,000 prints ought to be taken
from the twenty-five plates then in being, and
together with the 5000 already produced, these
should, if all sold, bring in jT 12,000.

Up to date, however, the accounts showed
that the Company had sold not more than ^600
worth of prints, and it is permissible to suppose
that these were produced by Le Blon, the
originator of the enterprise. As to the tapestry-
weaving branch of the venture, the Company

had spent jC95°' ^"^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^7 ^^^ ^°
show was a woven child's head and a piece of
silk which would yield about ^£30. Clearly
the Picture Office was not a very flourishing
concern, and notwithstanding all the resources
of his inventive powers Le Blon could hardly
hope to convince even his aristocratic supporters
that a balance on the wrong side was necessary
to prove his artistic success.

The failure of the Picture Office was followed
by the bankruptcy of Le Blon. And this was
only the beginning of his misfortunes in England ;
misfortunes to which no harsher name need be
applied. They were not due to dishonesty or
want of industry, but possibly to a certain
extravagance in living, and an insurmountable
hopefulness and belief in himself.

His career in England was one of disappoint-
ment and disaster. Yet always where he moved
satellites circled round him. Call them friends,
call them pupils, call them what one will,
wherever Le Blon was, there were the men,

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

hanging on his words, copying his work, dogging
his steps, eager for his praise.

After the factory had failed Le Blon wrote a
book, or treatise, on his invention. He called it
Coloritto, dedicated it to Sir Robert Walpole, and
published it in French and English, together
with a dozen examples of mezzotint in colours.
Even Walpole's name was not sufficient to sell
the book, and finally Le Blon fled to Paris to
escape his creditors, dying there, very poor but
never miserable, in 1741, leaving behind him
half a hundred imitators, and the printing in
colours from copper-plate engraving as an estab-
lished industry.

That he had genius is suggested by the work
he has left ; that he worked on the wrong lines
is proved by the superior results obtained by men
who hardly possessed talent.

The formula of Coloritto is as follows : —

There are only three primitive colours. By mixing these
three in various proportions all the others and their various
shades can be obtained. They can also be compounded so as
to destroy each other and produce black. In order to procure
engravings in colour, it is, therefore, only necessary to engrave
three plates for successive printings for each picture according
to a previously prepared colour-scheme or plan.

It is interesting to note here that this
principle, carried to its legitimate and ultimate
conclusion, is the one actually in use to-day,
and most successfully employed by Mr. Carl
Hentschel in his " Three - Colour Printing
Factory." Except that the plates are pre-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

pared by " process," instead of being engraved,
and the colour-scheme being obtained by photo-
graphy, and considerably simplified to meet
modern requirements of speed and cheapness,
Le Blon's instructions for printing in colours are
almost accurately followed in Mr. Hentschel's
workshops.

Le Blon's book goes on to explain that, after
a plan has been made of the painting to be
imitated, showing where the presence of the
three simple colours is necessary, another should
be made giving the proper outlines and the
degrees of strength, that the three plates ought
to be engraved to correspond with the second
plan, so that they should print each of the
three colours separately exactly on the places
where they are wanted, and in the right propor-
tion. The register must be exact.

Le Blon laid stress upon the importance of
using only transparent colours, and this difficulty,
which he himself had experienced from the
beginning, he always considered the most in-
superable, because, though Prussian blue and
lake, for instance, were colours sufficiently
transparent for his purpose, there did not exist
a transparent yellow, and he experimented con-
stantly, but without success, in the hopes of find-
ing one. He insisted upon the blue being light
in the pigment, as otherwise it was too over-
powering, and he advised that all three colours
should be as bright as possible. He thought
that mezzotint engravings were more suited than

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

any other to be printed in colours, and gave
various unconvincing reasons for his belief.
The multiplicity of plates was also a part of
his creed ; and during the latter part of his stay
in England he used four, and sometimes even
five, to get certain effects of shade and high
lights, with the transparency already alluded to.
His principle was still that of the old cameo, or
chiaroscuro, printing.

His own method of preparing his plates was
as follows :

The three copper-plates were first accurately
fitted the one over the other ; they were all
three grounded, or rocked, with the same care
and thoroughness as if a complete mezzotint
engraving had to be scraped on each one. On
three papers, of the same size as the plates, were
then sketched the places for the three primitive
colours in accordance with the plan already pre-
pared, and tracings from these papers were
rubbed on to the plates, and all the parts of each
plate that were not to convey a particular colour
were scraped and burnished as in working for
the high lights in an ordinary mezzotint. The
parts that were to convey the colour were after-
wards worked upon, and, where the higher lights
were to be, the grain of the ground was again
scraped away ; where full colour was wanted the
ground was left untouched. Constant reference
was made to the colour-scheme, and the scraping
was resorted to, or the ground left, according as
the combination was wanted in depths ; to produce

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

orange or purple ; or to diminish to brown
or grey, or merely to shades of different degrees.
Although the greater part of the engraving was
done in mezzotint, the graver was used for
strengthening shades and correcting outlines.
Sometimes two plates were used for the same
colour in order to produce a stronger effect, and
this second plate was always grained with the
berceau, a steel instrument with almost imper-
ceptible teeth, finer than that usually employed
for mezzotint ; the second plate was also found
useful for glazing and softening the colours. As
to the order of the printing, the least important
colour was used first and the most important
colour last.

It will be seen that this complicated and
lengthy process necessitated engraver and printer
working together. As a matter of fact, both
with Le Blon and his pupils, the engraver
printed his own work, at least, until a perfect
proof was obtained. In the hands of inferior
engravers Le Blon's process gave rise to so
many disappointments, that the efforts of all
the engravers and print -publishers of the day,
who envied him his results, were concentrated
on the search for simpler methods of printing
in colours. It was this that led to the open-
armed reception of the single printing of copper-
plate stipple - prints, as will be seen almost
immediately.

Nobody has ever approached Le Blon's
coloured mezzotint work in brilliancy, softness,

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

or richness of effect. Colour-printing in the
manner of Le Blon needed brains, artistic feel-
ing, all the knowledge that he had acquired in
his laborious days in Italy, and, above all, just
that touch of genius which lifts his work out
of the region where art criticism sets up a
narrow-minded and academic opposition to the
colour-printing of engravings.

It is an axiom with men who write about
art that any endeavour to perpetuate the works
of the great Masters by engraving is legitimate
only when it is a translation and not an imita-
tion ; that, through painful efforts at chromatic
similitude, the print loses its picturesque charac-
teristics, without acquiring others, and if it gains
at all in richness, it loses considerably more in
dignity.

So wrote Charles Blanc in his Grammaire des
Arts de Dessin, but, by not making an exception
in favour of the work of Jakob Christoph Le
Blon, it seems to me he allowed prejudice to
outweigh evidence.

91

CHAPTER V

Le Blon's influence at work — Colour-Printing in England in the
first half of the eighteenth century — Elisha Kirkall — Jakob and
Jan L'Admiral — The Gautier D'Agotys — John Skippe — Pond
and Knapton — John Baptist Jackson, the last of the experi-
mentalists.

The impetus given by Le Blon proved strong and
lasting. The first fifty years of the eighteenth
century saw numberless attempts at colour-print-
ing both for fabrics and for engravings. Aqua-
tint was struggling through its delicate infancy
and was tentatively used in light washes. Metal
plates in combination with wood-blocks, multi-
printing from both or either, line engraving with
faces and hands in coloured inks, mezzotints
printed in shades of green and orange, were
amongst the experiments made.

But all this amounted to little more than an
unsuccessful wooing of an elusive spirit. Le
Blon's success was personal, and proved nothing
but his own greatness. The strange adventures
of colour-printing and engraving were not to
find a happy ending until the stipple joined their
hands under the protecting segis of Bartolozzi.
Nevertheless some of these adventures were suffi-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

ciently important and interesting to merit narra-
tion. There were among the earlier English
colour-printers of the eighteenth century a few
men whose names cannot be omitted in consider-
ing the genesis of the art. The most notable of
these was Elisha Kirkall, the least valuable was
John Skippe.

Elisha Kirkall was born in Sheffield. He
was the son of a locksmith, and taught himself
engraving on arms and metal-plates, under very
much the same conditions that inspired the six-
teenth-century niello- workers. He married
before he was out of his apprenticeship, and
apparently without waiting for the parental
sanction. Under the circumstances it became
necessary for him to leave Sheffield and venture
into the Metropolis to seek his fortune. But,
although without the parental consent, this
marriage proved a fortunate one for young
Kirkall. His trade-card, dated 1707, has his
wife's name in addition to his own, and she
seems to have assisted him in the business part
of his life. This trade -card, by the way, is
printed from a wood-block, but the receipt form
used by the Kirkalls is from a metal -plate.
Elisha soon gave up engraving in relief and
became an admirable mezzotinter. It was in
this manner that he executed and published
sixteen views of shipping after W. Van de Velde
the younger. He printed them mostly in green
ink, with a few in various shades of yellow
and brown. He also pirated " The Harlot's

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Progress " after Hogarth, and issued it in green
mezzotint. The engraving, however, is not up
to the standard of Kirkall's later w^ork. Just at
this time he hit accidentally on the discovery
that a copper-plate could be inked in two colours
and a picture produced by one printing from it.
A beautiful engraving after Van Huysum, which
he brought out in 1724, is printed in a light
sepia, but has the sky and background in blue.
The strange thing about this is that it evidently
did not please the taste of the town, for all the
later issues of the plate are in monochrome,
finished by a superimposed wood-block for the
half-tones and high lights. A very interesting
comparison can be made between the two effects,
a comparison considerably in favour of the first
effort. But that he preferred what his customers
preferred, namely the chiaroscuro printing, must
be gathered from the result. All his later colour-
work is done in this manner, the invention of
which I have ascribed to Ugo da Carpi, but, of
course, with considerable variations from the
Italian methods. Kirkall's work is a combina-
tion of etching and mezzotint on metal-plate
with wood-blocks for printing over ; the out-
lines and the darker parts are engraved on copper,
and the half-tones are put in as washes by wood.
He reproduced " JEnea.s and Anchises," after
Raphael, from Ugo da Carpi's impression of the
same subject, and many other pictures. Had he
been as excellent a wood-engraver as he was a
mezzotinter, he would have obtained better

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

results. As it was, the over-printings coarsened
and vulgarised his fine work, and injured a
reputation which, had it depended upon his
engraving and not upon his colour-printing,
would have given him rank by the side of
Finlayson and John Smith.

That Kirkall had a considerable contemporary
repute, however, is proved by mention of him in
the " Dunciad " : —

F'air as before her works she stands coiifess'd,
In flowers o' pearls by bounteous Kirkall dress'd.

This was written sarcastically of Eliza Haywood,
the libellous novelist, who antedated the " New
Woman " in being no credit to her own or any
other sex, and who is supposed to have supplied
gentle Fanny Burney with the outline of Betty
Thoughtless. The allusion in the " Dunciad " is
to the frontispiece engraved for a volume of
poems, and " bounteous " refers to the jewellery
and ornament with which Kirkall plentifully
besprinkled the plain and uninteresting figure
in the design.

Jakob and Jan L'Admiral were brothers,
born at Leyden but of French parentage. When
Le Blon's factory schemes came to naught, and,
disaster threatening that generous open-hearted
master, he fled to France under a cloud of
domestic and pecuniary embarrassments, these
two pupils of his deserted the sinking ship, and
scuttled back to Amsterdam, where Jakob, ap-
propriately enough, engraved insects ; and Jan

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

did the portraits for Van Mander's Livre des
Peintres. He also published a pamphlet on
colour-printing, chiefly stolen from Le Blon's
Color it to, but carefully avoiding mention of that
artist's name. He executed in colour some
appalling anatomical prints, in which the hid-
eous crudeness of the pigments added to the
natural gruesomeness of the subjects. But the
register was exact and the work clean and care-
ful. Frederic Ruysch employed him largely.

Then there were the Gautier D'Agotys,
father and son. Jacques Fabian Gautier D'Agoty
was painter, engraver, author, anatomist, and
scientist. When Le Blon was endeavouring to
carry on his business of colour-printing in Paris,
Gautier D'Agoty went to him as assistant, but
when, worn out with the struggle of life, Le
Blon died, the whilom assistant stole his master's
patents, and claimed the credit for all his later
work. Not satisfied with the verbal assumption
and the pecuniary result of his dishonesty, he
issued a pamphlet positively claiming to be the
inventor of all that had cost Le Blon his laborious
years. A paragraph from his pamphlet runs —

Jakob Christoph Le Blon does not deserve the title of in-
ventor absurdly bestowed upon him by his pupils. I am the
inventor, or at least the reviver, or the restorer, of the art of
colour-printing, which, but for me, would have died out, and
those who produce coloured engravings by successive printings
from metal plates are my pupils and not those of Le Blon.

He then proceeded to stultify his declaration by
the crudity of his issues, and though he used the

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

burin more freely than did his despised master,
he made less effect with it. His son, Edouard
Gautier D'Agoty, was a finer engraver than
his father. In the prints attributed to, or
signed by, the younger man, there is a greater
softness in the shadows, and considerably more
delicacy in the colouring. In the portrait of
him mezzotinted by Carlo Lasinio, and printed
in colours, he appears handsome but weak, a tall
and graceful figure, habited in a green painting-
blouse, open at the neck, with a white linen
shirt and collar. This print is sometimes found
with the inscription altered to make it appear
that it was engraved by D'Agoty himself.

The L'Admirals and the D'Agotys worked
abroad. Debucourt, Janinet and Descourtis,
Sergent and Alix, probably derived from them
the inspiration for their beautiful multi-printed
aquatints, and the results of this inspiration,
like the pitying tear of the Recording Angel,
may serve to blot out some of the sins against
taste and honesty of Jacques Fabian Gautier
D'Agoty.

John Skippe was a gentleman, and an amateur
artist of some contemporary renown. He pro-
duced chiaroscuros after Raphael, Correggio, and
Parmigiano in a manner combining the succes-
sive wood-blocks of Ugo da Carpi, with the
colour -mingling of Le Blon. But the results
show more of the amateur and the gentleman
than the artist, and neither his engraving nor his
colour-printing entitles him to professional rank.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Pond and Knapton, two men who worked
together between 1730 and 1750, were much
more important, and they got considerably nearer
to the desired ideal.

Pond, who was educated in London, had the
advantage of a foreign tour in company with
Roubiliac. He started as a portrait-painter on
his return from Rome, and was accorded the
rare privilege of a sitting from Pope. Peg
Woffington also favoured him, and the result is
in the National Gallery. The picture does
not make one particularly regretful that Pond
speedily abandoned portrait-painting for engrav-
ing. The portrait-sketch of himself, etched and
colour-printed, probably by one of the Knaptons,
but unsigned, shows a strong young face with
a square chin and level brows. He wears the
close cap, completely hiding the hair, that was
known as the apprentice's cap. It is a very
interesting head, full of character, well drawn
and modelled. When he finally abandoned the
brush for the etching-point, it was because he
had the same ambition as Le Blon, he wanted to
reproduce the works of the Italian Masters.
But it was rather their drawings than their
paintings on which he set his more limited
ambitions. He was his own publisher, and
brought out a series of these imitations in 1734.
He collaborated with George Knapton in the
publication of " The Heads of Illustrious Per-
sons," by Houbraken and Vertue, and he issued
these in connection with biographies from the

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

pen of Dr. Birch. He also did a series of cari-
catures after Cavaliere Ghezzi, and published
them under the title " Eccentric Characters."
These were deservedly reprinted, and repub-
lished, early in the last century. Pond was
elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1752,
but died shortly after he had attained that
honour. His collection of original drawings by
the Old Masters was sold by auction and fetched
^(^1400. In the majority of his plates the lines
are etched, and washed in colour, a species of
aquatint without ground. They were often
printed in green, the apparently inevitable super-
imposed wood-block carrying the colour. A soft-
ground etching of a head by Guercino, taken off
in red, is interesting as showing the existence of
a " chalk manner " in England before its so-
called introduction by Ryland. This soft-ground
etching was also used by Pond with complete
success for some imitations of drawings after
Carracci and Carlo Maratti.

Charles Knapton, brother to George, who
was in partnership with Pond as far as the pro-
duction and sale of engravings were concerned,
was the pupil of Jonathan Richardson, and,
before he entered into the collaboration that
brought him name and fortune, had been em-
ployed in drawing portraits in crayons of city
merchants and their plump wives. There was
no sale for these buxom dames when engraved,
and no public beyond their own small circle,
so he was very glad to relinquish his crayon

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

sketches and join Pond in bringing out his series
of prints. Pond had already won a reputation
as an engraver ; Charles Knapton speedily made
his. Twenty-seven of the Guercino landscapes
are his work, and they are very creditable per-
formances. The association with Pond seems
not only to have taught him much, but to have
inspired him with the ambition to learn more.
He ultimately withdrew from the partnership
with Arthur Pond, and although he was then
almost middle-aged, went to Rome to study
painting ! Perhaps the drawings of the great
Masters which he had copied, and the stories
of their magnificence told him by Pond, had
inspired his imagination. Any way, he studied
in Rome to such good purpose that, after his
return, he was appointed Painter to the Dilet-
tante Society. He was already nearly sixty, but
he seems to have pleased both his sitters and the
public, for, after the death of Slaughter, he was
offered, and accepted, the post of Surveyor and
Keeper of the King's Pictures. A picture by
this painter when he was far advanced in years
is now at Hampton Court. It represents the
widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales, with her
family. In this picture George III. appears as
a very thin and attractive boy, and that strong-
minded mother of his has the most convincing air
of simplicity and innocence. There is no Earl of
Bute in the background. Perhaps it is not surpris-
ing that this picture was hung in a place of honour,
so far exceeding its deserts as a work of art.

lOO

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

John Baptist Jackson was the last of the
idealists who dreamed of a perfect process for
colour-printing engravings before that perfection
was obtained by means which had eluded even
the most imaginative and best engravers of the
last three centuries ; Johannes Teyler having
been alone in his metier,

Jackson was a very capable wood-engraver,
and he had the inveterate habit of the early
colour-printers of claiming to be the inventor of
all that they annexed. His life was almost as
adventurous as Le Blon's, although the introduc-
tion of the female element came very late, and
apparently had little influence on his life or his
works. He was born in London in 1701, and
died in an Asylum in Scotland in 1780. The
interval was filled by wanderings in Paris and in
Rome, in Vienna and again in London. All the
milestones in his journey towards that Asylum
were marked by pain and disappointment. He
started as a pupil of Kirkall, with whom he
worked conjointly on the wood -engravings in
Croxall's edition of /Esop's Fables. Some cuts in
the 171 3 edition oi'Drydens Poems bear Jackson's
initials, and show his precocity and early talent.
Why he went to Paris it is difficult to say.
Papillon tells us it was because he was unable to
find work in London, but this seems hard to
believe. Any way, he had the misfortune, per-
haps the greatest misfortune that could have
happened to him, to be taken into Papillon's
workshop as pupil or assistant. That curious

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

chronicler of engraving gossip, the man who
gave us the Cunios, and many other stories much
more doubtful, quarrelled with Jackson over a
commission. Only one side of the dispute is on
record. Papillon says : —

He called on me and asked for work. I gave him a few
things to execute to afford him the means of subsistence. He
repaid me with ingratitude, made a duplicate of a flower orna-
ment of my drawing, which he offered, before delivering me
the block, to the person for whom it was engraved.

Whether the price at which he offered it was
lower than that which Papillon would have
charged, or whether the grievance existed in the
exhibition of skill equal to his master's, the
writer does not explain ; but he says that he
turned him out of his workshop forthwith.
Jackson, who was at least as good a wood-
engraver as Papillon, found it very difficult
to get a living in Paris, owing to Papillon's
relentless dislike and opposition. Even before
the latter had published his Histoire de Gravure
en Bois, in which he openly stigmatises the
English workman as lazy, incompetent, and
dishonest, he had freely made it understood
among the printers, booksellers, and artists
who employed him, that he would neither
work in combination with John Baptist Jackson
nor execute commissions for any one who gave
them also to his formidable rival. Jackson's
position was a difficult one, — it became more
than difficult, it became precarious, and lastly
impossible. He made a long and gallant

I02

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

struggle against an unscrupulous and powerful
enemy. All the enmity seems to have been
on Papillon's side, which in itself is evidence
that it was rather trivial jealousy than righteous
indignation that moved the historian, for it is a
truism, not confined to the eighteenth century,
that we hate more bitterly the man we have
injured than the man who has injured us.

Jackson worked at this time for the poorer
booksellers, and it must be admitted that some
of the woodcuts he executed in Paris deserved
the strictures that have been passed upon them :
they are small, insignificant subjects, hurriedly
cut, for ornament as often as for illustration.
But the pay was wretched, we have Papillon's
word for that, for, with the peculiarity that
presently became eccentricity, and ultimately
lunacy, he complained that this unfortunate
workman, whom he had driven out of the field
where his talents might have had fair play,
lowered the prices of engravings, and thus
injured the reputation of artists like himself !
It is a singular coincidence that both Jackson
and Papillon died insane.

The struggle for existence, the privation,
almost the starvation, which finally drove Jackson
from Paris, lasted through five long years. They
were just those years so important in a young
man's life, when boyhood passes definitely into
manhood, and all the luminous hopes and
ambitions of youth are crystallised into the solid
happiness of successful work. Papillon, with

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his cold and biting words, his well-directed
venom, had effectually blighted that growth,
and it is not to be wondered at, if that same
blight, passing also over a scarce-grown character,
left it somewhat stunted and withered.

It was a tired and disappointed man that
arrived in Rome in 1731, and, although Jackson
found friends there and appreciation, he never
fully recovered the cold of those years, from
twenty-five to thirty, in which the sap of hope
had dried slowly in his veins. It was his mind
rather than his work that was affected. He was
always looking for the slights that he did not
receive, for the contempt that he had not
deserved. He grew aggressive in his own
defence, fighting shadows, he blundered against
the simplest obstructions. It is necessary
perhaps to follow his career very closely to
perceive all this, but to those who are interested
in looking for it, I would suggest a comparison
between his work at sixteen years of age and his
work at thirty. Soured and bitter and unrecep-
tive, Rome yielded him little more than Paris
had done. Like the child who has been un-
justly treated, he distrusted the friendship that
was offered to him, and, sulking in his discon-
tented corner, he estranged the sympathy for
which he inwardly craved. From Rome he
went to Venice. In Venice the happiest part
of his life was passed. Here he met his wife,
here he began again to do good work, and
he obtained the pecuniary recognition that now

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

said more to him than mere words of praise.
He engraved the really remarkable title-page
of the Italian translation of Suetonius' Lives of
the Ccesars. And it was at Venice he was bitten
with the colour-printing mania. Wonderful
was the fascination that this idea had always
over its votaries ; it fastened on them with all
the agreeable intensity of a vice, and no engraver
who had fallen under the charm of colour had
ever gone back contentedly to his monotonous
work in black and white. There is no instance
on record of such a backsliding, or perhaps it
would be better, in view of the various opinions,
to say of such a return. Kirkall, perhaps, made
the longest step in that direction when, from
painting his plate in two colours, he retrograded
to simple chiaroscuro.

Once colour had captured his senses, Jackson
remained faithful to his new mistress for the
rest of his life. I like to think that his days
were brightened by the intercourse, and that,
when she took up her permanent abode with
him, the worst of his distresses and disappoint-
ments were over. It pleases me to believe that
in those last sad days passed in the Asylum near
the Teviot, that obscured mind, that darkening
intellect, saw brilliant pictures, long after the
futile hand had lost the power of creating
them.

In the essay or pamphlet he published some
years after he had left Venice, on The Invention
of Engraving and Printing in Chiaroscuro^ Jackson

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accurately followed the pioneer track of Ugo da
Carpi. He wrote that an art recovered, is little
less than an art invented, and, as the art of
chiaroscuro-printing had been in abeyance for
two centuries, he thinks he might, with justice,
claim to be its inventor. But of course this
claim was absurd. Having always been granted
less than he deserved, he now claimed more.
Chiaroscuro had never died out. In addition to
Le Blon's mezzotints, which, perhaps, owing to
their having been executed in this manner on
metal instead of on wood, Jackson did not reckon
under their legitimate head, Beccafumi, in his
energetic and vigorous, brutal, almost savage
strength, had established chiaroscuro-engraving
at the end of the sixteenth century : Christoffel
Jegher, Goltzius, and Coriolanus had practised it
in the seventeenth century ; and Nicolas Lesueur
in the eighteenth, whilst the Englishmen already
mentioned had carried on without a break the
traditions of Da Carpi.

What John Baptist Jackson really did was to
use eight or ten blocks where Da Carpi used
three or four, employing a proportionate number
of tints. As a matter of fact, however, Le Blon,
rather than Da Carpi, was the genuine source
of his inspiration. But he had apparently the
same shrinking from admitting Le Blon's claims
that had twisted the acknowledgments of the
L'Admirals and the D'Agotys from gratitude
into plagiarism, from honest thanks into greedy
theft. I do not think that Jackson sinned as

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

they had sinned. There is no evidence that he
had ever been in Le Blon's workshop, and of
course he was always the wood-engraver, and
colour-printing was in the air. But still he
must have heard of Le Blon's colour-prints, for
the engraving world in London between 1720
and 1726 was a very limited one, and this master
dominated it. In Paris it was no less limited,
and Le Blon was there almost as soon as Jackson.
Then again, when it comes to a question of
"invention," I do not know how Jackson in-
tended to explain away the work he did in Paris
in combination with that celebrated amateur the
Comte de Caylus. This consisted of chiaroscuros
executed in copper and wood, which were finished
by Jackson.

Jackson worked in Venice for fourteen years.
During that time he published in colours "The
Descent from the Cross " by Rembrandt, and a
set of seventeen large engravings in colour after
pictures by Titian and other Venetians. He also
did some satisfactorychiaroscuros after Parmigiano
and six coloured landscapes after Ricci. These
landscapes were dedicated to the Earl of Holder-
ness, who was the new Ambassador Extraordinary
to the Republic of Venice. They were imita-
tions of paintings in aquarillo or water-colour,
and were sold afterwards also in London, where
they met with some success, due to the fact that
this particular form of painting was a compara-
tively new art in England. There is in exist-
ence a fine portrait of Algernon Sidney, cut in

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

wood by Jackson. This was also done in his
Venice days.

After twenty years of Continental travelling
Jackson grew home-sick for England. He had
outgrown his friends, outlived his enemies, and
was so firmly wedded to his picture-engravings
that, in the wonderful obsession of a single idea,
he ignored all that had taken place in his absence,
and issued the essay before alluded to, in which
he called himself the inventor of an art that had
already become almost as well known as the line-
engravings of Hogarth. Of course he brought
a nest of hornets buzzing about his ears, and
succeeded, as he had done in Paris, in closing
against him the shops of the printsellers, by
whose aid alone he could have made his appeal
to the public.

The application of colour-printing to the
making of paper-hangings " of taste, duration, and
elegance " was dealt with in part of Jackson's
pamphlet, and it was in this branch of his art
that he finally established himself at Battersea.
There was, of course, nothing essentially new in
the enterprise ; for, to say nothing of the Le
Blon factory, at the end of the seventeenth cen-
tury, paper-hangings, printed in chiaroscuro, had
been produced in France. The factory at Batter-
sea seems to have been extensively patronised by
Horace Walpole, but the link is lost between
this apparently successful period of Jackson's life
and the time when he retired, poor and miserable,
to die in the Scotch Asylum, as related by Bewick.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Walpole, who dwells, like a baby with a new
toy, on the many charms and delights of the
little chateau de luxe which he was arranging for
himself at Strawberry Hill, wrote, " The bow
window below leads into a little parlour hung
with stone- colour Gothic paper and Jackson's
Venetian prints, which I could never endure
while they pretended, infamous as they are, to
be after Titian, etc., but when I gave them this
air of barbarous bas-reliefs they succeed to a
miracle."

As these prints were not published in England,
Jackson must have brought a supply of them
when he came over, and probably managed to
sell them to Walpole when the latter was inspect-
ing his paper-hangings. For Walpole says
somewhat later in the same letter : —

" I went the other morning with Mr. Conway
to buy some of the new paper for you. . . .
Imagine the walls covered with (I call it paper,
but it is really paper covered in perspective to
represent,) Gothic fretwork." The parlour on
the ground floor, he tells us, was hung " with
yellow paper ; and prints, framed in a new
manner, invented by Lord Cardigan," that is
with black and white borders, printed. Other
rooms are hung with green paper, and here he
has his water-colours ; and another has " a blue
and white paper in stripes adorned with festoons."
This is sufficient evidence that the manufactory
at Battersea was receiving both orders and
patronage. The date of this letter is 1753.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

That disaster in some form or another must
have overtaken the enterprise appears from the
fact that twelve months later, under the patron-
age of the Duke of Cumberland, a manufactory
for wall-hangings was established at Fulham, and
this would scarcely have been in competition with
the Battersea one.

But what became of Jackson between 1753,
when he was making wall-hangings for Horace
Walpole, and 1780, when he died in the Asylum
in Scotland, is a mystery to which I have not
been able to find the slightest clue.

Jackson was the last of the adventurers.
Ryland and the stipple arrived simultaneously
somewhere about 1760, Bartolozzi in 1764.
The public received them with open arms and
gaping mouths. They were the pioneers of a
movement which revolutionised the print trade.
Between them they managed to alter the standard
of taste, and to create a market unequalled at the
time in extent and scope. They are the two
men without whom " colour-prints " in their
present highly valued condition would have had
no existence.

no

CHAPTER VI

The meeting of Stipple-Engraving and Colour-Printing in France
— Jean Fran9ois and his artistic relationship to Jan Lutma —
William Wynne Ryland's journey to Paris, his meeting with
Fran9ois — Imitations of Chalk Drawings after Watteau,
Boucher, and Fragonard, printed in colours from one plate
under the inspiration of Comte de Caylus — The method finds
little favour in France and is brought to England by Ryland,
where it is at once firmly established in public favour for the
reproduction of Water-Colour Drawings by Angelica KaufF-
mann — Ryland's career and execution, and the true story of
his supposed confession.

The next stepping-stone on the road to the
eighteenth -century colour- print is the one that
leads direct to the stipple - engravers of that
period. And, notwithstanding the lack of a
contemporary entente cordiale^ it is in France we
find it. Jean Fran9ois, the stepping-stone in
question, was the legitimate artistic descendant
of the Dutchman, Jan Lutma, whose fine heads,
engraved at the end of the seventeenth century,
are still the best examples extant of the opus
mallei which culminated in the so-called "chalk
manner."

Fran9ois was born in 1707 at Nancy. It is
undoubtedly to him that we trace the inspiration
that gave stipple-engraving its ultimate place.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

He was not perhaps a remarkable engraver, but he
was an inventive one, and his inventiveness, like
that of Le Blon, marked a new patch of cultiva-
tion in the field he made his own. The chalk
manner, imitations of wash-drawings, printing in
colour, were among his successful experiments.
When Arthur Pond made his Continental tour
with Roubiliac he passed through Paris. This
was the historical occasion when Joshua Reynolds
met them both in the company of his old master,
Hudson. There Pond made the acquaintance
of Fran9ois ; and the result of that acquaintance
seems to have been the head of Guercino,
executed in the chalk manner, and printed in
the colour afterwards known as the " Bartolozzi
red," in London, about 1740. It has already
been seen how far Arthur Pond carried the
knowledge he had acquired from Fran9ois. It
was to the point where Ryland took it up and
carried it to its finality. But in those early days
when Pond and Fran9ois talked the matter over,
Fran9ois had not yet satisfied even himself with
his results. Sixteen years later, however, he
triumphantly presented six stippled prints to
the Marquis Marigny, whose admiration of
them led him to procure a royal appointment
for their creator.

It was in or about 1760 that William Wynne
Ryland, also in the company of Roubiliac, made
his first journey to Paris, and was taken to the
studio of the disappointed pensionnaire, then in
the enjoyment of 600 francs a year and the title

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

that had proved so empty a compliment, of
Grave ur des Dessins du Cabinet du Roi. Ryland
made friends with the old man and worked
in his studio during his stay in Paris, learn-
ing many of his secrets and all of his
methods. Francois, of course, claimed the title
of "Inventor" of Stipple -Engraving, but he
was never able to make it good, still less could
he secure to himself the monopoly in pro-
duction. The moment was ripe for stipple-
engraving, as it had proved for colour-printing :
Bonnet and Demarteau trod quickly upon the
heels of Fran9ois. The dotted manner suited
the delicate Boucher and Watteau drawings.
Bonnet, choosing his subjects with skill, reaped
where Fran9ois had sown. Fran9ois, like many
of the pioneers of engraving in colour, died poor,
neglected, and embittered.

It was, apparently, the celebrated amateur
Comte deCaylus who first suggested printing these
stipple-engravings in the colours of the original
drawings, from one plate. And although he
himself was still working in mezzotint and many
printings, in the manner of Le Blon, and had
not yet abandoned the ambition to reproduce the
works of the great Masters by this means, he
found time in the intervals of his travels, literary
labours, and interminable correspondence, to
interest himself in what he wrote of to Thomas
Wedgwood as " a new little art." Although
due credit must therefore be given to Comte de
Caylus ; with Johannes Teyler as well as Le

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Blon already in the field, it will be seen that
the suggestion was not far to seek.

Strangely enough, at least it seems strange
to me, stipple-engraving, printed in colours,
although it emanated thence, never had a real
success in France. The process was too simple,
too direct ; something subtler, more complicated,
offering more scope to the individual workman,
was required to tickle the artistic palate of
eighteenth-century France. So stipple-engraving
went over to England with William Wynne
Ryland, and mixed methods of producing en-
gravings in colours remained behind. Com-
binations of aquatint and etching, delicate and
intricate tool-work, ingenious applications of one
art to another, elaborations in mezzotint, engaged
the attention of such men as Janinet and
Debucourt, Alix, Sergent, and Descourtis. A
few years later we find contemporary French
writers alluding to stipple-engraving as la maniere
Anglaise — under which title, by the way, it is
still spoken of in the art circles of Paris.

To William Wynne Ryland we owe the
earliest stipple -engravings, printed in several
colours from one plate, and published in London.

The man and his career are almost as interest-
ing as his work. He was the son of a copper-plate
printer who lived, with a large family of seven
sons, in the precincts of the Old Bailey. He
had been apprenticed to Ravenet, whose repu-
tation stood second to none in the little world
of artists and artisans just beginning to congre-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

gate in and about Leicester Square. It was at
the conclusion of his indentures, in company
with Roubiliac and Gabriel Smith, as already
mentioned, that he made the journey to the
Continent that had such wide-reaching results.
Paris, both artistically and socially, suited the
temperament of young Ryland, who left his
companions to complete their tour without him,
and remained behind to alternate joyous nights
with laborious days, and to acquire the superficial
polish that ultimately proved so dangerous a
possession. On the joyous nights I may not
dilate. Paris in 1760 offers too many induce-
ments to the novelist to be safe ground for a
would - be historian with the instincts of a
romancer. But the laborious days included, in
addition to what he learned from Francois, the
study of design under Le Bas, with the direct
inspiration of such artists as Watteau, Boucher,
and Fragonard. His taste developed, as well it
might under such stimulus, and when he won, in
competition with his French colleagues, the gold
medal from the Society for the Encouragement
of Art, which entitled him to pursue his studies
gratis at the Academy in Rome, he abandoned the
delights of the gay capital and went to Italy.

Altogether he remained out of England for
over five years, and returned to his native land a
very polished and courtly young gentleman, well
versed in the ways of the world, of handsome
person if licentious habits, a graceful designer
if not a bold one, an engraver of skill if not of

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

transcendent talent. He was almost immediately
appointed Engraver to the King, an appointment
that had been offered to Strange, the famous line-
engraver, whose Jacobite sympathies compelled
him to refuse it. Ryland's foreign training had
left him no such scruples. He accepted the
appointment carrying a salary of J[,2oo a year,
and on the strength of it married precipitately
a young and unlettered country girl, whom,
within a few months of his hasty marriage,
he found to be a very uncongenial companion.

It was as a worker in line and not in
stipple that Ryland had been selected for the
post of engraver to the monarch who was at
once so anxious to patronise, and so incapable
of appreciating the arts that he took under his
Royal protection ; and it was in line that Ryland
executed his first commissions for portraits of
His Majesty, after Allan Ramsay, and of the
Queen, after Cotes. And very ably he performed
his task. He was still working in line when, in
partnership with Mr. Bryer, he opened a print-
shop at the Royal Exchange in Cornhill. He
took apprentices, of whom Joseph Strutt was,
perhaps, the most important. It was here that
he issued those six classic subjects after Correggio
and Guercino from the collection of the Earl of
Bute, admirable work, well-balanced, strong,
and individual.

Ryland, with his Royal appointment, his
steadily increasing private connection, his flourish-
ing business, had everything in his favour during

n6

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

those first few years of his establishment in
London. But he was of a social and convivial
habit, and his expenses and income never
seemed quite to keep pace.

It was in the spring of 1767 that the two
events occurred which so greatly affected Ryland's
future and the future of his art. At first sight
they seem to have no bearing upon each other,
and still less upon stipple-engraving. He met
and was presented to Angelica Kauffmann, a
young Italian artist recently arrived in England,
but already enjoying Court favour. Two days
after this introduction his brother Richard was
arrested for highway robbery.

The old Ryland had been ambitious for his
children. The line of demarcation between the
commercial and the aristocratic world was no less
firmly marked in England than on the Continent,
but Ryland had given his sons the education of
gentlemen ; they had all learned Latin, and one
of them, Richard, had been to College. William
Wynne amply fulfilled his father's hopes ; his
Court appointment seemed the beginning of a
career of which they could all be justly proud.
But beyond that the elder Ryland had no satis-
faction from his sons. Two of them died in
early youth ; Richard, the collegian, proved a
very thorn in his father's flesh. He had the
excessive vanity of his little learning ; the desire
to shine without the necessary qualifications,
which distinguishes the ill-bred ; and the wish
to be thought a gentleman, without the means

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

even of a substantial citizen, which eventually
proved the most fatal of his many failings. He
was an idle, improvident spendthrift ; dissolute
and vicious. Returning from a fox-hunt one
day, half drunk, disappointed in his day's sport,
not having in his pocket the wherewithal to
defray the cost of his hired hack, he played the
footpad in an amateurish and bungling way,
stopping the chaise of two ladies, and robbing
them of a few shillings. He had not even the
ability to avoid identification and arrest. He
was tried, condemned, and sentenced to death.
Then it was that his brother exerted all the
influence that he was able to command in an
endeavour to save him from the ultimate con-
sequence of his crime. Society listened sym-
pathetically to the handsome young engraver,
and Angelica Kauffmann's soft Italian accents
swelled the prayers for clemency. Unheard-of
efforts were made, and unfortunately they were
successful. I say " unfortunately " advisedly, for
the same efforts could not move the King twice,
and the Royal pardon was extended to Richard
which might more justly have been exercised
later on to save William.

Ryland appears to have suffered little social
obloquy on account of his brother's conduct, and
that little was amply compensated for by the
sympathy of his new acquaintances, Angelica
Kauffmann and her father. Here was the dawn of
the intimacy to which sunrise and sunset, evening
and night, succeeded each other so rapidly.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Angelica KaufFmann had been brought over
to England in 1766 by Lady Wentworth ; in
1768 she was one of the original thirty-six
members of the new Royal Academy at which
Ryland was one of the earliest exhibitors. Grati-
tude for her exertions on his brother's behalf,
the link of language, for Ryland spoke both
French and Italian, drew the two together in
those assemblies where they were both occasion-
ally received by their patrons, but in which
neither was quite at home. Ryland was not
without that parvenu desire to shine that had
brought such disastrous results to his brother.
He wanted to ruffle it with the aristocrats, not
to look on with the workers. Poor Goldsmith
himself could not be more anxious about his
famous " suit " than was Ryland about his velvet
coats and fine laces and diamond buckles when
he was bidden to a reception at Mrs. Montagu's,
or to take tea with Mrs. Crewe. He entertained
his entertainers, and the result was inevitable.
In 1 77 1 the business in the Royal Exchange
became bankrupt, and the whilom gallant was
reduced to dodging sponging-house officers and
avoiding arrest for debt.

This was when Angelica appeared to him as
a ministering angel. Minasi, who related the
story, heard it direct from Bartolozzi, and here
it enjoys for the first time the dignity of print.

One evening Ryland, " reduced to his last
shoe-buckle," had walked, under cover of the
friendly dusk, to the lodging occupied by Angelica

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and her father. He had talked lightly to her
of his position, though it was grave enough to
make his voice tremulous. She delicately hinted
her desire to assist, which he as delicately waved
aside. Perhaps neither of them was completely
genuine, but both of them had caught the spirit
of the manner that grows in Courts. Both of
them were young, and ultimately both of them
proved themselves emotional, romantic, impulsive.
The evening hour, full of temptation and
possibilities, found them unstrung and tender ;
what she would give, what he might not take,
were question and answer that vibrated in the
warm air of the studio. They were holding each
other's hands, as they talked, when that worldly-
minded old adventurer, the Chevalier Kauffmann,
came in, and they fell apart suddenly, as if they
had been guilty of something more than kindli-
ness and sympathy. Hurriedly Ryland began to
speak of the Signorina's work, of the success she
had gained ; he likened her to the young Raphael,
to Correggio. No compliments were too ex-
aggerated for the father, who had found a new
Eldorado in the daughter he guarded so jealously
and so injudiciously. His daughter listened with
avid interest to the discussion of her talents.
Gradually she joined in the conversation as it
developed from Italian to modern Art, and as the
personal note faded out of the atmosphere that
had grown clear and worldly. From Correggio,
Ryland fell to Fragonard, and presently he found
himself speaking of Fran9ois, of the old man in his

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

forgotten studio, and his engravings which had so
wonderfully reproduced the water-colour drawings.

It was the readier wit of the woman that
kindled first, and she questioned him breath-
lessly ; the process so simple, so easy, appealed to
her feminine art -instincts. There were dozens
of water-colour drawings littering the room in
which they sat. In Rome Ryland had forgotten
both stipple-engraving and colour-printing ; in
England it had seemed unnecessary to remember
them. But with threatening poverty and those
pretty neoclassic designs of Angelica KaufFmann's
before him, he suddenly called to mind with
what enthusiasm he and the old French engraver
had discussed colour-printing. From the past
to the present was a thought- flash as quick as
summer lightning. Would she, could she
permit him to copy a sketch of hers in the
manner described ? There was no time for the
Chevalier's intervention, but in truth he had no
objection to anything but a love-affair between
the penniless engraver and his gifted daughter.
Angelica was charmed, delighted, more than
interested. Ryland went home that night with
a light heart and a portfolio of Angelica's draw-
ings under his arm. That evening in the studio
with that portfolio of sketches was the beginning
of a new burst of prosperity for him.

Angelica Kauffmann's popularity with the
masses, or with the limited section of them that
patronised the Royal Academy, was a very sudden
growth. A few years after she had exhibited

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

for the first time, Allan Ramsay notes that en-
gravings from her pictures sold more readily than
any others. Cipriani himself was not more
admired. It was this popularity that Ryland
was destined to share.

The story goes that he engraved one of the
drawings in the stipple manner within two days,
and, carrying it first for approval to his fair
young benefactress, he personally printed a few
impressions in colours by the process he had
learnt in Paris. They were exhibited in the
windows of the print-shops, and sold most
readily, so readily indeed that eager inquiries
were made for more ; and more w^ere printed,
not only from this plate, but from others. He
found the demand in a very short time was
almost more than he could meet, but he worked
hard, and it is a point in his favour not to be lost
sight of, that, before he began to spend again the
money he made so easily, he paid off the creditors
who had declared under his bankruptcy. He
paid off his creditors, he exhibited at the Royal
Academy, he held up his head and walked about
a free and prosperous man.

But misfortune had been too short a sojourner
with him, he had learnt little or nothing from
its hurried visit.

In 1775 he started in business again, this time
at 1 59 Strand, and from there he issued a large
number of engravings in colour, and here for the
first time it became fully recognised that colour
suited these delicate engravings, these fancy sub-

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jects ; here it was that the betrothal of stipple-
engraving and colour-printing was publicly
ratified.

It was the supreme moment when all that
had gone before, and all that was to come after,
found definite expression and complete satisfaction
in the reproduction of water-colour drawings.
So long as the " little art *' had endeavoured to
take upon itself the functions of a great one, so
long as the struggle had been to reproduce by
the combined processes of engraving and printing
the wonderful colour-schemes of the great Italian
masters, the broad effects of masses in oil-colour,
so long had it proved a failure. Colour-printing
with such an ambition was impossible, illegiti-
mate, inoperative. The moment its limitations
were realised it became an artistic force, and
public recognition followed inevitably. Un-
questionably Angelica KaufFmann contributed
greatly to this immediate public recognition.
Her sweet weak pictures, all drapery and little
drawing, suited exactly the awakening but un-
educated artistic taste of the middle classes.
They were classic in subject but not in manner.
They had all the surface qualities of the new
decorative design, they were just what was needed
in the reaction that followed Sir Thomas Cham-
bers's endeavour to metamorphose the homes of
England into Chinese pagodas. And the reproduc-
tion of her designs in colour brought them within
the pecuniary reach of the very class who admired
and could make a market for the new industry.

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A couple of gossiping letters written in Italian
to one of her convent friends give a glimpse of
the relations between Ryland and Angelica KaufF-
mann. She admits that his handsome person had
not failed to make an effect on her heart, and she
says that the distress he had been in about his
brother had roused her pity. That she was in-
capable of recognising any want of depth in his
refinement, any lack of true breeding in his
bearing, her subsequent mistake with the valet of
Count de Horn amply proves. She gave him the
entree to her painting-room, she made designs in
water-colours for him to engrave. She interested
herself in his fortunes, and lent her name to his
schemes. It was on the strength of his connec-
tion with Angelica Kauffmann that Ryland, full
of new hopes and fresh courage, had made his
second start in business.

To that establishment in the Strand, so con-
venient, so well placed, Bartolozzi, together with
his two friends, Bach and Abel, seems to have
made frequent visits. Angelo,in his reminiscences,
makes mention of these excursions. The shop
was on the left side of the street, squeezed in
between the little block that separated Somerset
House, the home of the Royal Academy, from
Strand Lane. The three foreigners would linger
over the prints. Bach, fresh from presiding
over a musical entertainment at Mrs. Cornelly's,
grunted out amiably his indiscriminate admira-
tion, Bartolozzi was ready with his more phleg-
matic criticism. And then, when a sedan-chair

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would stop the way, and Angelica Kauffmann,
slender and languishing, would step out and
inquire for the famous proprietor, what a doffing
of hats and bowing there would be, what a con-
fusion of soft Italian accents with the rougher
northern ones. The money-lender opposite,
shrivelled and curious, would come out to see
what all the pother was about. Soon he was to
be professionally interested in his neighbour.

Bartolozzi would forget to take snuflF, and Bach
would adjust his wig, but Angelica's airs and
delicate graces were for neither of them. She
had brought a drawing for Ryland, or she had
come to see the result of an engraving from the
last drawing she had made for him. He had
the benefit of all her willowy coquetries, half-
natural, half-affected. Her father pursued the
role he had acquired, of" standing aside " whilst
portfolios would be brought out for her inspec-
tion and her opinion asked as to this and the
other proof. Then, when she took her nodding
plumes and defined slenderness back to the chair,
how deferentially would Ryland attend her. We
hear that he wore a club wig unpowdered, his
own hair turned over it in the front, carrying his
hat in the latest fashion of the day, under his
left arm. His complexion was dark, his face
pale and strongly lined. To quote the actual
words of a contemporary description : " His
common countenance is very grave, but whilst
he speaks it becomes rather smiling, he shows
his teeth and has great affability of manner."

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We can well believe the fair Angelica would be
ushered out with all the smiles and affability he
had at his command, while she would go home,
thrilled and exhilarated by his attentions, to draw
fresh Cupids, bound or unbound, being sacrificed
to or tickled, Venuses led in triumphant proces-
sion, sleeping, or bathing, or making their toilet,
as her feminine humour might seize her.

And, left behind, the two engravers seem
constantly to have discussed with eager interest
the colour-printing on which she has thrown out
her airy suggestions. Off went the musicians ;
they had had enough of the sister-art ; they
thought there ought to be an Academy of Music
in London as well as an Academy of Painting —
they called it " bainting," as the old King used
to do, and they shrugged their shoulders over
Angelica's little affectations, and relegated her
to her proper position in the Art world with
more correctness than was the fashion of the
day.

Bartolozzi and Ryland were on fire with the
enthusiasm of the new industry. Often they
went into that little ill-built workroom at the
back of the shop, where the great copper-press
was fixed, rather creaky, rather stiff in its joints,
and superintended the printing of, or actually
printed with their own hands, the plates they
had previously engraved. Ryland had forgotten
nothing of his French experiences ; Bartolozzi
had all the experiments ever made in colour at
his clever finger-ends ; both of them were artists

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

as well as engravers. In these colloquies between
the two men the limitations of the art were
defined, and its position was made clear. Palmer
was often a third in their deliberations, and it
was Palmer, by the way, who subsequently suc-
ceeded Ryland, and carried on his business in the
same house. The three men seem to have decided
that the ordinary copper-plate printer or appren-
tice was no good for the colour-work. If the art
was to flourish, it should be treated as an art, and
men should be employed in it who were specially
trained. Then Ryland sent to Paris for a man
who had been with Le Bas, and to this man,
Seigneuer, a native of Alsace, in whose hands the
colour-printing of stipple-engravings was practi-
cally left for a long time, is due the rare first
issue of the well-known plates, " A Sacrifice to
Cupid " and " The Triumph of Beauty and
Love." These are after designs by Cipriani ; in
fine condition they are very rare, and have almost
the value of delicate water-colours. Seigneuer
apparently printed very few impressions ; these
were not signed, and it is only through Minasi's
remembrance of what Bartolozzi told him about
them that I have been able to identify two or
three very exceptional proofs. The monochromes
are both earlier and later ; the prints were popular,
and the plates changed hands several times.
Finally, in Molteno's great sale in 1819 they
realised ^7: 15s. in a very worn and unworkable
condition. They must have been re-worked and
re-issued, because I have seen impressions with

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the original date and publication line, printed on
paper dated 1820.

Seigneuer is a man of whom little or nothing
has appeared in print. His connection with
Ryland and Bartolozzi was a short one. He set
up for himself, engaged foreign workmen, took
apprentices, and very soon became known to
the publishers, who kept him fully occupied.
Occasionally one comes across an early print that
is unmistakably his work. I say unmistakably,
because he seems to have imported his own
colours in their dry state from Paris, and amongst
these colours was a peculiar vitreous white, that
imparted the much-desired transparency to the
picture. Although Seigneuer never signed his
work, there is internal evidence that either the
manner in which this particular white was used,
or the source from which he imported it was his
secret, and that the flatter, muddier colours of
his contemporaries were due to its absence.
Bartolozzi patronised and recommended him
largely, and it is in the prints Bartolozzi
engraved, those he signed, or those for which
he made water - colour drawings, that I have
noticed the use of this particular white.

To follow chronologically the growth of
colour-printing from the time when Angelica
Kauffmann and Ryland began to work in unison
to the time of its premature decay is unnecessary.
The seed fell on fruitful soil, and for twenty
years the colour-print flourished like grass.
Ryland had a host of imitators ; the eager public

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

demand grew by that on which it was fed.
Two rival printsellers, Gamble and Torre,
rushed into the competition Ryland's unbusiness-
like habits made so easy, and his generous con-
fidence made so profitable. Gamble especially,
in a trade circular sent round to the engravers,
called himself " inventor of colour-printing " ; a
claim Ryland never attempted to dispute.

Ryland had the start and the immense advan-
tage of Angelica Kauffmann's co-operation, but
he was very speedily out-distanced by his com-
petitors. He was an able engraver and a
talented designer, but he had the training and
the mental habit of an artist rather than that of
a tradesman, and spending money never ceased
to be more attractive to him than making it.

From 1775, when he started for the second
time in business, to 1783, when he received his
abrupt notice to quit, he touched every note in
the gamut of life. His early marriage became
known to Angelica shortly after the establish-
ment of the shop in the Strand, also that there
were children, of whom he had forgotten to
speak, in that home in Knightsbridge. Perhaps
it was this knowledge, perhaps it was that her
fickle fancy had by this time wandered in the
direction of Sir Joshua Reynolds, which caused her
to lose interest in his fortunes. But that she did
lose interest there is no room to doubt. And
that Ryland suffered under her neglect as this
type of man is able to suffer, that is, in his
vanity, appears on the surface. He wished to

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

show her that he was independent of her, that
he was as prosperous, as socially successful, as
well-considered as she. He plunged into a
thousand extravagances. A legacy that he came
into at this time encouraged and gave colour to
his reckless expenditure. He tasted all the dis-
sipations of the town. Finally he set up an
establishment with one of those unfortunate
women, the will-o'-the-wisps on the road to
ruin. It was a road Ryland took at a hand-
gallop, only to pull up abruptly when he found
he had lost his companion. Some richer,
courtlier traveller on the same road had caught
her errant fancy, and from one to the other she
stole away in the night, without a pause or a
regret. But she had borne a babe with her in
her flight, a child that had appealed to its father
in some subtle way in which those little ones
in Knightsbridge had failed. She disappeared
in April 1783. In May of the same year Ryland
was missing from his shop in the Strand, and
there was no news of him in the home at
Knightsbridge. For a few days no one knew
what had become of him. There was the
buzzing of gossip, there were rumours, there
were knowing winks and smiles and broad asides,
but it was with a shock that society, the second-
grade society that welcomed artists and engravers,
awoke to see London placarded by a handbill,
offering the reward of ^^300 for the person of
William Wynne Ryland, who was described as
" dressed in a brown coat, with white waistcoat,

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and coloured silk stockings." He was wanted
on a charge of forgery, an obscure transaction
connected with a bill, to which his unfortunate
flight lent the appearance of connivance. The
runners found him very soon in a little house,
the house of a cobbler at Stepney. When he
found that he could no longer evade pursuit he
cut his throat. Unfortunately the wound did
not prove fatal.

That Ryland's disappearance was due to his
search for his mistress and his little child, and
not to his desire to escape from justice, is a
matter that requires a sympathetic reading of his
history to make clear. He seems to have had
for her one of those passions not uncommon in
the lives of men of artistic temperament, and it
wrecked at once his reason and his judgment.
That the child, the poor little illegitimate baby,
had found an exceptionally warm place in his
heart we read later on in the scene that took
place on his way to ignominious death.

Ryland cut his throat when the runners' steps
were on the stairs and he pictured himself
a prisoner. He cut his throat, not because he
was guilty of having committed the crime for
which he was pursued, but because he was
conscious of debt, and was in despair lest his
arrest at this juncture would stop his search
for the woman whom he chivalrously thought
needed his love and his protection to guard her
from the consequences that her rash and un-
disciplined temper had brought about.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Then, as for his famous confession, I have
seen a copy of it, and what does it amount to ?
Nothing but an admission that the attempted
suicide was a crime against which the Almighty
has set His canon, and that by committing it he
rendered himself unworthy of commiseration, and
fit for any punishment that the laws of God or
man demanded.

That Ryland was a man of good heart but
weak principles, of worthy ambitions but lack of
strength to pursue them, there is ample evidence,
but that he was capable of committing the mean
forgery for which he was ultimately condemned
and executed is incredible. He had crimes to
answer for ; perhaps not the least of those
was the birth of that little one for whom his
affection proved so fatal. But the great crime,
the crime that in his own eyes, eyes illuminated
by the Roman Catholic faith which he pro-
fessed, was beyond pardon, was the attempted
suicide which followed his capture.

This is not a special plea for Ryland ; this is
a conclusion I have arrived at after a careful
review of the evidence on which he was con-
victed of forgery and sentenced to death. A
complete account of the trial is to be found in
a pamphlet published in 1794. It extends to
some twenty pages, and there is not a lawyer of
repute who would venture to find in it sufficient
data on which to convict a man of forgery. I will
go further and say there is not sufficient evidence
in the whole pamphlet to induce a Grand Jury

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

of the present day to return a True Bill. The
indictment is weak, it is flimsy ; prejudice is
brought into the case, prejudice possibly on
account of Ryland's loose life, certainly in conse-
quence of his unpopular faith. To my reading,
the evidence ; evidence with which I do not
propose to weary my readers, but to which, in
justice to the memory of the man who has lain
for 1 20 years under the imputation of a crime
that he never committed, I should like to direct
public attention ; makes it clear that Ryland was
a victim, sacrificed on the altar of expediency, to
the anti-Romanist feeling which was still agitat-
ing the public mind, and which found its cul-
mination in the No-Popery Riots in 1780. The
data is technical, bewildering, and again bears so
very indirectly upon the art of printing stipple-
engravings in colour, that I do not feel justified
in more than indicating the source from which
any one who wishes to rehabilitate Ryland's
memory can follow the argument.

A few sentences from the letter he wrote a
day or two before he was executed will, I think,
serve better than legal evidence to show what
manner of man this was. The letter is written
to Francis Donaldson of Liverpool, and is dated
"Sunday, 24th August 1783." Here are his
words, surely not the words of a guilty man, but
of an unhappy one. The plea in them has been
disregarded until now :

" I leave behind me those I love. They
will feel every word that is said ; each syllable

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:: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

•*14

respecting my fame will be a dagger or a
balsam to their breast. Oh, my friend ! will
you therefore watch and guard my name from
calumny. ..."

He goes on to explain that he has not asked
for the clemency of the Court ; he knows the
difficulties he overcame in the case of his brother,
and he realises that it is impossible while he,
personally, is in durance, and his chief patron,
the Earl of Bute, in disfavour, to overcome them
again. But he has no complaint to make on
this score. With the generous sweetness of his
nature he admits that he is unworthy of any
special effort :

" I do not arraign the gracious benevolence
that has so long dignified the humanity of the
British Crown ; I do not arraign the seat of
judgment that pronounces my sentence. Because
justice acted against me, as it thought for the
best, I do not arraign my Jury. I trust they
possessed the purest principles of unbiassed men.
I have naught to say against the witnesses — they,
I am convinced, swore as they thought. . . ."

He accuses no one, blames no one, he is re-
signed to ignominious death ; because he is con-
scious of deserving punishment. Here is the
clause of the letter which gives the clue to his
resignation :

" It was the most wicked of all crimes which
madness drove me to attempt."

This sentence has been considered as a confes-
sion of guilt. Of course the crime to which he

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

alludes is the act of attempted suicide. Had it
been, as was understood at the time, and has
been called later, an admission of having com-
mitted the crime of forgery, the word " attempt"
would have been inappropriate, because the
forgery must have been an actual committal.

" Now I shall meet the last executive ven-
geance of the law with fortitude. I wish this
hour were my last," he writes ; and goes to
Tyburn like a man. As his coach drove to the
place of execution a terrible storm broke over
London. In the midst of it a woman pushes
her way through the crowd, stops the coach,
and holds up to the window a little child. Her
face is streaming with tears, but the child is
babbling with the pretty unconscious laughter
of childhood. Ryland kisses them both, says a
few words that no one hears, and the coach
drives on. Those who stood near say the smile
that was on his face as he spoke to those two
was on it still when he mounted the fatal scaffold.

So far as rehabilitating or clearing his name
is concerned, his friends did nothing for him ;
they confined their efforts to looking after the
temporal welfare of his wife and family. Barto-
lozzi and Strange, good-hearted irreconcilables,
each finished a plate that Ryland had begun in
prison, and both plates were issued for the benefit
of the widow and children. Later on Mrs.
Ryland opened a print-shop and conducted a
business which seems to have been fairly suc-
cessful ; anyway it was still in existence in 1791,

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

when the stock of plates and impressions was
sold by public auction.

The newly-married arts of stipple-engraving
and printing in colours remained under the pro-
tection of Francesco Bartolozzi, who personally
superintended their triumphant career.

The works of Ryland in colour that have
survived are very various in quality both of
engraving and printing. In every case the
earliest impressions are infinitely the best (I am
speaking only of the colour-impressions), and the
reasons for these great variations in workmanship
have been already discussed.

The following may be said to comprise his
principal engravings after Angelica Kauffmann.
" Lady Hester Stanhope " under the title " Morn-
ing Amusement," " Mary, Duchess of Rich-
mond," " Laudit Amabiliter," " Cupid and
Aglaie," " Venus presenting Helen to Paris "
and " The Judgment of Paris," " Olim Truncus,"
" Dormio Innocuus," "Juno Cestum," " O Venus
Regina," " Cymon and Iphigenia," " Patience
and Perseverance," " Telemachus Reduse,"
" Telemachus in Aula Spartana," " Eleanora and
Edward I.," and " Lady Elizabeth Grey and
Edward IV."

Several of these were included in a series of
eighteen issued under the generic title of " Illus-
trations from Horace."

" Marianne," and the head of a boy, both
after his own design, are strong and characteristic
engravings.

136

CHAPTER VII

The state of manufactures in England previous to the introduction
of machinery — Furniture, China, Paper — The prosperity of the
middle classes and their desire for the beautifying of their
homes — The art of Stipple-Engraving explained — The art of
Colour-Printing Stipple-Engravings described — The existence
of Colour-Prints in proof state queried and confirmed.

Bartolozzi's is the figure that looms largest in
the public eye through the twenty years of
stipple-work that ended the eighteenth century.
In an interesting monograph the late Mr. Tuer
endeavoured to endow the industrious Italian
with the qualities of a great Master. He ex-
tended the meagre details of his life over two
sumptuous volumes, and compiled a list of his
engravings including nearly 2000 plates.

But in truth Bartolozzi represented rather a
firm than an individual, rather an industry than
an artist. He was nevertheless a great stipple-
engraver, in the same sense that Wedgwood was
a great potter, Chippendale a great carver, Robert
Adam a great architect. All four men were in
the forefront of a great decorative movement,
coinciding with, perhaps pioneering, the strong
impetus that was given to British trade in the

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

pregnant interval which divided the American
War of Independence from the French Revolu-
tion.

A momentary glance at the conditions that
governed the state of manufactures generally will
demonstrate this. The marvellous increase of
commercial activity coincident with the inven-
tion of the power-loom, with the added facilities
of communication offered by the new canals,
marked the spirit of, what I will call, the higher
civilisation, the desire for personal and communal
luxury, and for the consequent ornament. It
was the final effort, the back-wash of the art-
wave that had swept over our shores ; it had
spent something of its vigour, perhaps, before
then, but it did its freshening work. Fortu-
nately, notwithstanding Watt and Cartwright,
hand-work was still the order of the day.

No one who has studied the debased and
hideous work of the early Victorian Era, can
shut his eyes to the evil effect which the first
introduction of machinery had upon the crafts-
men in every branch of manufacture. All
those four men I have mentioned were artist,
artisan, and master in one ; a condition of affairs
of which the possibility vanished with the
employment of steam, and all it brought in its
train. It was the purely personal element in
the production of articles for daily use that made
for beauty ; it was the purely personal element
in the more directly utilitarian crafts that made
for strength and value. Wonderful legacies in

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

stone and in brick, in earthenware and metal, in
mahogany and satin-wood, that have come down
to us from that age of individualism, bear
eloquent witness to this truth.

The great years of English furniture, of
English china, and of hand-made English articles
generally, were also the great years of colour-
printed stipple- engravings. And there is one
industry which so directly affected their value
that it is worthy of a momentary consideration
from this point of view alone. I allude to the
industry of paper-making. Up to the year 1798
all paper was hand -made, and the tone and
texture that collectors so justly value as the
foundation of their prints owe something of
their quality to this fact. In the year 1798 the
paper-machine, which led to the degradation of
the material on which engravings were printed,
was invented by Louis Robert, a clerk in the
employment of Messrs. Didot, of the celebrated
Essones paper-mills.

The first mills which were erected in England
for the manufacture of paper were the Frogmore
Mills at Boxmoor, Herts, established by Messrs.
Fourdrinier, with the assistance of Bryan Donkin,
the engineer. A happy bankruptcy delayed the
process some years longer, after which machine-
made paper and a pitiable deterioration in the
art of engraving made an almost simultaneous
appearance. It is not too much to affirm, as I
do, with the assent of practical paper-makers,
that had these fine prints of Bartolozzi and his

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

school, to say nothing of those of the great early
Dutch and Italian Masters, been taken off on the
machine-made paper to which modern custom
has almost reconciled us, eighty per cent would
have ceased to exist, would have absolutely
crumbled and decayed past preservation or re-
cognition.

Such a misfortune, however, the twentieth
century will bear with equanimity when it
shall inevitably affect a very large proportion of
Victorian engravings !

I have spoken of fine prints and Bartolozzi in
association, and may justly leave the words as
they are written. But it is indisputable that he,
and the large school that he founded, enjoyed
a contemporary consideration with the public
somewhat disproportionate to deserts, and greatly
to the indignation of many of the art-critics,
and brother artists. Horace Walpole alludes
more than once to " Bartolozzi and fan mounts "
when condemning in toto the Boydell Shake-
speare scheme, and Sir Robert Strange spoke
contemptuously of his Italian rival as " only
fit to engrave benefit tickets." It must be
admitted that Sir Robert had a large measure
of provocation. He had fine taste and feeling
for his art, yet he was neglected, passed over,
and ignored, whilst " praise and pudding " were
dealt out with lavish hand to the creator of
a multitude of winged Cupids with strange
anatomy, and miniature Venuses with monoto-
nous features. That Bartolozzi was capable of

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

better things he proved by his magnificent line-
work — work not inferior in strength to that of
Sir Robert himself, and superior to it often in
sweetness and delicacy.

But Bartolozzi was tempted to a great output
by the public appreciation of his stipple-work.
He yielded to the temptation, and imperilled a
reputation that should have been unrivalled.
The cause of his popularity is not far to seek.
It was, as I have shown, an age of applied art.
The middle class was growing wealthy through
the increase in commerce. Unlike the French
peasants, they did not want to accumulate mere
money, or to benefit the public funds. They
wanted to emulate that which they found most
admirable in the aristocracy that governed them ;
they wanted to add to the comforts of their
homes the luxury of beautiful ornament. Taste
was growing, but was undeveloped. The Court,
plebeian in personal habit, more anxious to
patronise than capable of bestowing patronage
wisely, encouraged Benjamin West and allowed
Wilson to starve. There was nevertheless a
distinct artistic development, though in the land
of freedom all the boundaries were undefined.
What has been called the " English Renaissance "
lacked just that purity, just that classicism neces-
sary to form a standard. It was a bastard birth,
half Italian and half Chinese, driven hither and
thither, now protected and now ignored ; it took
lurid colour from the east and strange decoration
from the west ; it educated itself outside the

141

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

discipline of a school, and this notwithstanding,
or, perhaps, because of, the existence of a Royal
Academy, and the generous ushership of a Duke
of Richmond. Under such circumstances, an
art- revival without an art- education, it is not
surprising that much of the public demand was
for the merely " pretty," whilst those that had a
higher ideal were fed, if not satisfied, by the
sham magnificence of the Boydell enterprise.

Certainly an English art -school grew up.
The life and the genius of Sir Joshua Reynolds did
not spend themselves in vain. But, outside the
school, dominated by the conditions that governed,
not Art but Commerce, Bartolozzi set up his
manufactory of stipple-engravings, and superin-
tended the production of colour-prints as seriously
as if he knew no better. That in such hands
this happy combination of two little arts pro-
duced results almost equal to a great one, it is
the object of my book to prove. But nothing is
to be gained by exaggerating the powers and
possibilities of stipple -engraving ; it lacks the
grandeur of line-engraving and the poetry of
mezzotint. The union with colour made its
strength ; a union that would merely have de-
stroyed the dignity of its superiors.

The process of stipple - engraving in its
eighteenth-century development ought, perhaps,
to be described before the process of printing
in colour is fully gone into. It is a simple
process from start to finish.

An etching ground was laid on a copper-plate

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and the subject transferred to it as in an etching.
The outline was laid in by means of small dots
made with the dry etching-point, after which
all the darker parts were etched likewise in dots,
which were larger and laid closer together for
the deep shades. The work was then bitten in,
the engraver taking care not to let the aquafortis
remain too long on the middle tints. When the
ground was taken off the plate, all the lighter
parts were laid in with the stipple-graver. The
stipple -graver was an ordinary engraving- tool
differently placed in the handle to give a facility
for dot - making. Not only were the lighter
parts in a good stipple-engraving laid in with
the graver, but the middle tints also, if they had
been but faintly bitten in, were deeper and softer
when worked up with the graver. When the
dark shadows were too faint they were often
deepened by laying a re-biting ground, which
accounts for a certain harshness of effect in some
stipple-prints.

The so-called " chalk manner " is a form of
stipple in which the strokes of chalk or crayon
on a granulated surface are imitated by a suc-
cession of irregular dots so arranged as to give
an exactly similar result.

It is not necessary to tell any one who knows
anything of line or mezzotint work how infinitely
quicker and simpler it is to get a result from the
above means than from either of the others. It
was this very ease and simplicity that made its
great temptation. Bartolozzi was a very quick

M3

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

worker in line, but with all his speed he could
not have done in line what he did in stipple,
and, long before poor Ryland's judicial murder
had put an end to the experiments at 159 Strand,
his successor had discovered the value that fine
colour-printing gave to his hurried work. The
colour-printers were exposed to the same tempta-
tion as the stipple-engravers, and the art decayed
almost as rapidly as it had arisen. Like some
rare tropical plant of fabled fame, it grew for
nearly 300 years before it flowered. Twenty
years it was in bloom, and now, although the
vigorous tree remains, its exquisite efflorescence
is but a memory. Unfortunately, to print a
copper-plate in colours, once the cameo method
had been finally discarded, seemed so simple that
as time went on and the public demand, indis-
criminate and clamorous, overtook the supply,
the work was put into the hands of men who
had not the right eye for colour, nor the right
manipulation, delicate and wary, for producing
pictures. Over-production induced inferior work-
manship ; public disappointment was followed
by public disgust ; lithography came in with its
smooth and even result ; and stipple-engraving
and copper-plate colour-printing, after a few final
struggles, died a natural death.

Even a superficial consideration of the art
will show how necessary an ingredient was
Time in its acquisition, and Time was the one
wage the employers of both engraver and printer
were unwilling to give.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

A successful copper- plate printer in colour
should have been a capable monochrome printer,
and even now it is considered that a man must
have passed a seven years' apprenticeship to the
press before he achieves that distinction. He
should have had an eye for colour ; the eye
of an artist rather than an artisan. He should
possess untiring patience and a steady hand.
And even then he would obtain varying results.
He was working, as I will show forthwith,
practically in the dark, relying on instinct, on
feeling, rather than on rule. The press would
play him strange tricks, the paper would give
uncertainty to his most carefully prepared tints.
The day's work would offer him all the variety
of the changing hours. He must for ever con-
sider the light, as morning gave way to noon,
and noon to evening. And when he had given all
this consideration and allowed for all possibilities,
the lapse of a few hours would find the colours
dry on his palette, the linseed oil for mixing
them — the printers burned it themselves in the
early days — more or less brown, and differing
in strength according to individual idiosyncrasy,
and, almost as a matter of course, the proving
would have to be done afresh every day. And
then other little matters would present them-
selves. The wear of the unsteeled copper-plate,
for instance, might baffle him for a time, and
render the consequent strengthening of the
colours necessary where this wearing and
weakening occurred.

H5 L

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

For those to whom the art of printing copper-
plate engravings in colour is completely un-
known, I give a simple description. It may
seem bald to those who are experts, but I have
purposely avoided technicalities, and have used
the terms that seemed to me to describe most
exactly the methods employed, rather than those
in general use in the workshops. That I am
able to give this description at all is due to the
fact that copper-plate printing seems to be as
hereditary an art as the art of acting. Two of
the firms now engaged in printing in colours from
copper-plates have been continuously trading for
over I GO years. In both cases tradition and the
system of apprenticeship have kept alive the
methods of working, and by dint of indefatigably
questioning the oldest members of these firms,
and their workmen, and making practical experi-
ments to test the oral traditions of great-grand-
fathers and great - great - grandfathers, I have
arrived at the following, and personally am
satisfied as to its correctness.

In addition to the testimony of these two
firms, I have the description given by Minasi,
who worked with Bartolozzi, and died in 1 865
at the age of eighty-nine. Retaining his senses
to the last, he was wont to talk freely about the
great days of copper-plate printing in colour,
to a coterie of interested friends, of whom my
grandfather, his neighbour, happened, fortunately,
to be one.

A copper-plate, engraved and ready for print-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

ing, was given to the workman, together, as a
rule, with a water-colour drawing for a guide to
the colours. I have seen many of these water-
colour drawings by Harding, by Downman, by
Hamilton, by Bartolozzi, and more recently by
Adam Buck. It was not at all unusual for the
engraver, and not the artist, to make this water-
colour drawing. Comparing these drawings
with the prints, I should say that the instruc-
tions were to get as nearly as possible the
general effect, not to consider detail of shade or
colour. I incline to this theory because in the
prints I have seen with the drawings, the artists
have signed proofs as being satisfactory, which,
whilst conveying the effect of the drawings, differ
very much from them in many particulars. A
few sets of these drawings with the prints are
in the British Museum. The only " unknown
quantity " that may invalidate this argument is,
that time may have altered the printed colours,
and left unchanged the drawings ; a perfectly
conceivable possibility dependent on the fugitive
nature of certain colours when mixed with burnt
oil — blue, for instance.

The printer having the plate, which he care-
fully cleaned with turpentine, and the colour-
scheme, which he closely studied, commenced
by selecting the ground-tint. He noted the
prevailing tone, generally a brown, or black, or
grey of greater or lesser strength, and with this
he inked or filled in the work over the entire
plate, as if he were preparing for monochrome.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

But instead of wiping the ink lightly into the
lines or dots, as he would have done in that case,
he wiped it out of them ; that is to say, having
inked the plate, he went over it with the muslin
in the endeavour to get it as nearly clean as
possible, leaving only the tone or neutral tint on
which to build up his picture. Slight as this
tone was, little of it as was left on the plate, the
preparation and consideration of this stage of the
proceedings were more uncertain, and required
more knowledge, than almost any of the others.
This slight tone dominated the picture, lightened
or deepened the plate, changed the relation of all
the colours, and affected the ultimate result in
every detail.

Having thus secured the ground-tint, the next
point was to select the brighter colours in the
picture, the blues and reds, the mauves and
greens. This was where, to a certain extent,
the printer worked in the dark, at least as far as
proving the plate was concerned. The plate
with its dull tinge of ground was on the printing-
table before him ; his palette was prepared ;
the colours mixed in accordance with the
pattern. But there was a grand uncertainty in
the action ; the blue, which had exactly
matched the pattern while it was on the
palette, might print lighter or darker as the
ground -tint modified or rejected it; the en-
graving, strong or faint, might hold the red or
throw it off. All this could only be seen
definitely after the press had done its work.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The printer had to experiment, had to bring his
experiences and patience to bear, whilst in the
meantime, with brush, poupee, or stump, he
inked in the hat or the ribbon, the dress or the
drapery, with the colour he had prepared. This
inking had to be very neatly, very accurately
done, and the outlines kept clear. The diffi-
culty can be understood when the size of some of
the figures is considered, as well as the fact that
it was not enough to paint the surface ; the colour
had to be rubbed into the engraving in such a
manner as to fill in the line or stipple completely.
When the principal colours had in this way
been painted or inked in, the application of the
flesh -tints, which were always left to the last,
was a formidable task still to tackle. As a
general rule, though there were many important
exceptions, the ground had to be completely
wiped out of the engraved work, and a fresh
ground put in, wherever there was a flesh-tint
to be dealt with. It had to be wiped off
because it would make the result dull, or
muddy ; a fresh one had to be put in because,
otherwise, the modelling would be lost ; there
would then be nothing that would print. Over
this new ground, therefore, — a ground of car-
mine and white, or carmine and burnt sienna, or
carmine alone, or blue and white, or a hundred
other combinations, the effect of which had to
be laboriously sought, — the flesh had to be built
up, the features, eyes and brows, shadows and
lips, painted into the plate, and all the accessories

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

cared for. And when all this had been done,
the plate was still not ready for printing. All
the colours were there in their right places, but
they had to be adjusted, blended, and again
toned. Shadows were put in the second time
with the ground-colour or some other. High
lights were wiped close, so as to give the paper
a chance, or added in whites or yellows. Eyes
were accentuated, hair relieved, and the whole
fused or blended with the muslin. It was in
this fusing or blending that the born colour-
printer revealed himself. It needed care, pre-
cision, and knowledge. And all these were
valueless without just that little gift, as rare as
it is valuable, which is as impossible to describe
as it is to impart. This is the " personal
element " which accounts for so much that is
puzzling in the various states and impressions
of old colour-prints.

There were two or three tricks or artifices,
besides the foregoing, essential to ensure a com-
pletely successful result.

The plate was kept slightly warmed in print-
ing. It was then that a certain amount of re-
troussage and, to use the expressive word of the
workshop, " tickling up " was resorted to in
order to bring forward shadows or deepen dis-
tances. Retroussage, or dragging, as far at least
as the word is concerned, is a modern invention,
but there is a large amount of evidence as to the
employment of an analogous process on the
eighteenth-century colour-prints. It was at this

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

stage also that dry colour was dusted on, to
heighten a complexion or accentuate the fold of
a drapery. This dusting over the slightly moist
colour was first done by Johannes Teyler in the
seventeenth century. In many instances the
necessity for this was due to the engraver, who
had not specially prepared his plate for colour-
printing, and had made no allowance for the
brilliancy that was to take the place of depth.
Apropos of brilliancy, there was another point
the ubiquitous printer was bound never to lose
sight of, and that was the warming of his plate.
The inking -table was iron, and had a lamp
underneath it, so that the colours kept moist
during the working. The printer worked with
two tables in front of him, one with this lamp
or candle underneath, and the other cold ; in
modern workshops the cold table is of wood.
He painted on the cold table, moving the plate
now and again to the other, as it were for
refreshing. This method ensured the most
brilliant results, but the printer who employed
it required with his other talents something of
the instinct that distinguishes the chef de cuisine^
for if the plate were over-done or under-done,
over-warmed so that the colours became smudged,
or under-warmed so that they failed to give their
full value of tone in the printing, the dish was
spoilt and the palate disappointed.

The whole of the foregoing work had to be
done afresh for every impression that was pro-
duced !

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Briefly summarised, the above is the art,
which, long sought for, and nearly discovered
in the first half of the eighteenth century, finally
arrived at a beautiful maturity under the excep-
tional circumstances that distinguished its final
years.

That, notwithstanding the knowledge of
" how it was done," no modern work equals the
old is due to some of the factors mentioned in
the Preface. Time, which has subdued and
softened the colours, and the tint and texture
of the beautiful old hand-made paper, are pre-
eminent amongst these. Others are the use of
photogravure instead of stipple-engraved plates,
and the loss of certain combinations of printing-
colours.

Among the questions which amateurs of
colour-prints are constantly asking the dealers
and each other is one as to the existence oi proof s
in colour. I can only put forward a personal
theory which grows constantly more defined.
This is, that the very earliest proofs of the finest
stipple- engravings were hardly ever in colour,
and that, when so-called proofs in colour were
issued, that is impressions before lettering, such
issue was due to some accidental circumstance,
some weakening in the plate or feebleness in the
engraving which was concealed by the help of
colour. Constant study of old stipple-prints,
with the continual practice of comparing im-
pressions, has led me to this conclusion. It
only refers absolutely, however, to the finest

152

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and most elaborate stipple-work, executed and
signed by its legitimate creator. The light
and fanciful neoclassic designs emanating from
the School or Factory that supplied this class
of print come under a different category. These
were in many instances engraved for colour, and
for colour only, and the later monochrome im-
pressions are generally feeble and valueless ;
their colour was their only raison d'etre.

A purchaser of colour-prints or a collector of
stipple-engravings, who is tempted by the word
" proof," would be well advised to study care-
fully any given print in its various issues and
sets, in colour and in monochrome, when I have
little doubt he will arrive at the same conclusion
as I have.

As long as the use of steel facing was un-
known, a very limited number of impressions
taken off a copper plate was sufficient to cause it
to show signs of wear, not perhaps to the same
extent as a mezzotinted plate, but still quite
sufficient to prove the matter in dispute. A
proof, or early impression, is distinguishable not
only for its brilliancy but for its sharpness of
outline, not only for its strength but for its soft-
ness. With the thousands of stipple-engravings
that have passed through my hands — I am not
exaggerating — I have not seen a dozen engrav-
ings of any importance, in colour, which I could
not match by a stronger impression in mono-
chrome. Nineteen out of twenty proofs in colour
that have been shown to me have been impres-

153

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

sions taken off, perhaps before lettering, but
certainly after a considerable number of earlier
proofs have first been pulled. This is an im-
portant matter which every amateur must decide
for himself, but it is further my opinion that the
plate was improved for colour -purposes by the
practice of first taking off a certain number of
proofs in monochrome ; by this means the sharp-
ness and hardness are toned down, but the deli-
cacy and softness remain, and colour more than
compensates for the little that is missing. A
real first proof in colour from a strongly engraved
copper-plate would be coarse and heavy, like the
well-known " Duchess of York " by Knight ; it
would need a large admixture of white in the
ground to bring it down to beauty point. Those
old colour-printers knew their work too well to
resort to this admixture when, by taking a dozen
or so proofs in monochrome, the plate would, as
it were, by a natural sequence, attain the delicate
quality from which they could obtain their best
effects. The exceptions to the rule were, as I
have primarily said, engravings specially made
for colour, in which the second biting had never
been resorted to, and the graver had been used
not only for the lighter parts but also for the
shadows.

A reference to a number of catalogues of
sales, by auction, of copper-plates and impres-
sions between 1793, the year when Dickinson's
stock and plant were sold, and 18 15, when the
Molteno sale took place, again confirms me in

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

my views. In these catalogues, with a single
exception, the engravings are placed under three
headings : " proofs," " impressions in colour,"
" prints " ; there is no mention at all of proofs
in colour. In the one exceptional catalogue the
engravings are classed under four such headings,
the first being "proofs in colour." There were
147 lots at this sale (the goods of Mrs. Diemar,
at Christie's, 1799), and the fourth heading,
" proofs in colour," has only three entries ! The
same thing occurs when the copper- plates are
sold. " Proofs," " impressions in colour," and
" prints " follow each other regularly ; but
" proofs in colour " is an item that does not
exist.

Whilst on the subject of these catalogues, it
is interesting to note that at the beginning of
the last century many engravings were sold
at public auction under the description " printed
in colours, ready for finishing^ When the great
Boydell collection was dispersed the prints in
colours sold separately as " finished " or " un-
finished." But this was in 18 19, when already
the workman had lost pride in his work, and was
content that his crudely-painted, quickly-printed
plate should receive its final touches at other
hands. The earlier colour-printers were more
ambitious ; and to secure their work, and theirs
only, should be the aim of the collector.

155

CHAPTER VIII

Bartolozzi — His character as a man and its effect upon his reputation
as an artist — Some representative prints described and a short
list given of other desirable specimens of his Colour-Printed
stipple-work.

In the final chapter I intend to catalogue briefly the
most prominent of those of the stipple-engravers
who were in the habit of employing the colour-
printers. In this and the following chapters will
be found a short account of those men who may
fairly be considered, at least, as amongst the most
successful of the workers under the allied flags,
and who sufficiently exemplify, if they do not
absolutely define, the scope of the alliance.

I have not attempted to give a complete list
of the works of any one artist ; for the value
and interest of such a list would in no way be
commensurate with the expenditure of time and
labour it would involve. It is not within the
scope of my limited ambition to become the
Challoner Smith of stipple-engravings.

The public demand for coloured engravings
during the twenty years from 1780 to 1800 so
far outstripped the powers of the men best able

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

to cope with it, that there was not one amongst
them but was guilty, at one time or another, of
falling below, in some cases infinitely below, the
high-water mark of his talents. I have contented
myself, therefore, with merely indicating, for the
benefit of my brother and sister collectors, the
directions in which they should look for an
increase of their treasures. When they have
secured a collection of those incidentally men-
tioned in the foregoing and following pages ;
and have added a complete set of " The Cries of
London," a complete set of " The Months," after
Hamilton, and a few carefully selected specimens
after Buck's unequal work, produced early in the
nineteenth century, which they will have come
across in the course of their search for those
prints already mentioned, they will probably
know quite as much as, or more than, I do of the
subject they are pursuing, and they will be able to
cover the rest of the ground without assistance.

They will then, probably, send the greater
part of the contents of their portfolios to the
salerooms, and yearn to diversify their walls with
mezzotints, after Reynolds, Romney, and George
Morland, printed in monochrome !

I take the engravers in alphabetical order, as
being simpler for reference than had I arranged
them chronologically.

Bartolozzi (Francesco), 1727-18 15, to whom
the place of honour justly pertains, although he
was the pupil, and not the pioneer of Ryland,
was born in Florence. He was the son of a

^57

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

goldsmith, and was a student at the Florentine
Academy under Ignatio Hugford, an historical
painter of little repute. Cipriani was his fellow-
pupil and here their lifelong friendship com-
menced.

Bartolozzi learned engraving in Venice under
Joseph Wagner, with whom he remained six
years. At the end of his apprenticeship he
married a lady of good family and removed with
her to Rome. Apparently not history, romance,
nor contemporary gossip, not Tuer in his bio-
graphy, nor Nicholls in his Literary Anecdotes^
not Bryan, Redgrave, nor Rose, could find any-
thing good about this lady except her family.
Anyway, they all maintain a discreet silence as
to the married life of the subject of this slight
memoir. It may be that the list of Madame
Bartolozzi's advantages actually ended with the
social position of her family ; it may be that the
biographers endeavoured to veil the neglect of
her husband by omitting to relate how far she
was wronged. But Bartolozzi, when he came
to London on the invitation of Dalton in 1764,
left his wife discreetly behind. Bartolozzi, no
less than Romney and Ryland, seems to have
looked upon the partnership involved in marital
ties as one to be dissolved at pleasure. He never
rejoined his wife, never, so far as we know,
suggested her joining him in London. Gaetano,
the only son of the marriage, when he had
arrived at the age that should have brought dis-
cretion, followed his father to London ; and he

158

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

succeeded in obtaining, if not the parental love, at
least the substantial advantages of his father's name,
to which he added no lustre, and the privileges of
his father's purse, which he seriously depleted.

An analysis of Bartolozzi's character, with
the materials at command, is difficult, if not
impossible ; an analysis of his work with dis-
cretion and fairness is hardly easier. He has
become obscured by reason of a variety of circum-
stances which, united, spell contradictoriness ; a
long and awkward combination of syllables for a
commentator. Sir Joshua Reynolds paints him
young, handsome, and attractive. Lord Rides-
dale, in almost the same year, tells an anecdote of
him that shows him middle-aged, drunken, and
objectionable in his personal habits. Among the
specimens of his stipple -work hereinafter de-
scribed, and which have been selected for descrip-
tion with the idea of being honestly representative,
are the charming study of " Lady Elizabeth
Foster," and the feeble little " Venus Sleeping."
We know that he engraved " Cly tie," but his magic
name is also at the bottom of that truly lament-
able print of Prince William Henry, after West.
We note the desire for gain leading him to the
commission of the unpardonable artistic crime of
signing work which it is impossible he could
have executed, combined with a lavishness of
expenditure that lands him eventually, if not in
beggary, at least in the position of a poor suppliant
for a poorer pension.

In order, therefore, for the character and

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

position of Bartolozzi to stand out clear and
sharp against the confusing shadow -curtain of
time, it is necessary to focus him steadily in the
light, the only one obtainable, of a personal
standpoint. And, having collated and marshalled
conflicting evidence with every possible care, to
me, at least, the portrait by Reynolds appears an
idealisation, as are so many of the portraits of the
great English painter, while the anecdotes of
Lord Ridesdale and Angelo are definitely illus-
trative of an individuality with little to charm
and much to repel. The man who could allow
Sir Robert Strange's famous attack upon him to
pass uncontradicted must have been singularly
phlegmatic, the man who thought so little of
his reputation that he had no more scruples in
lending his name than other men had in lending
a crown, was surely rather obtuse than generous,
rather dull than deserving.

Bartolozzi seems to have had none of the
Italian fervour, none of the Italian passion.
He was more dexterous than imaginative, more
fortunate than discriminating. The times were
with him. There was a demand, and he supplied
it without endeavouring to raise the standard of
taste. The patrons of Art were of the type of
Mrs. Delany, who found Gainsborough " an im-
postor," and would " have been sorry to have any
one she loved set forth in such a manner." The
Society of Arts that elected him a Member, and
the Royal Academy that confirmed the selection,
were the same institutions that snubbed Romney,

1 60

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

offended Joseph Wright, and suggested to Wilson
to change his style in landscape to that of
Zuccarelli !

That Bartolozzi was generous seems to have
been proved by his many benefit tickets executed
without payment, but that he understood their
value better than the public is a point of which
we need not lose sight. That he was kind-
hearted may be accepted on the evidence of the
plate he finished for Ryland, although when we
remember what he owed to that unfortunate
man it does not seem a great repayment. But
that, even if good-natured and kind-hearted, he
was something less than honourable, and some-
thing more than unscrupulous, we may gather
with equal certainty from stronger evidence.
That he deserted his wife, that he took pupils
at high figures and used them to " forward " his
plates, a generic term often implying " execute,"
as well as to perform menial household duties, is
indubitable. We have not only the flight of
Benedetti, who eloquently dilates on the reasons
that led him to this step, to confirm it, but also
the criticisms of his more celebrated pupil Minasi.
That he drank to excess has been considered as
a natural tribute paid to the habits of the country
that harboured him. But, in very truth, it was
a sign of the same weakness of character that
permitted the vagaries of his son Gaetano to pass
unchecked, until idleness had come to a climax
in debauchery, and debauchery had inevitably led
to disease.

i6i M

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Accepting then, as I cannot avoid, the char-
acter of Bartolozzi as that of a man, who, without
ambition, without desire for distinction, disregard-
ing domestic ties, and ignoring alike the duties
of a father and the privileges of a citizen, lived
a life of animal ease, content to provide each
day for each day's need, a man so featureless,
so characterless, so insignificant, that he neither
excited enmity, beyond the mild contempt of
his apprentices, nor friendship, other than that
of his countryman and fellow-exile Cipriani ; all
that remains to be done is to consider the definite
importance of his work in the history of Art-
movements.

The scope and volume of Bartolozzi's work
must be first taken into consideration. And this
because, although it is quite impossible that he
could have done all, or nearly all, that was attri-
buted to him, there is a certain definite quality
about those plates that legitimately bear his
signature which, being peculiar to this engraver,
and a copyright with which he could not part,
entitles him to special recognition. As an histori-
cal engraver the faults in his character become
apparent. That he could not or did not trans-
late honestly, the celebrated set of Holbein heads
are witnesses, notwithstanding Mr. Tuer's amiable
endeavour to fasten the blame for the alterations
on to the publisher. An engraver of char-
acter, of high integrity, would not have offered
such a fraud to the public. As well might we
picture a Sharp or a Strange adding a head-dress

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

to a Rubens, a jewelled pendant to a Murillo ;
or a Valentine Green changing one of Sir
Joshua's elegant society ladies into a Contadina
or a Vivandiere. Honest engravers realise that
their mission is to translate and not to alter.
This dishonesty of Bartolozzi's was one of his
weaknesses that made special appeal to the in-
different draughtsmen and designers of the day.
It was a sin -stone cast into artistic waters
making muddy, ever-widening circles. It be-
came recognised that the engraver should alter
or improve the designs submitted to him. The
habit of the Bartolozzi atelier became a tradi-
tion that his pupils carried on consistently.
The practice was directly responsible for an
enormous quantity of very bad workmanship, and
for an encouragement of amateurism and Henry
Bunbury contributing directly towards the disre-
pute into which stipple-engraving ultimately fell.
But although Bartolozzi had these faults of
character, faults that justly earned him half a
century of contempt and neglect, and puts him,
as an historical engraver, outside the region
of serious criticism, he has left ample proof that
character, and not capacity, was to blame, and
that although his influence and teaching were
bad, these might very easily have been not only
good, but invaluable. As a delineator of female
beauty, as a decorative artist, pure and simple,
he was unrivalled in his Jtietier. He taught
speed, carelessness, indifference, but he knew
beauty and grace and sweetness. Proofs of this

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

knowledge are to be found in his line-engravings,
even in his etchings, certainly in every piece
of stipple-work for which a generous licence of
imagination can accept the name with which it
is signed. The quality that was pre-eminently
his own, the copyright with which he could
not part, was a certain sweetness or delicacy,
a refinement and softness, which, although it
might easily become, as indeed it did become,
monotonous, has placed his work beyond that of
his competitors, and proved him an engraver of
personality. That, in addition to this sweet-
ness, and as a preservative of it, he was capable
of strength, his best work abundantly showed.
His earlier translations of the great Italian
Masters prove his capacity before he degenerated
into a manufacturer of stipple-engravings, and lost
the artist in the tradesman. It was after he had
done his best work that he became the master of
a school, and it is unfortunately in that capacity
one finds him peculiarly inefficient ; comparing
so unfavourably with Josiah Wedgwood, with
Sheraton and Heppelwhite, and other master
craftsmen.

It would not be difficult to find a hundred
stippled engravings by Bartolozzi, printed in
colours, all fine and rare and completely justifi-
able. But they would not be fairly representative
of his work in this field, and representativeness,
if nothing else, is what I have sought for in
the prints I catalogue ; and which I suggest as
the nucleus of a collection.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The following may not, perhaps, be repre-
sentative of Bartolozzi at his absolutely best,
though " Lady Betty Foster " has certain claims
to that distinction, nor at his absolutely worst,
although his "Venus Sleeping" is within sight
of that possibility, but they are fair examples of
the work with which he and his pupils were
associated in the public mind in the great days
of stipple-engraving. It would be more difficult
to find an equal difference in the work produced
under a common name by any artist in wood or
plaster, bronze or clay.

Thus, what Bartolozzi could do in stipple-
work is shown by " Lady Betty Foster," " Lady
Smith," by the " Countess of Harrington," the
"Duchess of Devonshire," "Lieutenant Riddell."
What Bartolozzi should never have done is ex-
emplified by the " Venus Sleeping " and " Diana
and Nymphs Bathing"; what neither Bartolozzi
nor any other engraver need have troubled to do
is seen in " A Sacrifice to Cupid " and " The
Triumph of Beauty and Love "; what no one but
Bartolozzi could have done as well asserts its
charm in " Contentment " and " Friendship."
Reference to these will give material to the
student on which to form his own opinion of
this engraver.

The Colour-Printer played an important part
in the popularity of all these engravings. It is
not too much to say that the fancy subjects, the
more peculiarly decorative prints, almost owed
their existence to him. He made the worst and

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

feeblest stipple-work possible, and the best com-
pletely beautiful. He masked poverty of inven-
tion, and inadequateness of execution. He added
a hundred attractions to a process which, in the
hands of a dullard, had little more artistry than
a modern photograph.

And because Bartolozzi and his school sup-
plied and patronised the atelier of the colour-
printer, because Bartolozzi was the master who
read the marriage service over the alliance, even
if he were not the man who first encouraged
the engagement, a debt of gratitude is due to
him, which, with the compound interest accu-
mulating in a hundred years, may be liberally
reckoned as sufficiently large to cover the defects
in his character. No honest critic, with a fine
example of stipple-engraving printed in colours
in his hand, and the same stipple- engraving
printed in monochrome, could fail to admit the
importance and value of the alliance ; just as the
very same test applied to a mezzotint, will assure
him of the contrary.

It is the history of the courtship and marriage
of stipple-engraving with colour-printing, that I
have endeavoured to tell in the foregoing pages.
The recognition and identification of the legiti-
mate ofifspring will plead more eloquently than
the historian for a post-nuptial benediction.

It can be easily understood that, out of the
two thousand and odd plates engraved or signed
by Bartolozzi, a very long list of desirable engrav-
ings could be collated. A reference to Mr. Tuer's

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

catalogue can always be made, however, by any
collector who wishes to be complete rather than
exclusive. The few I append are merely an arbi-
trary selection, but are all beautiful prints, when
in good condition and early state.

" Cupid making his Bow," after Correggio ;
" Countess Spencer " ; " Hope Nursing Love " ;
" Miss Bingham" ; " Portrait of the Honourable
Leicester Stanhope " ; " Simplicity " (Miss Theo-
phila Gwatkin) ; " Venus chiding Cupid "
" Lord Burghersh," after Sir Joshua Reynolds
" Countess Spencer," after Gainsborough
" Miss Farren," signed by Bartolozzi but en-
graved by Knight ; " Princess Amelia " and
" Lady G. Bathurst," after Lawrence ; " Lady
Ashburton," after Downman ; " Letitia," after
Morland ; " The Birth of Shakespeare " ; " The
Tomb of Shakespeare " ; " The Shepherdess of
the Alps " ; " Griselda " ; " Damon and Delia" ;
" Damon and Musidora " ; " Hebe " ; " Cor-
nelia, mother of the Gracchi " ; " Zeuxis com-
posing the Picture of Juno " ; " Psammetichus
in love with Rhodope " ; " Eurydice " and
" Cordelia," after Angelica Kauffmann ; " Vis-
countess Bulkeley " ; " Mrs. Abington," after
Cosway ; several miniatures after Sam Shelley,
notably " The Family of the Duke of Marl-
boro' " ; " The Libertine Reclaimed," and " The
Prelude to Matrimony," after Harding ; *' Mrs.
Crouch," after Romney ; " Spring," " Summer,"
" Autumn," and " Winter," after Wheatley.

There are also a very large number after

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Hamilton (Bartolozzi was peculiarly successful
with the small children subjects after this painter),
and an even larger number after Cipriani, of
mythological tendency, of which the following
are not the least attractive : " Lais " ; " Hector
and Andromache"; "The Parting of Achilles
and Briseis"; " Chryses restored to her Father";
" Nymph of Immortality crowning the bust of
Shakespeare"; "Fortune." He also executed
"A St. James's Beauty," and "A St. Giles's
Beauty," after Benwell ; and some charming
prints after Singleton.

" Lady Jane Dundas," after Hoppner, is good.
" Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," and " Isa-
bella, Duchess of Rutland," after Nixon, are two
miniatures that no collector could afford to be
without.

With certain painters Bartolozzi was particu-
larly happy, but he never could translate or
comprehend Peters, and Morland's idiosyncrasies
hardly suited him better. Some of his most
charming colour-prints are from his own designs ;
and he also seems to have excelled in making
water-colour " extracts " from the works of con-
temporary painters for the guidance of engravers
and colour-printers.

i6g

CHAPTER IX

The Stipple-Engravers and their works — Burke, Chcesman, Collycr,
Conde, Dickinson, Gaugain, Hogg

THOMAS BURKE

Burke (Thomas), 1749-18 15, was, in the opinion
of many experts, a stipple-engraver second only
in value and excellence to Bartolozzi. As a
matter of fact, Angelica Kauffmann has left it on
record that she preferred his translation of her
pictures to that of the popular Florentine. Burke
was an Irishman, and possessed the national versa-
tility. He had two distinct styles in stipple,
and he also engraved in mezzotint, which he had
studied under Dixon. It was apparently through
his studies in mezzotint that he learned to use the
stipple-point in such a manner as to produce
almost the velvety effect of the finer art. His
dots are very close together, and his prints have
an exceptional richness and depth that make
them almost independent of the colour-printer.
In red, in bistre, in black, they have alike depth
and tone. '* Lady Rushout " and " Rinaldo and
Armida " are the two of his works that contem-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

porary experts considered to be his masterpieces
in this branch of the art. Like the majority of
so-called pairs, they were issued separately, and
their connection was merely arbitrary. Dickinson
published the first, and Thomas Macklin the
second, but finally Dickinson acquired both plates,
and they were sold together in 1794 (when he
gave up business and disposed of his stock by
auction), "Lady Rushout " realising ^9 :15s.,
and " Rinaldo and Armida " £15- ^ S^-y which
were very high prices for worn plates in those
days. It was after this sale that the former
plate was altered and the title " Contentment
and Innocence " substituted for " Lady Rushout
and Daughter." These two beautiful prints are,
perhaps because the best known, still the most
highly esteemed of Burke's stipple-engravings.
But they are equalled, if not excelled, by two
others entitled " Cupid and Cephisa."

" Cupid and Ganymede " and "Jupiter and
Calisto " are a pair exceedingly rare in colours,
but almost as beautiful in bistre, particularly in
the proof state.

No collection of stipple-engravings is complete
without specimens from the work of Thomas
Burke, and it is impossible to have too many of
them. The four miniatures of " Lady Rushout "
and her three daughters, after Plimer ; " Una,"
and its companion " Abra " ; " Cupid disarmed
by Euphrosine " ; " Cupid binding Aglaia " ;
" Alexander resigning his mistress Campaspe to
Apelles " ; " Cleopatra throwing herself at the

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

feet of Augustus " ; " Henry and Emma " (an
illustration from Prior's well-known poem, and
a favourite subject with the engravers of the
day) ; " Conjugal Love " ; and " Angelica and
Sacriponte," are all from Angelica Kauffmann's
designs.

" The Duchess of Richmond," after Down-
man ; a charming " Cupid " after Bartolozzi,
and another after Reinagle ; a portrait of" Mrs.
Billington," after De Koster ; one of " Mrs.
Siddons," after Bateman; and "George, Prince
of Wales," after Cosway, are other interesting en-
gravings by Burke. I have also seen a charming,
and certainly rare, proof in colour of " Louisa,
reigning Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt," after
Schroeder, which is thoroughly worthy of a
collector's attention.

The print described as " Lady Rushout and
Daughter" depicts Rebecca, Lady Rushout,whose
husband was created Lord Northwick in 1797.
She was the daughter of Humphrey Bowles of
Wanstead, brother of the " George " to whom
so many of the Kauffmann prints, including the
one under consideration, are dedicated. The
" daughter " is Anne Rushout, who died un-
married in 1849. Lady Rushout's eldest son
and heir carried on worthily the traditions of his
family, and became a notable art-patron and col-
lector. He was the second Lord Northwick,
and, when still in early manhood, he attracted
the liking of that fine old connoisseur. Sir
William Hamilton of " Emma " fame, from whom

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

he seems to have acquired both taste and desire.
He lived until 1859, and in that year the sale of
his collection at Christie's was the art event of
the year.

Lady Rushout was one of the beauties of her
day. Cosway painted her with long ringlets, in
a white dress and cap, a neckerchief at the
throat with a frill above it, the dress being cut
in a V. Plimer, Cosway's great rival, also
painted her at the same time that he executed
the celebrated pictures of her three daughters.
She is more matronly in this miniature, but
hardly less beautiful, wearing a black dress and
powdered hair.

The first state of the print is before all letters ;
but I have never seen it in colours. The next
state has Angelica's name without the " n," and
this is colour-printed. There were several other
states, as the plates were popular, and went on
printing, with various alterations and re-touchings,
right into the nineteenth century.

Collectors who have a passion for identifying
the subjects of their prints will be interested
to know that the Burke engraving entitled
" Rinaldo and Armida " has often been alluded
to as " Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson." But,
although Armida is decidedly reminiscent of one
of the most celebrated Romneys, there is no re-
semblance to be found between Rinaldo and the
hero of Trafalgar.

The story of Rinaldo, the Christian knight,
and the sorceress Armida, the niece of Idraotes,

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Prince of Damascus, and famed as the most
beautiful woman of the East, is, of course, the
well - known story from Tasso's Gerusale?nme
Liberata. The moment chosen for illustration is
when Carlo and Ubaldo, the two knights whom
Godfrey has despatched in search of Rinaldo, find
him in the arms of his enchantress.

Unmoved and calm proceed the noble knights,
Steeled 'gainst the spell of this surpassing Fair.
But where an opening the thick branches leave
They turn their eyes and see . . .

Her parted veil betrays her breast to view^.
Her fair hair wantons in the summer air,
A sweet smile glistens in her soft'ning eye.
With witching grace she o'er him bends.
He 'gainst her knee the while, pillows his head
And lifts to hers his face . . .

This story was the theme of Handel's opera
Rinaldo, produced at the Queen's Theatre in
the Haymarket in 171 1. It had a phenomenal
run, initiated its composer's fame in England,
and excited a passion of enthusiasm in the town.
Rinaldo and Armida is also the title of the
play founded on Tasso's story by John Dennis,
performed in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1699. But
there is no doubt, and I think the quoted verses
prove it, that it was direct to the poet that
Angelica Kauffmann turned for her subject-
matter. This engraving is apparently the natural
pair to " Lady Rushout and Daughter," although
the Dickinson print of the " Duchess of Devon-
shire and Lady Duncannon " is sometimes sold
as a pendant.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The earliest proofs were in bistre, but the
plate was colour-printed without any alteration
having taken place in title or inscription.

THOMAS CHEESMAN

Cheesman (Thomas), 1760 to about 1834.
He was one of Bartolozzi's apprentices, and very
successful in engraving for colour. Cheesman
seems to have been of a restless disposition, for
in the course of a very few years his address is
noted as 40 Oxford Street, 72 Newman Street,
and 28 Francis Street. He published from each
of these addresses, and issued the works of
various engravers. He also seems to have prac-
tised as a painter, for his name occurs as an
exhibitor with the Society of British Artists as
late as 1834. He executed several portraits for
the Thespian Magazine.

Among his best works, perhaps, may be
reckoned " Adelaide," " Content," " Maternal
Affection," and " Love and Beauty," from his
own designs ; Lady Hamilton as " The Spinster,"
Miss Vernon as " The Sempstress," both after
Romney ; and " Lord Grantham and his
Brothers," after Reynolds.

" The Spinster," "The Sempstress," and " The
Reverie " have proved popular modern reproduc-
tions. " Mrs. Mountain," " Mrs. Humphreys,"
"Miss Waddy," and "Miss Bloomfield," after
Buck, are constantly to be met with. A portrait
of " Hugh Henry John Seymour," a miniature

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

after Cosway, is a charming print. " Hannah,
Marchioness of Townshend," after Sir Joshua
Reynolds, is a very attractive portrait.

Other prints by Cheesman frequently to be
seen are several of the Holbein Heads, " Perdita "
and " Beatrice " after Westall, " Venus and Cupid "
after Titian, " The Lady's Last Stake " after
Hogarth, " Prince Octavius," Miss O'Neill as
"Isabella," "Mrs. Sharp," "Mrs. Gibbs,"
" Spring " and " Summer," " Plenty," " Ermi-
nia," and " Nymphs Bathing."

" Maternal Affection " is from his own design,
and was published by himself at his Newman
Street establishment. The dress of the mother is
red in the early impressions, but I have seen it in
green and in blue. The same date is on them all,
but the finest are undoubtedly the red ones. The
earliest proof-state known is in colours. " Mater-
nal Affection " was a popular title, and many
contemporary prints were published under this
description. While on the subject of titles, it is
worth noting that a very large proportion of these
were borrowed from the poems or extracts in the
Cabinet of Genius, and that the poets who figured
most largely in the pages of that compendium
contributed in the same proportion to the inscrip-
tions to the prints.

JOSEPH COLLYER

CoLLYER (Joseph), 1 748- 1 8 27. He suffered
under the disadvantage of being a pupil ot

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Anthony Walker, a printseller's hack with a
heavy hand, who assisted Woollett in the figures
of his " Niobe." Anthony Walker was a volu-
minous engraver who enjoyed a contemporary
renown that posterity is far from endorsing.
Fortunately, Collyer soon emancipated himself
from pupilage, but, with much that was wholly
admirable, he unhappily retained throughout his
work in life a tendency to the same want of deli-
cacy that distinguished his master. Even in his
" Mrs. Fitzherbert," which is popularly sup-
posed to be his best plate, he shows some traces
of this defect. In " Miss Farren," however, he
becomes more worthy both of himself and of
the charming artist whom he translates. Briefly
summarising, I should say that strength and
vigour were the predominating virtues of the
Collyer stipple-prints, and a tendency to coarse-
ness their most prominent fault. But, as there
are several exceptions to the latter, and none to
the former, I feel justified in giving Joseph
Collyer a very high place amongst the engravers
in the stipple manner.

Interesting plates of Collyer's are the follow-
ing. Portraits of " The Prince of Wales " and
" The Princess of Wales with the infant Princess
Charlotte," after Russell ; " Felina " (Offie
Palmer), and another fancy picture of the same
lady, and a " Venus and Cupid," after Sir Joshua
Reynolds ; " George, Duke of Montague," after
Beechey ; " Sir Charles Grey," after Sir Thomas
Lawrence ; and " Children in the Wood," after

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Stothard. CoUyer also executed a fine portrait
of " Dr. Willis " after Russell, and another of
" William Whitehead " (the Poet Laureate from
1758 to 1785). A remarkably fine pair of prints
by Collyer are " Sir Joseph and Lady Banks,"
also after Russell. A large plate that he en-
graved in line, for the Boydells, of the " Volun-
teers of Ireland," after Wheatley, is peculiarly
interesting at the moment, though line hardly
suited Collyer's special talents ; when working
in it he lost his boldness and became feeble,
almost inept.

No collector of eighteenth-century engravings
will be content without a Mrs. Fitzherbert. "The
fierce light that beats upon a throne " beat upon
the head, unprotected by a crown, of George
IV.'s ill-used wife, or pampered mistress. For,
that she had the unique distinction of occupying,
simultaneously, both positions, there is little
doubt to-day. The story of Mrs. Fitzherbert is
unique, not to be matched, even in the annals of
the Stuarts and the early Hanoverians. She is
an interesting character-study, most happily por-
trayed in Mr. Wilkin's recent book, and in his
pages she stands out amidst the storm of calumny,
caricature, and invective in a strong and peculiar
light.

When the Prince first met her she had already
had two husbands, Edward Welch of Lulworth
Castle, and Thomas Fitzherbert of Swynnerton,
Stafford. She should have possessed sufficient
experience to guard her from the dangers which

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the fascinations of the Prince's person or position
possessed for a debutante in the opera dont le
libretto liest presque rien. Even in these early
days the Prince was recklessly prodigal in his
love. But his promises, that afterwards became
proverbial, were still accepted as currency. Mrs.
Robinson had become bankrupt in fame and
fortune through accepting them as such. Her
doubly widowed successor was prepared, appar-
ently, to take nothing less than cash. Cash
in this instance meant a marriage certificate.
Unmoved by all the legitimate armoury of
the seducer, passionate protestations, hysterical
despair, and attempted suicide, she stood out for
her price. The Prince, fully aware that even
his cash was counterfeit coin, that he could not
legally tie himself to a Catholic and a commoner,
paid under protest. It was a sordid transaction
on both sides, lacking the romance of the Robin-
son escapade, and the humour of the Hilligsberg
incident. For the original union one can find
little sympathy ; ambition on the one side and
unscrupulousness on the other robbed it of
glamour and poetry. But, as in so many untold
stories and unwritten poems, the drama of this
marriage came after its consummation. Mrs.
Fitzherbert was a woman of good parts, of lively
intelligence, of fascinating manner. The circum-
stances of her life, her early marriage, her hus-
band's sudden death, her second widowhood, had
taught her the bitterness of the world. She was
hard on the outside, but she was soft at the core ;

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

there was an instinct of womanliness, of mother-
liness, for which she had had no outlet. She
accepted the establishment the Prince offered
her. What she did not accept, what she had
not bargained for, what altered the whole com-
plexion of her life, and became at once her
greatest happiness and supremest misery, was
that she began genuinely to love the weak and
dissipated boy whom the harsh and unwise
training of his ignorant and narrow-minded
parents had left so unfitted for the temptations
of his high position, and so unarmed against the
flatteries of his injudicious friends. She learned
to love him with a real mother-love ; the love
that induced her in the end to relinquish in his
interest all the rights she had once been so eager
to obtain. She almost forgave Fox, she made
no appeal to the public, and none to the justice
of George III., when her royal husband's second
ill-fated union was arranged. By that time love
had overgrown her ambition and made green
and sweet the worn places in her character ; she
wanted nothing but any place in his life that he
would give her freely, and in which it would
not be to his hurt to let her rest. His feelings
for her had altered too ; something of his passion
was satiated perhaps, but in its place had come
respect, appreciation, a desire for her companion-
ship that was independent of her sex, and that
lasted until, with his intellect weakened by dis-
sipation and disease, the insidious Marchioness
of Hertford, aided by the infamous Countess of

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Jersey, took the dregs of his existence into her
hands. There is little doubt that the influence
Mrs. Fitzherbert exercised over the Heir- Apparent
was the best his misspent days ever knew, and
that the esteem in which she was held at Court
was justified always by her conduct. She has
been unfortunate alike in her apologists and her
detractors. To present her character and her
story in such a manner as to do her full justice
needed a chronicler, if not more honest, at least
more sympathetic and imaginative, and less scien-
tific in his methods, than Mr. Langdale. And in
Mr. Wilkin she has at length achieved him.

The other famous Collyer print is of Eliza-
beth Farren (Countess of Derby). Elizabeth
Farren was one of the first to find the road, now
so well worn, from the stage to the peerage.
She was the daughter of an unqualified,
unsuccessful, presumably incompetent, Cork
surgeon, who had a fancy for low company and
a taste for the theatre. I do not think it is
unfair to his memory to describe him as dis-
solute, idle, and drunken. He was very glad
when his children were able to relieve him from
the burden not only of their support, but even
of his own. "Eliza" Farren (the "Elizabeth"
came later) played juvenile parts in barns and
country play-houses when she was eleven years
old. She continued to wander about the country
with a strolling company until she was nearly
fifteen. She had pseudo-ladylike manners, and
a certain air of refinement which eventually led

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

to her successful debut in London. Mrs. Abing-
ton was declining in years, and the fickle public
was glad to turn to a fresh favourite. Fox, how-
ever, who was something of an epicure in these
matters, tells us that she played " Nancy Lovel "
in Coleman's tragedy of The Suicide in tights ;
and, to Bowdlerise somewhat his phrases, " she
betrayed in this costume her great inferiority to
her rival." Indeed, neither in the Downman
drawing, of which the engraving is a replica,
nor in the better-known full-length after Sir
Thomas Lawrence, signed by Bartolozzi, but
engraved by Charles Knight, does she give the
impression of physical attractiveness. Tall, thin,
drooping, affected, she might be the Lydia
Languish of the stage. The plate of this latter
famous print, by the way, of which I give some
details in another place, was sold at Jeffrey's sale
in 1803. The proofs and prints were sold at
three shillings each, and the coloured impressions
at nine shillings. At a sale at Messrs. Sotheby,
Wilkinson's, in the year 1902, the record price
of one hundred and eight guineas was given for
a so-called proof in monochrome, signed by
Bartolozzi !

The stage was only a halting-place for Eliza-
beth Farren. She left it in 1797, making her
last appearance as " Lady Teazle " ; and she
married Lord Derby on the ist of May in the
same year, his wife having been dead nearly five
weeks. The public apparently was neither sur-
prised nor shocked. The morality of actresses

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

was not such a burning question in the eighteenth
century as it has become in the twentieth.

This marriage called forth several " memoirs "
of the new Countess, one of them a very sneering
account of Miss Farren's career by Petronius
Arbiter, Esq., which went through at least seven
editions, provoking a curious reply entitled "The
Memoirs of the present Countess of Derby,
rescued by truth from the assassinating pen of
Petronius Arbiter, and proving the stage, from
the patronage of the most exalted personages, to
have been always considered as a school for
morality. By Scriptor Veritatis, London, 1797."
But the Monthly Mirror was Miss Farren's cham-
pion, denouncing her detractors, and assuring the
public that " the conduct of Miss Farren in
private life is perfectly irreproachable ; her duti-
ful and affectionate attachment to her mother is
well known, and pronounced the best eulogium
on the qualities of her heart." Referring to her
marriage, it was quaintly added, " It is meet that
virtue and talent should be thus rewarded, and
the stage, by her promotion to the Peerage, will
gain in ultimate respectability what it may lose
in immediate consequence."

Mrs. Inchbald tells the anecdote, so often
repeated with variations, of an accident that
happened at the theatre some weeks before Miss
Farren's final retirement from it. A fire broke
out at the Haymarket half an hour before the
curtain drew up. One of the supers, a well-
known woman of the town, ran in haste from

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

her own dressing-room, which was full of smoke,
to that of Mrs, Wells. Mrs. Wells, whose
establishment with Major Topham was an open
secret, was shocked and horrified at the intrusion.
She withdrew in haste to Miss Farren's apart-
ment, crying, " What would Major Topham say
if I was to remain in such company ? " Miss
Farren flew out with equal precipitancy, exclaim-
ing, " What would Lord Derby say if I was to
be found in yours .? "

Gillray and Rowlandson, and all the carica-
turists of the day, made merry at the expense of
the new Countess. The best-known print, per-
haps, is the one entitled " A Connoisseur at
Christie's " ; she, very attenuated and affected, is
gazing through her lorgnette at the walls ; the
Earl, very short, and stout, and plebeian-looking,
is proudly piloting her. She seems to have led
a perfectly respectable life after her marriage,
and she had ultimately the gratification of being
received at Court. Cosway, as well as Sir
Joshua, painted her for her doting husband. In
the Cosway miniature she is represented in
a white dress, with meagre charms very liber-
ally displayed, her hair very curly, and her
attitude very affected, her first finger on her
chin.

The drawing from which Joseph Collyer
produced this fine print was one of a set of four
painted for the scenery of the Richmond House
Theatre. Richmond House was the rallying-
place for all the arts. It was built by the

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

celebrated Earl of Burlington, and had been
enlarged and altered by Wyatt. It was there
that the third Duke of Richmond formed the
collection of busts from the antique, which he
threw open, under the most liberal auspices, to
art-students ten years before the Royal Academy
School testified to the necessity for such assist-
ance. He bought a small house adjoining his
own, and fitted it up as a theatre, and for two
winters, at least, all the aristocracy went theatre-
mad, and jostled on each other's heels for invita-
tions to take part in the performances either as
players or spectators. George III. was amongst
the most eager, and Peter Pindar characteristi-
cally celebrates the punctuality of his attend-
ance : —

So much with saving wisdom are you taken,
Drury and Covent Garden seem forsaken ;
Since cost attendeth these theatric borders.
Content you go to Richmond House with orders.

He describes it maliciously as "a pretty little nut-
shell of a house fitted up for the convenience of
ladies and gentlemen of quality who wish to
expose themselves." The revels were brought
to an abrupt end by the destruction by fire of
Richmond House, 21st December 1791. It was
rebuilt, but by the time it was finished, society
had found another fad, or another entourage for it,
and the theatre was not refitted.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

JOHN CONDE

Cond£ (John) worked between 1785 and
1800. Conde is generally reckoned as an Eng-
lish engraver, for it was in England that the
greater part of his life was spent and by far the
largest proportion of his work was executed.
But in an engraving published in 1791, repre-
senting the much-discussed Chevaliere D'Eon as
" Minerva," he describes himself as a French
artist, and states that he designed it " as a monu-
ment to English generosity and French grati-
tude." The occasion of the generosity and the
cause of the gratitude are alike unexplained.

Conde's principal engravings were after
designs made for him by Cosway. He made a
speciality of having his engravings printed in
pale delicate tints, and he added to their effect
by enclosing them in frame-like borders. These
borders were called G/omisages, and were in-
vented in 1768 by the well-known French
engraver Glomy. A somewhat similar border,
however, had been used ten years earlier, at the
inspiration of Lord Cardigan, and both Horace
Walpole and Mrs. Delany speak of the " Cardi-
gan border for prints " with appreciation.

Some of the most charming work by Conde
is to be found amongst the miniatures he engraved
for the Thespian Magazine, znd. indeed the delinea-
tion of the stage and society beauties of the day
seems to have had an irresistible fascination for

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

him. He executed the well-known miniature
of Mrs. Robinson under the title of " Melania,"
of which a modern engraving, colour- printed,
was brought out recently by Messrs. Sabin.
The Prince's mistresses were favourite subjects
with the contemporary engravers. Perhaps the
most notable portrait of Mrs. Robinson, by the
way, and certainly one completely characteristic
of the taste of the day, was the one entitled
" Venus," an undraped full length with cestus,
by and after J. K. Sherwin. Even before poor
Perdita had solaced her broken heart in the open
arms of Major Tarleton, and was pouring out
her woes in indifferent verse and worse prose,
Conde was engraving her successor for the
pleasure of the populace, which followed with
avid curiosity the easy tastes of their fickle
Prince. His print of Mrs. Fitzherbert, after
Cosway, is one of the best known of his works.
Whether it is a good likeness or not it is impos-
sible to say, but it differs very materially from the
Collyer print. Certainly the first represents her
in the late prime of life, whilst the Cosway draw-
ing was executed by command in the first days of
her union with " Florizel, the Faithless." Which-
ever lineaments are the more faithful, they both
differ as much from Mrs. Robinson as they do
from Mademoiselle Hilligsberg, the third of the
Prince's mistresses who engaged Conde's graving-
tool. The trio prove, if nothing else, the eclectic
nature of the Prince's tastes. Unfortunately,
the plate of Conde's Mrs. Fitzherbert is still in

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

existence, and weak modern impressions, mono-
chrome or painted, are always in the market to
entrap the unwary and to disgust the connoisseur.
In addition to the above-mentioned intimates
of the Prince, other interesting women whom
Conde engraved were "Mrs. Jackson," "Mrs.
Tickell," "Miss Linley " (Mrs. Sheridan),
" Mrs. Bouverie," " Lady Manners," " Madame
Du Barry," " Mrs. Bligh," and the " Duchess of
York." (The " Duchess of York " is from his
own design.) " Minerva directing the Arrows
of Cupid" and the well-known " Leda " are all
after Cosway ; the latter shares with the " Mrs.
Fitzherbert " the disadvantage of constant re-
issue. " The Hobby-Horse," signed by Cosway,
but probably executed by Maria, though prettily
coloured, is woefully defective in drawing. A
portrait of " Baron Wenzel," the oculist, shows
that it was not only female beauty that Conde
was capable of treating ; it is a wholly admirable
production in both the engraving and the print-
ing. That he was also successful with children
is proved by his plate of " Mr. Horace Beck-
ford." An engraving that he executed from an
original drawing by Mrs. Jockell, entitled
" Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament," is rare and
curious.

WILLIAM DICKINSON

Dickinson (William), 1746- 1823, was per-
haps better known as a mezzotinter than as a

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

stipple - engraver. Dodd mentions him as a
" follower of the style of James McArdell " ;
and Chaloner Smith, in his British Mezzotinto
Portraits, gives a list of ninety-five by William
Dickinson. But, whether mezzotinter or stipple-
engraver, Dickinson was always above the average
of his contemporaries. He started his profes-
sional life as a caricaturist, in which genre " The
Long Minuet at Bath," '' Billiards," and " The
Chop House," after Bunbury, are good examples.
It was only after having gained the premium of
the Society of Arts for a mezzotint portrait in
1767 that he abandoned the humorous, and
became a serious professional engraver and pub-
lisher. In this latter capacity he becomes some-
what of a puzzle to a chronicler. Whether he
preferred fortune to fame, or fame to fortune, is
obscured by the fact that not only did he permit
Bartolozzi or any other popular engraver to sign
the plates that he engraved, but he himself
signed indifferently those of C. Knight and
others. A prominent example of Dickinson's
irregularity in this respect is the famous " Bun-
bury " print of " The Gardens of Carlton House
with Neapolitan Ballad Singers," 1785. This
print is supposed to portray the first meeting of
the Prince of Wales with Mrs. Fitzherbert. The
event was in 1784. The print was published
1785. She is in widow's dress, and he is shading
his eyes as if dazzled at the sight of such ex-
quisite loveliness. It is a very interesting print,
and a great favourite of mine, but there is the

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Strongest internal evidence of its being the work
of Charles Knight and not of Dickinson. In
many old sale catalogues, however, it is given as
by Bartolozzi !

In addition to the unacknowledged partner-
ship in his engravings, Dickinson had at various
times two business partners, and both of them
were notable men : Thomas Watson the engraver,
and William Austin, the Royal drawing-master.
But either his disposition was cantankerous, or
his business abilities were less than his business
ambitions, for in 1794 he sold his stock of pic-
tures and removed to Paris, where he remained
until his death in 1823.

Among other stipple -prints which must be
attributed to Dickinson are '" St. Cecilia " (Mrs.
Sheridan), "Perdita" (Mrs. Robinson, with a
large hat and feathers), "Maternal Affection"
(Lady Melbourne), after Sir Joshua Reynolds,
"The Country Girl" (Miss Horneck), "Of
such is the Kingdom of God," " The Spirit of a
Child " (these two are monstrosities both in
colours and in monochrome), and " Lydia " and
" Sylvia," after Peters, — both great favourites of
mine — " Andromache weeping over the Ashes of
Hector," after Kauffmann, and a miniature of
"Isabella Stanhope" (Countess of Sefton), after
Cosway.

The print of the " Duchess of Devonshire
and Viscountess Duncannon " is perhaps the most
popular of Dickinson's stipple-engravings. Lady
Duncannon, afterwards Countess of Bessborough,

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

was always overshadowed by the superior charms
of her celebrated sister, Georgiana, Duchess of
Devonshire. Her portrait is amongst the six
drawn by Downman for the scenery of Rich-
mond House Theatre, and a very charming print
it has made.

THOMAS GAUGAIN

Gaugain (Thomas), 1748- 1809. — Thomas
Gaugain was born at Abbeville in France. He
came to England with his family and studied
painting under Houston. He exhibited at the
Royal Academy from 1778 to 1782, but he
started engraving in stipple in 1780, lured by
the success that Ryland was achieving. Finding
it more profitable than painting, he finally
abandoned the brush for the stipple-point a
year or two later. He experimentalised with
colour-printing in many ways ; first in the old
chiaroscuro method, which he applied to stipple-
engravings. " Hudibras and Sidrophel," after
Hogarth, which he published in 1782, was one
of the earliest and, for some reasons, most
interesting of these experiments. " Venus lend-
ing her Cestus to Juno," after Angelica Kauff-
mann, was another. These were printed from
four plates. In the same year he engraved and
printed from his own design "January and May "
and "The Wife of Bath": both of which he
printed from two plates. These by no means
exhaust the variety that he attempted to bring

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

into the already established industry of printing
in colours from one plate. In " The Amorous
Buck," for instance, he used etching, mezzotint,
and aquatint on one plate. Altogether he, and
his brother P. Gaugain, deserve the closest
study from any one interested in the work of the
period, because they refused to accept the method
that Ryland had introduced, and Bartolozzi and
Seigneuer were practising, and by traversing in a
roundabout way much of the road that had been
travelled before, arrived ultimately at exactly the
same point.

While speaking of " The Wife of Bath " and
"January and May," it may be of interest to
note that when they are found with margins,
two curious marks are generally to be seen on
the paper. These are really register marks, but
as I have heard various explanations given of
them by dealers, and in salerooms, the point
seemed worthy of note.

Gaugain published at 4 Little Compton Street,
Soho ; 3 Denmark Street, Soho ; and Manor
Street, Chelsea. When the vast over-production
of these colour-printed stipple-engravings con-
duced to the many sales of stocks and plates that
began to take place in 1793, Gaugain was among
the first to announce himself as leaving offprint-
selling, and to put his stock up by auction. It
was sold by Gerrard of Litchfield Street, Soho,
and much curious information is to be gathered
from the catalogue.

Amongst the earliest colour-prints issued by

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Gaugain were " Annette " and " Lubin " (illus-
trations from Marmontel's Moral Tales, ovals
from his own design), which were exhibited at
the Free Society of Artists in 1783. His brother,
P. Gaugain, was for a short time associated with
him in business. A certain number of impres-
sions of the celebrated " Dancing Dogs " and
" Guinea Pigs," after Morland, which he en-
graved, have at the foot " Printed in colour by
P. Gaugain." This is worth noting, as the in-
stances are comparatively rare where the colour-
printer is allowed this well-deserved recognition.
At Gaugain's sale in 1793 the plates of these two
with 52 proofs, 59 prints, and 13 in colours of
the first ; 52 proofs, 78 prints, and 20 in colours
of the second, realised £i2j. The original
drawings fetched £2.0. These plates had
immense success with the public, 500 copies
being sold within the first few weeks of their
issue. P. Gaugain engraved, and subsequently
became a printseller, on his own account. All
the following works, however, are attributed to
Thomas, who was incomparably the superior
artist.

Perhaps the most admired stipple-engraving
of Gaugain is " An Airing in Hyde Park," after
Dayes, published in 1793, a proof from which
easily fetches £^0 to-day. The pair to it is
engraved by Soiron, and entitled " The Prome-
nade in St. James's Park." Beyond " An Airing
in Hyde Park " and several small children-
subjects after Hamilton, the two prints of

. 192

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

" Louisa," after Morland, are now amongst the
most sought after of Gaugain's work. They
illustrate " The Tale of Louisa " in the poems
and essays by Miss Bowdler of Bath. Among
my own favourites, however, are the small oval,
" Childish Impatience," after Cosway, printed in
two colours, and the two circular prints " Youth "
and " Childhood," after Prince Hoare ; " Lady
Catherine Manners, daughter of the Duke of
Rutland," after Sir Joshua Reynolds ; " The
Lass of Levingstone," and " How Sweet's the
Love that meets Return " (a pair of ovals after
Morland, illustrating a song of Allan Ramsay's).

The latter of these prints, in the first state, was
called "Jenny and Roger." At the sale before
alluded to, the plates with 22 proofs, 102 prints,
and 31 in colours of the first; 22 proofs, 113
prints, and 33 in colours of the second, fetched
nineteen guineas, whilst the original drawing
was sold for two guineas. " Courtship " and
" Matrimony," companion prints from designs
by Milbourne ; " Rural Music," " Rural Con-
templation," after Westall, and " The Sheltered
Lamb," after Hamilton, have had their admirers.

Other well - known stipple - engravings by
Gaugain are the set of ten after Northcote,
executed by him in conjunction with Hellyer,
entitled " Diligence and Dissipation," " A Girl
returning from Milking," after Westall ; " The
Showman," "The Bird Catcher," and "The
Kite Compleated," after Barney ; " An old
Woman opening a Gate," " A Lady with her

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Children in the Garden," from his own designs ;
"Boy Mending Net," after Westall ; "An
English Fruit Girl," and "An English Milk
Girl," after Northcote ; and " Cakes," and
" Finery," after Artaud.

Two interesting prints in Gaugain*s earliest
manner, that is to say, a mixture of aquatint
and stipple, are " Diana and her Nymphs "
and " The Shepherdess of the Alps." Two of
his best-known plates after Bigg had a large
contemporary sale and were very popular.
They are the " Shipwrecked Sailor Boy " and
"The Sailor Boy's Return." "A Birthday
Present to Old Nurse " and " Health and
Sickness " still command prices in excess of
their merits.

" Summer's Amusement " ; " Winter's Amuse-
ment"; "How Smooth, Brother, Feel Again";
"The Castle in Danger," are four plates that
have a varied history. Gaugain published them
first in 1789, from 9 Manor Street, Chelsea.
The proofs were monochrome without titles ; in
the second state they have the title added; in
the third state they are printed in colours and
the plate has been strengthened with the graver.
At Gaugain's sale they were purchased in this
state by Messrs. Harris, who issued them, as far
as I can ascertain, with the same line of publi-
cation. Molteno bought them from Messrs.
Harris, and at Molteno's sale in 18 19, 20 pairs
prints, 18 proofs, and 17 pairs in colour, sold for
£1 : 8s. The presumption is that by this time

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

their popularity had had the usual effect and the
impressions were poor and worn. The last issue
is published by " Molteno, Colnaghi & Co. &
Wilkinson, London." I have referred to Messrs.
Colnaghi, who have no information as to what
became of the plates. They were re-engraved
in reverse, and I have seen yet another set with
"Bartoli" as engraver, but no line of publication.
I believe there are also some modern chromo-
photogravure reproductions.

JAMES HOGG

Hogg (James) worked between 1784 and
1800. Hogg was never more than a respectable
stipple-engraver, although he had the advantage
of designs from Angelica Kauffmann, Peters,
Kirk, and Wheatley. His " Rinaldo and Armida,"
after Kauffmann, and " Erminia," published in
1784, are chiefly interesting as showing how
infinitely superior an engraver was Burke. A
portrait of Maria Cecilia Louisa Cosway as " A
Milk-maid," after R. Cosway, published by
J. R. Smith; "The Power of Music," after
Kauffmann ; " Adelaide," and " Sylvia," after
Wheatley ; " The Count de Belemire," after
Rigaud ; a portrait of "John Henderson," and
an engraving of " Queen Margaret with her
son the Prince," after Antoine Borel, are all,
if not more than all, that are worthy of
mention amongst the works of Hogg. But
the Rev. W. Peters was a painter so excecd-

'95

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

ingly popular, that " Sophia," painted by him
and engraved by Hogg, is quoted as having
reached the " record sale of any print brought
out this year."

Hogg engraved a considerable number of
plates for the small Shakespeare series brought
out by the Boydells, but these vv^ere in line.

This " Sophia," by the w^ay, is the younger
sister of " Olivia." I rather fancy the transcript
is supposed to be from the celebrated picture
painted in rivalry to the one of " Farmer Flam-
borough's Family." The description of that
picture aroused the envy of the Vicar of Wake-
field's vvrife. The Vicar tells us : " As for our
neighbour's family, there were seven of them,
drawn with seven oranges — a thing quite out of
taste, no variety in life, in composition, in the
world. We desired to have something in a
brighter style."

The limner charged 15s. a head, and the
" brighter style " included " the Vicar's wife as
Venus, the two little ones as Cupids, Olivia as
an Amazon sitting upon a bank of flowers
dressed in a green Joseph, largely laced with
gold, and a club in her hand. Sophia was to be a
Shepherdess.^^ This character of the " Shepherd-
ess " seemed to be one appropriately chosen for
Sophia, for, earlier in the same immortal classic,
when the Vicar was called out with his family
to help at saving an aftergrowth of hay, the
assiduity of Mr. Burchell in assisting Sophia,
and his admiration of her in this guise was noted

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

with mingled uneasiness and satisfaction by her
proud and loving father.

Hogg was the publisher as well as the
engraver of " Sophia," which may account for
the above quotation from his trade circular.
Contrary to custom, the first issue was in
colours.

197

CHAPTER X

Jones, Knight, Marcuard, Nutter, Schiavonetti, J. R. Smith, Thew

JOHN JONES

Jones Qohn), 1745- 1797. — Jones was an interest-
ing man for several reasons. He was a mezzo-
tint, as well as a stipple, engraver, and he was
the father of George Jones, R.A., the painter of
battle-pictures, who was one of the executors of
the wills of Chantrey and Turner, and filled the
offices of Librarian and Keeper of the Royal
Academy, of which he was for a short time
acting President. Of the two artists, father and
son, however, it is the works of the father that
to-day command the larger prices, and have
achieved the greater reputation.

John Jones was engraver to the Prince of
Wales and the Duke of York. He exhibited at
the Incorporated Society of Artists from 1775
to 1 79 1. His mezzotints are powerful and
artistic, but occasionally they suffer from over-
accentuation ; they are too black for beauty.
He was very successful as a stipple-engraver, and
is among the half-dozen workers in this metier

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

who have left really valuable proofs in colour.
Amongst them are " Robinetta " (a portrait of
the Hon. Anna Tollemache when Miss Lewis)
and "Muscipula," " CoUina " (Lady Gertrude
FitzPatrick), " Sylvia " (Lady Anne FitzPatrick),
Lord Henry and Lady Charlotte Spencer as
" The Fortune Tellers," and " The Sleeping
Girl." These are all after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Northcote, in his Life of Sir Joshua, speaks of
" The Sleeping Girl " as one of Sir Joshua's
" richest " performances. The picture is at pre-
sent in the possession of the Marquis of Lans-
downe. There was an edition of this print
brought out in 1826.

Jones's stipple-engravings after Reynolds in-
clude some very fine men's portraits, notably those
of " The Duke of York," " The Earl of Moira,"
" The Earl of Mansfield," and " Lord Sheffield."
His engravings after Romney are equally suc-
cessful. " Erminia " and "Serena" (Miss Sneyd),
and a small oval of " The Duke of Gloucester,"
are perhaps the best-known. The Miss Sneyd
who sat for this portrait was Honora, the step-
mother of Maria Edgeworth. At her death,
Edgeworth married her sister Elizabeth, who
was thus his third consort, and he lived to in-
dulge in yet a fourth ! A small replica of the
engraving of " Serena " was the frontispiece to
one of the many editions of Hayley's much-
admired, but very indifferent, poem. The Triumphs
of Temper^ for which it was printed in colour.
Another very fine specimen of stipple-engraving

199

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

by Jones is " Elizabeth Farren and Thomas
King " in their characters in Burgoyne's comedy
of The Heiress — it is after Downman. The head
of Miss Farren has been vignetted out of this
picture, and re-engraved in stipple by a modern
artist. But it is very poor in comparison with the
original. Another engraving by Jones, which is
pretty in colour, but suffers from the eccentric
anatomy of the figures, is " Lord Dungarvan,
eighth Earl of Cork, the Hon. Courtenay and
the Hon. Charles Boyle " — three children with
a swing, from a design by Maria Cosway. Jones
scraped a mezzotint plate of Fanny Kemble after
Reynolds, in addition to the one he brilliantly
executed in stipple after Downman ; and another
very fine one of Mrs. Jordan as " Hypolita,"
which he also first attempted, apparently less
successfully, in stipple. The plate of this was
sold at Dickinson's sale, 1794, with the remark
" never been published," and I have never met
a print from it, nor any further record of its fate.
" Emma," both in beauty and interest, comes
first among the most highly prized stipple-prints
by John Jones. The history of " Emma " is so
well, and so variously, known that it is hardly
worth while to attempt to throw any illumina-
tion upon her figure in the space of a short para-
graph. Her biographists and her apologists have
been as numerous as her engravers. Whether
her original name was Hart or Lyon, how many
illegitimate children she had before Mr. Greville
took her under his protection, how many she

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

had after Sir William Hamilton purchased her
from his nephew and made her his wife, not-
withstanding numerous controversies and much
documentary evidence, remains almost as doubtful
as the identity of the " Man in the Iron Mask."

That she was once a servant and afterwards
an ambassadress, that she stood for "The
Goddess of Health " in order to elucidate the
lectures of a notorious charlatan of the day. Dr.
Graham, and that from this position she became
the one legacy that Lord Nelson left to the
gratitude of his country, which incontinently
declined it, are, however, facts beyond dispute.
Her beauty, unlike that of the celebrated
Duchess of Devonshire, or Miss Farren, has
never been questioned. Even Smith, after many
years' exposure to the dried-up atmosphere of
the British Museum, bursts into eloquence when
he mentions her name. "When I showed her
my etching of the funeral procession of her
husband's friend (sic), the immortal Nelson, she
fainted and fell into my arms. Believe me,
reader, her mouth was equal to any production
of Greek sculptor I have yet seen."

Romney never tired of painting her, and several
of the most celebrated engravers of the day were
always reproducing her features in one form or
another. She engaged the caricaturists also, but
never to the same extent as other ladies whose rise
in life had been equally meteoric. The fact is
that Emma never aroused enmity by forgetting
the lowliness of her origin. To the day of her

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

death she kept not only the old relative who
had helped her through her first " accident,"
but the nurse who subsequently reared the
result.

The second state of this plate is the coloured
one. In July 1898, a fine copy of it realised ^80
at Sotheby's, but I believe this record has since
been considerably exceeded.

The first state has the artist's name and the
title in open letters scratched in.

Another popular Jones print is that of
" Fanny Kemble." She was the sister of Mrs.
Siddons and John Philip Kemble. Apparently
her acting was of a mediocre character, and the
critics of the day were very much excited at the
thought that her brother and sister should have
endeavoured to foist her on the town. That she
was assailed by the critics, however, seems to
have given the excuse to George Steevens to
become her vigorous champion. The contro-
versy as to her merits or demerits was fought
out in the papers in the most virulent fashion;
Woodfall on the one hand speaking of her as
being received with " an uncommon indulgence
of which she had scarcely any appreciation,"
while Steevens injudiciously dilated upon her
transcendental merits, and compared her to her
sister, to the disadvantage of the latter ! But
Steevens's championship had excellent excuse, he
had fallen in love with her person; skill in
miming had little to do with his admiration.
He wearied his friends in the effort to get notices

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

for her, and both Hayley and Johnson were at
one time or another approached to this end.
But Hayley coolly said that if she was not con-
tent with the praises that flowed from Steevens's
pen, she would ill deserve the panegyric of any
other encomiast; while Johnson gave the Club
the benefit of his contempt for George Steevens
and his opinions, and grunted out his intention
of doing nothing at all in the matter. Presently
the rumour got about that Steevens and Fanny
Kemble were to be married : a family council,
hurriedly called, protested vigorously against this
step. Mrs. Siddons spoke of Steevens's violent
temper, John Kemble gloomily expressed his
disapproval. There was little doubt that both
of them had been hurt in that sensitive, excitable
amour propre that the evil fairies leave as a gift
in the cradles of successful artists. The weak
and gentle spirit of the girl was no barrier to the
imperious wills of those spoilt favourites of the
public, the overbearing King and Queen of
Tragedy. She even obeyed their mandate to
engage herself to their partisan, Horace Twiss,
that critic, " thin, pale, stooping, quaint in his
phrases, very dogmatic, a Dr. Johnson without
his talents," whose " eyes have an ill-natured cast
of acuteness in them," and who was the last
figure in the world to distract the fancy of a
girl from burly George Steevens. She wept all
through her wedding-day ; a spectator tells us
she looked as if she were equipped for the
part of "The Mourning Bride," and playing it

203

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

better than she ever played anything in her life
before.

Mr. and Mrs. Twiss left London and settled
in Bath, where, the gentleman's literary labours
not proving sufficient for their maintenance, she
opened a fashionable Girls' School at No. 24
Camden Place. Her advertisement runs that :
" Mrs. Twiss receives young ladies from the
age of fourteen to twenty. Board one hundred
guineas a year, entrance five guineas. The
young ladies will be introduced into the best
company, and the utmost attention will be paid
to their morals, conduct, and manners."

Before she had removed to Bath, however,
her portrait had been painted by Sir Joshua
Reynolds in 1783. This picture was sold at
Christie's, at the sale of the Hon. G. A. F.
Cavendish-Bentinck, for 2640 guineas.

There are several states of this plate. First
state, the etching ; second state, proof before
letters; third state, artist's name, title, a verse
from Milton, and line of publication in stippled
letters. In addition to the above there are three
progress proofs in the British Museum collection.
The third state is the earliest I have seen in
colours.

CHARLES KNIGHT

Knight (Charles), 1 742-1 827. — Knight was a
pupil of Bartolozzi, and was first employed on
indifferent works, such as Harding's Shakespeare

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Illustrated and the Memoirs of Grammont^ but he
subsequently became one of the most important
and valuable of the stipple-engravers, and, as was
usual with the best pupils of Bartolozzi, was
permitted to put everything but the signature to
several of the plates on which the fame of the
master rested. The much-admired and much-
debated full-length of " Miss Farren " published
by Jeffreys, and signed by Bartolozzi, has been,
by other connoisseurs, credited to Knight ; and
I have myself seen a trial proof of it, in which
the face was completely finished, and the adjuncts
etched in, whilst the imprint at the bottom was
" Charles Knight, Sculp." There are two such
" proofs " in the British Museum. A small
replica of this print, to the waist only, was
engraved by Knight for " La Belle Assemblee."

Knight engraved after Bunbury, Angelica
Kauffmann, Wheatley, Stothard, Hopper, J. R.
Smith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, etc. He was one
of the governors of the abortive Society of
Engravers, founded in 1803.

Another celebrated print, " The Gardens of
Carlton House with Neapolitan Ballad Singers,"
usually ascribed to Dickinson, but sold as " by
Bartolozzi" at Christie's and other sales in 1794
and the early part of this century, is attri-
buted by Dodd to Charles Knight, to whose
hands I am personally inclined to credit it, judg-
ing from various significant details of the work.
Knight lived in 1781 at Berwick Street, Soho,
and in 1792 in Brompton.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

In addition to these, Charles Knight was
responsible for some really charming work, in-
disputably his own ; and he thoroughly under-
stood the requirements of the colour-printer.
It is a little difficult to select a few out of the
many excellent plates that he engraved. " British
Plenty " and " Scarcity in India,*' after Singleton,
realise high prices to-day, but they are not among
my favourites. These are " Lady Louisa Man-
ners," after Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lady Hamilton as
a " Bacchante," after Romney, and the children's
set after Stothard, entitled respectively "The
Fifth of November," "Feeding Chickens," "The
Dunce Disgraced," " The Scholar Rewarded,"
" Coming from School," and " Buffet the Bear."

Unhappily they were greatly appreciated by
the public, the plates were printed and reprinted
until they were quite worn out, they were then
re-engraved by an inferior engraver, and they
have been extensively reproduced recently both
by photogravure and lithography.

" Tom and his Pigeons " and " The Favourite
Rabbit," after Russell, are much less admirable.
But two illustrations of " Roderick Random,"
after Anne Trewingard, were exceptionally well
colour-printed; they represent the scenes where
Narcissa finds the miniature, and where Roderick
discovers himself to her. " Pyramus," after
Hoppner, is also a nice piece of engraving, and
stands well the comparison with the pair to it,
" Thisbe," by that admirable artist. Nutter.

A pair of small prints, " Cupid Disarmed "

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and " Cupid's Revenge," after Benwell, are also
charming in their early states ; both were popular,
and suffered accordingly. Poor copies of the
same pair exist, signed " Bartolini " ; and
Giuseppe dall' Aqua also executed two plates
from the same design under the titles " Love
Triumphant" and "Love Repentant."

" Cornelia " (Mrs. Elizabeth Ruspina and
child), a miniature after Sam Shelley, is another
very desirable little print ; so is " Idleness," after
Morland, although the plate was only printed in
colour in a very worn condition. One of the
Hoppner pictures that Knight engraved was
" Nature " (a young woman leaning out of a
window). "Comic Readings" and "Tragic
Readings," after Boyne, " Rosina," " Flora,"
and " Runaway Love," after Stothard, deserve
mention.

Knight engraved "Damon and Musidora"
and " Palemon and Lavinia," after Angelica
Kauffmann. But I should not consider him as
among the best of the translators of this painter's
pretty designs. " The Valentine " and " The
Wedding Ring," after Ansell, are deservedly
popular. " The Duchess of York," after Beechey,
is one of his most solid works. " The Land-
lord's Family " and " The Tenant's Family,"
after Stothard, are two other familiar prints.
"Blind Man's Buff" and "See-Saw," after
Hamilton, are very pretty children-subjects, of
which the original drawings are in the British
Museum.

ao7

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Knight was perhaps at his happiest in engrav-
ing Stothard*s works, and very many book-illus-
trations, in addition to those already mentioned,
prove how well he understood his master's moods.
" Sweet Poll of Plymouth " is a charming print,
the subject taken from an old eighteenth-century
ballad. As the ballad is inaccessible, and has a
pretty lilt, I reproduce it for the benefit of my
readers : —

Sweet Poll of Plymouth was my dear ;
When forced from her to go,
A-down her cheeks rain'd many a tear.
My heart was fraught with woe ;
Our anchor weigh'd, for sea we stood.
The land we left behind :
My tears then swell'd the briny flood.
My sighs increas'd the wind.

We plough'd the deep ; and now between

Us lay the ocean wide ;

For nve long years I had not seen.

My sweet, my boney {sic) bride.

That time I sail'd the wide world around.

All for my true love's sake ;

But press'd as we were homeward bound,

I thought my heart would break.

The press-gang bold I ask'd in vain.

To let me go on shore.

I long'd to see my Poll again ;

But saw my Poll no more.

" And have they torn my love away ?

And is he gone ? " she cry'd.

My Polly, sweetest flow'r of May :

She languish'd, — droop'd, — and dy'd.

The verse generally to be found on the print
differs slightly from the original. The first
state of this print is to be met with, in colours.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

"The Match Boy" and "The Primrose Girl "
were first issued in red monochrome, with title
and artist's name. The second state is in colours,
and has the following verses : —

Cupid's dull matches, made by chance.
Are damped by tears and sighs ;
Mine kindle at each anxious glance.
Prepared with open eyes.

To welcome in the blooming spring.
Behold the earliest flower I bring.
Emblem of youth and innocence.
With this Life's gayest scenes commence.

The matches the boy has in his hand are the
sulphur - tipped splints of wood known as
"spunks," and sold with tinder-boxes, flint, and
steel. They were also called " dipping matches."
These two prints were both issued on the same
date, 7th July 1785, from designs by J. R. Smith.
They are rare in colours, and fetch high prices
even in monochrome.

ROBERT MARCUARD

Marcuard (Robert Samuel), 1751-1792, was
a pupil of Bartolozzi and worked entirely in
stipple, producing between 1778 and 1790 very
many excellent plates after Cipriani, Angelica
Kauffmann, Hamilton, Peters, and Stothard. He
had a peculiar practice of combining the etching-
needle with the stippling-tool, of which Dodd
makes special note, and his work seems to have
been greatly esteemed at the time of its produc-

209 p

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

tion, for, at a sale by auction in 1785, two plates
by him, " Children with Mouse Trap " and
" Children with Bird," after Hamilton, fetched,
with a few impressions, the then extraordinary
sum of ^ 1 7.

Whether his peculiar way of combining the
use of the etching-needle with the stippling-tool
conduced to the wear of the plate, or from some
other cause, comparatively few prints by Mar-
cuard are to be met with. He was invariably
successful with men's portraits. " Ralph Mil-
bank," after Sir Joshua Reynolds, " Viscount
Keppel," and " Cagliostro " are amongst those
that survived their contemporary popularity.
Other prints in colour which have merit are
" Friendship " and " Innocence," two oval minia-
tures of young girls, one with a bird and one
with a lamb, after Angelica Kauffmann ; yet
another, " Henry and Emma," after Stothard ;
" Lubin and Rosalie," after Beechey ; " Edwin
and Angelina," after Flaxman ; " The Studious
Fair," from his own design ; " Orgar and Elfrida,"
after James Jefferys ; and the companion print
" Elfrida's Vow," after Stothard ; " An Italian
Fruit Girl," after Peters ; " Beatrice," after
Harding ; " Adelaide and Fonrose " and " Fon-
rose and Adelaide," after Hamilton ; " Hebe,"
" Summer Amusements " and " The Bathers
Surprised," " The Mother's Darling " and " The
Mother's Care," after Bartolozzi. " Charlotte at
the Tomb of Werther," after Saunders, is one of
hundred illustrations to this gloomy idyll.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The picture of Bartolozzi from which Mar-
cuard engraved his best-known print was painted
in 1 77 1, and is, I believe, now in the possession
of the Earl of Morley. It was exhibited in the
Winter Exhibition of Old Masters at the New
Gallery in 1901. The print exists in various
states, and these have even more interest than is
usually to be found in the consideration of this
point in stipple-engravings.

The first state is the etching. A graver is in
the right hand.

The second state is before all letters. The
graver has been taken out and there is nothing
in the hand.

In the third state a porte-crayon has been sub-
stituted for the graver. The artist's name is in
stipple, the title and line of publication is in
scratched letters. A few impressions were taken
off in colour in each state.

The fourth state is printed in colour, and after
the title appears " Ex Academia regalia Artium
hondinir

There are later states than any of these, but
these are all that are worthy of considera-
tion. The publication line in all instances is
"J. Birchall, 473 Strand."

WILLIAM NUTTER

Nutter (William), 1 759-1 802. — Nutter was
originally apprenticed to Joseph Strutt, but later
on he had the distinction of being a pupil of that

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

brilliant bon viveur J. R. Smith. His works
were few, and his death was premature. Perhaps
he learned something more than engraving from
his genial master, and fast living in the latter half
of the eighteenth century needed a strong consti-
tution. Anyway, he died at the age of forty-four,
and was buried in the graveyard of Whitfield's
Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road.

Some of his most admirable work, of quite
exceptional excellence, is shown in miniatures
after Sam Shelley. It is hardly necessary to
specify these, for they are nearly all good, and
in colour they are beautiful. Nutter seems
to have also tried his hand at painting, for in
the Royal Academy Catalogues of 1782- 1783
he appears as the author of some allegorical
designs. Apart from the above - mentioned
miniatures, a quite considerable number of
Nutter's works are held to-day in high esteem.
The "Lecture on Gadding " and "The Moralist,"
after designs by J. R. Smith, although the plates
with thirty impressions and eight in colour only
realised ^i : iis. in 1791, would be considered
cheap to-day at fifty times that sum.

A complete contrast to Nutter's miniatures
after Shelley is to be found in his well-known
portrait of " Captain Coram," after the celebrated
picture by Hogarth, which adorned the Found-
ling Hospital. " The Farmer's Visit to his
Daughter in Town," engraved by Bond, is the
pair to " The Visit Returned in the Country,"
engraved by Nutter. Dickinson published them

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

both in 1789 ; the coloured impressions being
the first state after the proof.

Apart from the wholly admirable engravings
after Sam Shelley, of which, perhaps, I might
distinguish " Mrs. Bryam and her Children," a
small square, and " The Hours," engraved for the
Cabinet of Genius ; the following are to be found
among Nutter's most successful prints in colour :

"The Seasons," after Hamilton (White and
Ogborne assisted in the completion of the
set); "Bacchante" (Mrs. Hartley and child),
after Sir Joshua Reynolds (there is a mezzotint
of this by Giuseppe Marchi) ; "The Ale-House
Door " and " The Farm-yard," after Singleton ;
" Saturday Night " and " Sunday Morning," after
Bigg; "Martha Gunn" (Bathing Woman) ; "The
Peasant's Little Maid," after Russell ; "Just
Breech'd " and " The First Bite," after Stothard ;
and " Strangers at Home," after Morland.

An oval print after Westall, entitled " Cupid
Sleeping," is interesting for the dedication to
" The Duchess of Devonshire," of whom it
is supposed to be a portrait. Some stanzas by
the unfortunate Mrs. Robinson which decorate
the inscription almost exonerate Florizel's be-
haviour to her ! Two other charming prints
after Westall, by Nutter, are "The Sensitive
Plant " and " The Rosebud." Two pretty little
subjects after Hamilton are " Breaking up " and
" The Masquerade." " Cecilia overheard by
Young Delville," after Stothard, is a faithful
reproduction of the painter's faults.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The picture from which his "Lady Beauchamp,
Marchioness of Hertford," is taken is of pathetic
interest, as having been the one on which Sir
Joshua Reynolds was engaged when he had the
first warning of his failure of sight. In his
pocket-book of the year 1789, in which Lady
Beauchamp's name appears as a sitter, against
" Monday, 1 3th July," is written : " Sitting pre-
vented by my eyes beginning to be obscured J'^

Isabella Anne Ingram Shepherd was the
daughter and co-heir of Charles Ingram, ninth
and last Viscount Irvine. She married in 1776
Francis Viscount Beauchamp, afterwards second
Marquis of Hertford, who died in 1822.
Wraxall tells us that Lord Beauchamp occupied
a position of eminence in the ranks of the
Opposition, and that whenever he addressed the
House he spoke, if not with eloquence, at least
with knowledge of his subject. This writer
describes his person as being " elegantly formed,
above the ordinary height," and his manners as
" noble and ingratiating." Isabella Shepherd
was his second wife, his first having been the
daughter of Lord Windsor.

Lady Beauchamp was one of the beauties of
the day, and as late as 1782, when she had passed
her first youth, she was still described as being
"possessed of extraordinary charms." In 18 18,
even when nearly sixty years of age, it appears
that she was capable of inspiring passion. It
was at this age, anyway, that she inspired the
Regent with some feeling that eventually led to

214

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

his separating himself entirely from Mrs. Fitz-
herbert. Whether her influence depended more
on her intellectual endowments than on her
corporeal qualities is a doubt that Wraxall
raises, but contemporary opinion, as gathered
from other sources, does not leave the matter
in dispute.

There are at least three known states of this
print. The first state has the artists' names, the
Beauchamp arms, and the title. In this state
the face and neck are sometimes printed in
colours ; in the second state the title and dedica-
tion is in open letters ; the third state is wholly
printed in colours. There is a fine impression
of each state in the collection of His Majesty at
Windsor.

LUIGI SCHIAVONETTI

ScHiAvoNETTi (Luigi), 1765-1840. — Luigi
and his twin brother Niccolo Schiavonetti were
born in Italy in 1765. They came to London
in 1780, and Niccolo died at Brompton in 18 10.
Benjamin West attended his funeral, and Dodd
describes him as " of superlative talent as a de-
lineator of the human figure," and speaks again
of " the exquisite tenderness and facility of his
touch." His brother is, however, the subject
under consideration.

It was not as a stipple- engraver that Luigi
Schiavonetti first rose in the public esteem, but
as an etcher, and secondly as a line-engraver ; in

215

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

which manner he illustrated Blair's Grave, after
designs by Blake, with a portrait of Robert Blair
as a frontispiece. He also engraved two large,
and four small plates for Boydell's edition of
Shakespeare. Among them was " Robin Good-
fellow," after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

" A Nest of Cupids," after Aspinall, is a well-
known stipple- engraving, very charming in its
early states, but very disappointing in its modern
re-issues, of which there are many constantly
to be met with. The plate is still in existence,
and still being printed, in a re-worked, re-bitten,
much-deteriorated condition.

Amongst the earlier portraits by Schiavonetti
are to be found " Caroline, Princess of Wales,"
" Mrs. Damer " (the celebrated sculptress),
" Lady Bayham," " Signor Marchesi," the much-
portrayed " Maria Cecilia Louisa Cosway,"
" The Turkish Ambassador," and a curiously en-
graved and colour-printed drawing after Edridge
of " Lady Cawdor."

" Michal, y Izabella z Lasockich Oginscy "
is one of my own favourite examples of Schia-
vonetti's work. Michal was the nephew, and
Izabella was the niece, of Count Michal Oginscy,
Pretender to the Crown of Poland, who played
so great a part in the revolution of that country,
and was virtually king of it for four-and-twenty
hours. Walpole mentions him more than once.
This print is often to be met with under another
name. Its first state is before all letters ; its
second, printed in colours, with the artists' names,

216

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and the title of the print ; in the third the plate
has been re-worked, re-lettered, and altered by
M. Sloane. It is then signed " Engraved by
Maid. Sloane," and the title has been changed
to " Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and
Princess of Wales." The alterations to the
figures are very slight, but apparently the en-
graving did duty w^ith the public as excellent
counterfeits of the newly -married George and
his unattractive wife ; for it is in this translation
that the print had its largest sale, and a re-issue
at the beginning of the nineteenth century !

The first and second states are dated 1793,
and the third 1797, when it was published by
Schiavonetti.

It is perhaps not widely known that the two
children in the print of " The Mask " are the
Spencer children, the Ladies Charlotte and Anne,
daughters of George, third Duke of Marlborough.
They form part of the large picture of the " Duke
of Marlborough and his Family," painted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds in 1777, and still in the posses-
sion of the family.

The story is told, a propos of Sir Joshua
Reynolds's happy art of catching a momentary
expression, which served him so well in his
portraits of children, that when Lady Anne, then
a child of four, was brought into the room to sit,
she drew back and, without looking round, clung
to the dress of her nurse, crying, " I won't be
painted," and thus Sir Joshua sketched the
attitude and kept it, and, to account for the

217

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

alarm of the child, introduced the elder sister
in front of her, holding the mask before her
face. This is the story as told, but the pose,
according to the artist, was borrowed from an
antique gem.

When the children grew up, by the way, it
was the Lady Charlotte and not the Lady Anne
who proved wayward and difficult. She eloped
with the Librarian at Blenheim Palace, Mr.
Edward Nares ; whilst her sister, the shy little
girl who would not be painted, married Cropley
Ashley, sixth Earl of Shaftesbury.

The first state of this print has merely the
artists' names with the line of publication. The
second has " F. Bartolozzi delineavit " added,
and the publication line altered. In the third
state " F. Bartolozzi " is erased and the title
"The Mask, From the original picture in the
possession of His Grace the Duke of Marl-
borough," is added, together with the name of
Schiavonetti as publisher. Bartolozzi himself
made the design in water-colours for the printer,
which is still in existence.

"The Ghost" was engraved as a companion
to "The Mask," from a design by Westall.
Simpson, St. Paul's Churchyard, published it,
March 1791, in black : it had worn a little
before it was colour-printed. It is very inferior
in every way to its pendant. The first title was
"The Ghost,— L' Apparition." The French
translation was subsequently erased.

218

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

J. R. SMITH

Smith (J. R.), 1752-18 12. — J. R. Smith was
the son of the artist known as Smith of Derby.
He began life as apprentice to a linen-draper,
came to London in that capacity, and devoted
his first leisure to miniature-painting. His next
artistic venture was in mezzotint engraving, his
first plate being a portrait of " Pascal Paoli,"
after Bembridge, dated 1769. Very soon after
this he engraved a " Public Ledger open to all
Parties," the great sale of which induced him to
continue to pursue the art of mezzotinting.

J. R. Smith had a varied life, and it is extra-
ordinary that he never found a biographer until
I paid him that tardy and inadequate tribute in
1902. There is no history even of his stipple-
engravings ; only the works themselves, either
from his own design or those of his friend
Morland, are here to testify to his super-excel-
lent skill in this manner, which he pursued
contemporaneously with his mezzotinting.

Among the best of J. R. Smith's stipple-
prints, and, perhaps, the best of J. R. Smith's
stipple-prints means the most attractive colour-
printed engravings that exist, are " Rustic Em-
ployment " and " Rural Amusement." The first
state of this pair are without titles, and they are
to be found in Dodd's Catalogues as " A woman
feeding fowls " and " A woman tending flowers " :
a late state has alterations in the plate itselt ;

219

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the costumes are modernised, and high Welsh-
looking caps are added. " Delia in Town " and
" Delia in the Country," after Morland, and
"Thoughts on a Single Life," exist in modern
productions.

" Thoughts on Matrimony " was engraved by
William Ward, from J. R. Smith's design. The
set of " Loetitia " proved so popular that the
worn plates were altered in 1811, when a large
re-issue was made. From an artistic standpoint,
however, the alterations were disastrous ; the
costumes were brought up to date, as in " Rustic
Employment," and the faces suffered even more.
Seven shillings and sixpence was the price per
print at which the issue was made. Ackermann
was the publisher.

Other charming prints by J. R. Smith are
"A Loisir," "The Shepherdess," and "The
Wood Nymph " ; the set entitled " A Maid,"
"A Wife," "A Widow," "What you will";
" Solitude " and " An Evening Walk," " Black,
Brown, and Fair," " Contemplating the Picture,"
" Belissa," " The Merry Story," " The Snake in
the Grass," after Reynolds ; " Lavinia," after Sam
Shelley ; and " Flirtilla " (the pair to " Nar-
cissa "), after his own design. " Narcissa " in its
second state was called " The Mirror," but there
is another delightful stipple-print by J. R. Smith,
published in 1782, which I have seen similarly
named ; its correct title, however, is " The
Mirror, Serena and Flirtilla." It was brought
out in the early days of colour-printing, but it

220

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

lacks nothing of the perfection that was reached
in the next few years. It contains two female
figures, the face of one of them reflected a second
time in a mirror that hangs on the wall. It is a
very rare print. " Hobbinella and Luberkin,"
after Northcote, was published in colours in
proof-state by J. R. Smith in 1783 ; it has no en-
graver's name on it, and I only presume it to be his
own work. In addition to the stipple-engravings
that J. R. Smith executed, he furnished for other
engravers, notably William Ward, many designs
of singular charm and spirit.

" The Chanters " is a print singular amongst
the stipple-works of J. R. Smith in exhibiting
the engraver's capacity for translating faithfully,
whilst at the same time idealising, the work of
any artist that he had before him. This he
proved again and again in his mezzotint work.
Peters was a difficult master from which to
engrave, Bartolozzi himself failed more than
once to give even an adequate rendering of his
original — see " The Spirit of a Child " for a case
in point. But " The Chanters," whilst com-
pletely honest, shows at once the manner of the
artist, and the quality of the engraver. The first
state, before the title, was printed in colours, so I
think it may be fairly considered that rara avis^ a
proof in colours.

" Narcissa," another famous stipple -print by
J. R. Smith, is of course the heroine of Roderick
Random^ of whom the hero gives the following
description : —

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

So much sweetness appeared in the countenance and carriage
of this amiable apparition that my heart was captivated at first
sight, and while dinner lasted I gazed upon her without inter-
mission. Her age seemed to be seventeen, her stature tall, her
shape unexceptionable. Her dark hair fell down upon her ivory
neck in ringlets, her arched eyebrow of the same colour, her
eyes piercing yet tender, her lips of the consistence and hue of
cherries, her complexion clear, delicate, and healthy, her aspect
noble, ingenuous, and humane, and her whole person so ravish-
ingly delightful that it was impossible for any creature endowed
with sensibility to see without admiring, and admire without
loving to excess.

The first state of this print is without title ;
in the second the title " Narcissa " is added ; in
the third it is called "The Mirror." I have
seen both the last states printed in colours, and
several copies with some brush-work, which is
easily accounted for by the fact that, at the Boy-
dell sale in 1818, a large number of impressions
were catalogued " Printed in colours " (" ready
for finishing ").

ROBERT THEW

Thew (Robert), 1 758-1 802. — Thew's prin-
cipal works in stipple were the large plates he
engraved for the Boydell Shakespeare set. They
are among the best and most numerous of that
unequal issue. Among his smaller plates are
several charming miniatures, notably a portrait
of Miss Turner under the title " Reflections on
Werther," after Crosse. He also engraved por-
traits of Mr. and Mrs. Cosway as " Abelard and
Heloisa," after Cosway ; " Conjugal Affection,"

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

after Smirke ; and " Rustic Courtship " and
" Polite Courtship," after Dayes.

" Infancy " is a portrait of Francis George Hare.
Francis George Hare was the eldest son of
Francis Hare-Naylor of Hurstmonceaux. He
died in 1847. '^^^ picture was painted in
1788, was formerly in the possession of Sir John
D. Paul, Bart., and is now in that of H. L.
BischofFsheim, who purchased it at Christie's in
1872. The print in its first state has the artists'
names, title in open letters ; and the publication-
line gives it as having been brought out on
"February 22, 1790, by R. Thew." In the
second state the title is erased, and the line of
publication altered to " Published March 25,
1790, by J. & J. Boydell, Cheapside, and at the
Shakespeare Gallery, Pair Mall, London." In
the third state the title was changed to " In-
fancy," and it was issued in colours.

223

CHAPTER XI

Tomkins, Chas. Turner, W. Ward, Thos. Watson, White, Wilkin

P. W. TOMPKINS

Tomkins (Peltro William), 1759-1840, was actu-
ally Bartolozzi's best pupil, although this super-
lative title was indiscriminately bestowed by
their various admirers on many of the great
engraver's apprentices. He had most of the
qualities of the master, the same delicacy, and
the same sweetness ; and, were it not for an
occasional weakness, and the signature, it would
be difficult to decide whether many of his works
were to be definitely assigned to the one or to
the other. He was the son of a landscape-
painter, who painted English scenery, after
Claude — a long way after, however.

Although I have spoken of Tomkins as an
illustrious pupil of Bartolozzi, he was also a
clever and original artist, and designed many
fancy subjects. He combined a considerable
amount of etching with his stippling, probably
in order to save time. He was drawing-master
to the Princesses, and this fact is his best apology

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

for degrading his really brilliant talents as an
engraver to the level of copying the designs
made by the Princess Elizabeth and her friends,
notably, illustrations to The Birth and Triumph of
hove.

Tomkins had a shop in Bond Street, where
he carried on business as a printseller, and from
there he issued Thomson's Seasons, a magnifi-
cently illustrated volume, of which he shared
the honours with Bartolozzi. The plates sur-
vive, and there are modern unacknowledged
editions of the book in the market, as well as
separate prints from the plates, both in mono-
chrome and in colours. Two other fine works
projected and brought out by Tomkins were The
British Gallery of Pictures, the text by Tresham
and Ottley, and The Gallery of the Marquis of
Stafford. These two efforts, however, involved
him in heavy financial loss, and he petitioned
Parliament to allow him to dispose by lottery
of the water-colour drawings from which these
engravings had been executed, together with the
unsold impressions of the plates. A short Act
was passed enabling him to do so. Amongst
these impressions were many exquisitely printed
in colours. He died in Osnaburgh Street, leav-
ing a large family. His daughter Emma married
the well-known engraver Samuel Smith.

It is difficult to make a selection from the
colour-prints of Tomkins, difficult, not because
fine prints by him are rare, but because the
list of his desirable works, like those of Barto-

225 Q

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

lozzi, would be too extensive. The simple
enumeration of his book-illustrations, for instance,
would require a volume to itself ! However, the
following may be found a fairly representative
list, as far as quality, if not quantity, is con-
cerned. A collector of taste will put stipple-
prints by Tomkins on the same list as those by
Bartolozzi, J. R. Smith, Burke, and Caroline
Watson, and will endeavour to secure as many
as opportunity affords.

" Hobbinol and Ganderetta," after Gains-
borough. (This print has sometimes been
attributed to Bartolozzi, and at Macklin's sale
in 1800 it was sold as having been engraved by
him ; genuine impressions, however, are always
found inscribed " pupil of Bartolozzi." It is
the second plate from Macklin's British Poets.)
"The English Fireside" and "The French Fire-
side," " The English Dressing-Room " and " The
French Dressing-Room," "The Poor Soldier"
and " Arthur and Emmeline," after Ansell ;
" Affection and Innocence," after Bartolozzi ;
" He Sleeps," " Love Enamoured," after Hopp-
ner ; four, after designs by A Lady (the Princess
Elizabeth), entitled "The Hop Girl," "The
Milk Girl," " The Wood Girl," " The Flower
Girl." A second, larger, and very inferior set
from the same designs, was subsequently issued
by Levilly. " Cottage Girl Shelling Peas,"
" Cottage Girl Gathering Nuts," after Bigg ;
" Maria " and " Children Feeding Chickens,"
after Russell ; " Children Feeding Goats," after

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Morland ; " Blind Man's BufF," " The Liberal
Fair," " Peleus and Thetis," " Miranda and
Ferdinand," " Flora," and " Sylvia overseen by-
Daphne," after Angelica Kauffmann ; " Marian,"
" The Girl of Modena," and " The Girl of the
Forest of Snowdon," after Bunbury ; " Rosalind
and Celia," after Lawrenson ; " The Cottager "
and " The Villager," an oval pair after an un-
known and probably amateur designer ; " Birth
of the Thames," after Cosw^ay ; " Lavinia and
her Mother," after Ramberg ; " Lucy Boyd,"
after Downman ; "Amyntor and Theodora," and
a number of others, after Stothard ; " Louisa,"
after Nixon (a portrait of the Duchess of Rut-
land) ; " Louisa, the celebrated Maid of the
Haystack," after Palmer ; " Marion and Colin
Clout," and " Affection " and " Duty," after
Julia Conyers. There is a French version of
the last two, which is very inferior, but it is
unsigned, and frequently sold as the Tomkins
pair.

" The Wanton Trick " and " Innocent Play,"
as well as '* Refreshment," are from his own
designs, and very charming. They are children-
subjects, in which he was peculiarly successful.
The above will give some idea of the scope,
value, and beauty of the stipple -engravings
printed in colour of P. W. Tomkins, but the list
could have been double as long without exhaust-
ing his work or its diversity.

Two little books, one entitled My Mother,
and the other, The Birthday Gift, or the Joy of a

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

New Dolly have a set of plates by him from
designs by Lady Templetown, which are very
delicate and pretty. About a dozen presentation
copies of each of these books vv^ere printed in
colours, but they are rarely met with. If the
list of Tomkins' work had been made with the
intention of showing his versatility only, I should,
perhaps, have included the portrait of Mrs. Eliza-
beth Cumberland, from a design made four days
after her death by her daughter, the Right Hon.
Lady Edward Bentinck.

The early proofs of the plate of "Major Edward
Topham" are really magnificent examples of pure
colour-printing. Edward Topham, journalist,
playwright, soldier, and politician, distinguished
himself in every field that he cultivated. He
was educated at Eton under Dr. Foster, and
remained there eleven years, acquiring a local
reputation for English poetry, and for having
been one of the leaders of the revolution against
Foster's rule. From Eton he went to Cam-
bridge, but left without taking his degree.
Mention of him occurs in Wordsworth's Social
Life at the University ^ as having drawn a wonder-
ful caricature of the under -porter at Trinity !
He travelled on the Continent after his abrupt
departure from his Alma Mater, and, on his
return from his travels, he went to Scotland
with Sir Paul Jodrell, the result of which
journey he embodied in a publication entitled
Letters from 'Edinburgh^ containing some Observa-
tions on the Diversions^ Customs^ Manners^ and

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Laws of the Scotch Nation. It was after this
venture that he purchased his commission in the
First Regiment of Life Guards. As adjutant,
he brought his regiment to a high state of
efficiency, and, having been thanked by the
King, was rewarded by finding himself figuring
in the print-shops as "The Tip-Top Adjutant."
Politics next allured him, and he published A?j
Address to Edmu?2d Burke on the Affairs in America.
From this point Captain (presently Major) Top-
ham became absorbed in the fashionable life of
the town, although his ambition was always to
be taken for a man of letters, and his favourite
associates were Home Tooke, the elder Colman,
and Sheridan. He wrote many prologues and
epilogues, and formed the connection with Mary
Wells, then acting at Drury Lane, to which I
have before alluded.

Mary Wells seems to have been an indifferent
actress, but her pictures, those by Downman
especially, show her to have been an uncom-
monly pretty woman. To Major Topham,
however, she was not only a pretty woman, but
a most fascinating actress, and of course he
imagined that the critics were banded against
her to prevent her receiving all the praise she
deserved for her talent. In order to correct this
injustice, he started, mainly with the object of
puffing her, the paper called The World. But
The World had a wonderful success quite apart
from its avowed object. It was personal jour-
nalism in excelsis. Gifford, in his Baviad and

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Mceviad^ speaks of it with disgust, as indeed
does also Hannah Moore in her Memoirs : " In
it appear accounts of elopements, divorces, and
suicides tricked out in all the elegance of Mr.
Topham's phraseology." The two stories, how-
ever, that most largely affected the circulation
of T/ie World were " The Life of the late John
Elwes," which Horace Walpole considered one
of the most amusing anecdotal books in the
English language, and the correspondence on
" The Affairs of the Prize Ring between the
Pugilists Humphries and Mendoza." >The World
had more than one action brought against it.
Once Major Topham was indicted for libel, and
once he was at law with his co-editor, Este.

Major Topham tired of the paper, disposed
of his share, and retired to Wode Cottage
with three of Mrs. Wells' daughters. Mrs.
Wells herself ceased to charm him about this
time, and rumour coupled his name with that of
a lady in the great world. Nothing seems to
have come from this attachment, and he lived
a very domestic life for the next few years,
devoting the greater part of his time alter-
nately to farming and to writing his biography,
which, however, never appeared in print. The
portrait, which Tomkins used, is a pastel by
Downman, exhibited at the Royal Academy
in 1788 under the title of "The Portrait of a
Gentleman." It was recently in the possession of
Rear-Admiral Trollope, 42 Buckingham Palace
Mansions.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The first state of the print has the artist's
name, title in open letters, and line of publica-
tion, with the date January i8th, 1790. The
second state is the coloured one, the letters are
filled in, and the line of publication altered to
February 28th, 1790.

A picture of " Mrs. Topham and her Chil-
dren " was also painted by Russell, but has never
been engraved. Topham appears constantly in
the works of the caricaturists. In the best-known
and most celebrated of these " Perdita " (Mrs.
Robinson) is depicted as having flown to his
arms after her rupture with the Prince of Wales ;
but there seems to have been no truth in this
suggestion.

The portrait of Mrs. Louisa Morgan and her
child is another of Tomkins' chefs-d'ceuvre.
The infant in the pretty cap became Mrs.
Sandford, and her daughter Anna married the
second Lord Methuen, and was the mother
of the soldier whom South African affairs
brought prominently before the public. The
picture, of which this print is a replica, is
an oval pastel, and is now in the possession of
Lord Methuen at Corsham Court, Chippenham.
But the engraving differs from it in many im-
portant respects. Alterations and additions have
been made by the engraver.

" Morning " and " Evening " are two prints
now fetching astonishing sums, £^0 to jCioo
being freely paid for fine specimens in colour.
This makes it, perhaps, more interesting to learn

231

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

that when the plates, with eighteen impressions
in colour, were sold at Bovi's sale in 1805,
sixteen shillings and sixpence was the largest
amount paid for the pair, and even then the
auctioneer had to throw in eight prints of
" Birds and Flowers," in order to dispose of the
lot at all. There are two more of the set,
" Noon *' and " Night," but these were engraved
by Delatre. .

The first state of all this set was in mono-
chrome, the proofs being without titles. The
second state has title, artist's name, and line of
publication, it is this state and a later one that
I have seen colour -printed. Many so-called
" proofs " of this pair are sold in colours, for the
plates wore exceptionally well, and the second
state is correspondingly brilliant. But com-
parison of the so-called coloured proofs with
those in monochrome places the matter beyond
dispute.

The dramatic artists alone, of all who labour
in Art's fruitful vineyard, leave nothing but
tradition on which to base their claims to im-
mortality. And tradition is an applause that
grows fainter and fainter through the deadening
curtain of intervening years. No critic, con-
temporary or otherwise, has managed to crystallise
the great tragic actress of the eighteenth century
and the first decade of the nineteenth into one
sparkling immortal epigram. But Sir Joshua
Reynolds succeeded where they had failed, fixing
her for all time on his glowing canvas, and

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Peltro William Tomkins seconded him nobly.
Mrs. Siddons succeeded Mrs. Abington as
popular favourite, but she won to the position
through a storm of hisses, and the abuse of
gallery and critic. Having w^on her place, she
held it firmly. She and John Kemble did for
the stage of that day, something, though not
everything, of what the late Sir Henry Irving
has done for it in ours. They gave it dignity.

Mrs. Siddons was a woman of exemplary
personal conduct, and a devoted mother. She
taught that the abandon of the true dramatic artist
was not incompatible with feminine virtue and
feminine modesty. She suffered, as women of
genius must always suffer, from exposure to the
public gaze and the public comment, but even
the fiercest glare of publicity found no flaw in
her femininity.

The Tomkins print is another of the Rich-
mond House set, and was first published by
M. Lawson, i68 Strand, in 1788 ; it was
republished by R. Cribb, 288 Holborn, in
1797.

The first state has the title, artist's name, and
line of publication ; and there are a few late
proofs in colour. The second issue was also in
colour. A modern stipple-engraved plate after
this print has recently been brought out, but I
fear it only serves to accentuate the fact that
stipple-engraving is a lost art.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

CHARLES TURNER

Turner (Chas.), 1 774-1 857, was the son of
Charles and Jane Turner of Woodstock, Oxon.
His father, a Collector of Excise, got into diffi-
culties, and his mother, who previous to her
marriage had been maid to the Duchess of
Marlborough, exerted her influence with her
late mistress to procure the post of Custodian of
the China, at Blenheim, for her eldest son.

Young Charles Turner, very soon after his in-
stallation, attracted the attention of the Duke by a
drawing that he made of an Oriental plate. This
was the age of patrons, and Charles Turner was
almost immediately sent to London, with every-
thing necessary to procure him admission to the
Royal Academy School. He had wished to be
a painter, but discovered sufficiently early that
he lacked something of originality, patience, or
imagination, and he rested instead on the lower
rung of the art- ladder that stood temptingly
before him. He became an engraver, and
achieved an immediate success. His fine series
of mezzotints is well known. He worked for
the Boydells ; and posterity owes him gratitude
for his prints after his celebrated namesake,
J. M. W. Turner. The complete history of
this connection has yet to be written. He did
the first twenty plates for the Liber Studiorum^
and then quarrelled with the master over money
matters. Many years later they became recon-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

ciled ; he executed more plates, became Turner's
best friend, and was ultimately appointed his
Trustee. He lived at 50 Warren Street, Fitzroy
Square, whence many of his plates were pub-
lished. His stipple-prints are few in number ;
one of them, the portrait of " Ball," a famous
bull-dog, has an aquatint background. The best-
known are the " Sir Joshua Reynolds," an excel-
lent plate heavily etched, and that of " Miss
Bowles," after Sir Joshua, published in 18 17.
The latter has almost the value of a mezzotint
engraving, and the flesh is most delicately stippled.
There is a small plate of the same picture,
mezzotinted by him, a comparison of the two
throwing light on the relative capabilities of the
two methods.

Although the above-named are the best
known, by far the most important stipple-prints
by Turner are " Villagers Dancing," " Mother's
Fairings," and "The Savoyard": these are all
three exceedingly rare in colour. A small but
very charming piece of stipple -work is the
frontispiece to an aria composed by the Mar-
chioness of Blandford, designed by Cosway, and
exquisitely printed in colours. He also designed
and stipple-engraved a sketch of Miss O'Neill in
the first year that she came to London. The
large mezzotint of her, under the title of
" Hebe," after Huet Villiers, was executed three
years earlier.

"Mademoiselle Parisot " was issued at los. in
colour. I have been offered >Cioo for my own

23s

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

print. But it was given to me by the late Sir Henry
Irving ; and to me, of course, on that account also,
quite priceless. Mademoiselle Parisot was a cele-
brated dancer at the London Opera House at the
time (1798) when the Bishop of Durham (Shute
Barrington) made his celebrated Protest against
the growing licentiousness of the opera- ballet.
She was one of the three dancers who figured
in the caricature of Gillray that the pamphlet
evoked, under the title of " Danse a UEveque.''

Mademoiselle Parisot married Mr. Hughes
of Golden Square in 1807. The pair generally
hung with this print is " Mademoiselle Hilligs-
berg," who has been already alluded to as one
of the mistresses of that multitudinous lover,
George IV. " Mademoiselle Parisot " appears to
have been colour-printed in its earliest lettered
state. I have never seen it without title, but
neither have I seen a monochrome in this con-
dition. My own copy is with open letters, and
most brilliant. It is a rare print.

WILLIAM WARD

Ward (William), 1 762-1 826, was a brother-
in-law of George Morland in a double way ; for,
Morland married Annie, Ward's sister, and Ward
married Maria, Morland's sister.

William Ward was a pupil of J. R. Smith,
and became assistant to him when he had finished
his apprenticeship. Like his master, his best

236

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

work was done in mezzotint, but many charming
stipple-prints exist by him, and they are keenly
sought after. In some instances he made his own
designs, which were very much in the manner
of Smith. But he also engraved in stipple
after J. R. Smith, and from designs supplied to
him by his erratic brother-in-law, George Mor-
land. His fame rests chiefly, of course, on his
series of mezzotints after this celebrated relative,
and rests there deservedly, but these are outside
the province of the present volume. Ward was
peculiarly successful in delineating the female
figure in quaint attitudes and costumes. His
own compositions, however, sometimes lack
spontaneity, he was a better translator than
originator. He was elected an Associate of the
Royal Academy in 1814, and he also held for
some time the appointment of Mezzotint-
Engraver to the Prince Regent and the Duke of
York. He lived in 50 Warren Street, Soho,
and died there suddenly in 1826, leaving two
sons. The eccentricity latent in the Morland
family reappeared in these two sons of William
Ward ; the eldest, Martin Theodore, artist and
exhibitor, abandoned his career when he was at
his zenith, and died in 1874 in poverty and
obscurity, both self-sought. William James, the
second son, a valuable mezzotint artist, became
insane, and died in an asylum in 1840.

Among William Ward's stipple-prints are to
be found "The First Pledge of Love," after
Morland ; " Thoughts on Matrimony " (a miser-

237

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

able late copy of which, signed " Bartolonii,**
exists) — the pair to it, "Thoughts on a Single
Life," being by J. R. Smith ; " Louisa," " Louisa
Mildmay," "The Soliloquy," "The Musing
Charmer," "Alinda," "Hesitation," and "The
Choice."

All these, which are from his own designs,
have been only too popular, and have been repro-
duced until they have lost the greater part of
their charm. " Lucy of Leinster," which shares
the same fate, was not a popular print at the
time of its production. The plate, with 142
plain and 5 coloured impressions, was sold at
Molteno's sale for ^i :2s., as were also "A
Loisir " and " Louisa," a pair, the first engraved
by Smith, the other by Ward. Sixteen shillings
was all that the plates of the two latter with
6 proofs and 12 prints realised at the same sale.
"A Loisir" alone to-day easily fetches £s^' ^^
far as I know, the portraits Ward engraved in
stipple of the Royal Princesses, the first of which
appeared in 1789, have not been reproduced.
These were after Ramberg, and included " Char-
lotte Augusta," " Augusta Sophia," " Elizabeth,"
" Sophia," and " Amelia." Of the five, " Augusta"
is by far the prettiest ; she is depicted sitting on
a garden seat plucking a bough from a tree. A
poor impression of this plate was sold in 1896 by
public sale for jf 16 : los. After Ramberg also,
are the two popular prints " Temptation " and
" Reflection " ; the latter, in proof state, is lettered
as " Private Amusement."

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Other stipple-prints by Ward are "The Min-
strel," after Opie ; a circle with a quotation from
Beattie's poem, dated 1784, and a much-engraved
" Annette and Lubin " from Marmontel's Moral
Tales.

" Constancy " and " Variety " are perhaps the
most interesting of W. Ward's stipple - prints.
"Variety" is said to be a portrait of Mrs.
Morland, " Constancy " of Mrs. William Ward.
The two married couples lived for a short time
in the same house in High Street, Marylebone,
but, as the German proverb says, " no roof is
large enough to cover two families." The two
ladies found ample cause for dispute in their
respective husbands' accomplishments. One was
a sober man of talent, the other a drunken genius,
and constant reiteration of these facts seems to
have produced dissensions, leading to a disruption
of the family partnership, after about three
months. They then separated, when Mrs. Mor-
land had all the " variety " that she could possibly
require in George Morland's transitions between
profligacy, drunkenness, repentance, and fresh
outbreaks ; and Maria enjoyed not only her own
" constancy " but that of her excellent husband.

The two prints in their second state have
respectively these execrable verses : —

l^ariety.

Crowded scenes or lonely roads
My fickle mind by turn approves,
Come then my votaries, follow me
The charm of life's variety.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Constancy.

Firm as the rock on which I lean
My mind is fixed and cannot rove,
Though foaming billows roll between
I'll ne'er forsake the youth I love.

The original picture of " Constancy " is, or
was, in the possession of Thomas J. Barratt, Bell
Moor, Hampstead Heath. But how it has
become separated from its pair, and what has
become of " Variety," I have not been able to
discover.

There are two states of these prints : the first
before all letters ; the second with the artists'
names, title, verse, and line of publication,
"London, Publish'd Sepr. 4th, 1788, by W.
Dickinson, Engraver, 158 New Bond Street."
The second is printed in colour. The plates,
with 49 plain and 1 1 coloured impressions, were
sold at Dickinson's sale in 1794 for eight guineas.
A fine pair in colours will to-day realise close
upon j^ioo. These plates were re -engraved
with the signature " Bartolotti," and a would-be
purchaser must be careful to avoid purchasing
the very poor second pair.

THOMAS WATSON

Watson (Thomas), 1743-1781. — He was
articled to a metal -engraver, and he executed
some good stipple-prints, but especially excelled
in mezzotint. He carried on business as a print-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

seller at New Bond Street in 1778, for a short
time was partner with Dickinson, died and was
buried in Bristol.

Watson's stipple-prints are meagre in quantity,
although they may be said to make up amply
for this in quality. Among them are a print of
Mrs. Sheridan as " St. Cecilia," after Reynolds,
one of " Friar Philip's Geese," and a very poor
one of " The Duchess of Devonshire." The
" St. Cecilia " has been mezzotinted in so very
superior a manner by Dickinson that no collector
will be anxious to acquire a copy of it by Watson.
The three following, however, will, I think,
sufficiently account for the inclusion of Thomas
Watson among first-class stipple-engravers.

"Mrs. Wilbraham." — Mrs. Wilbraham was the
daughter of W. Harvey, of Chigwell, Essex, and
the wife of George Wilbraham, of Nantwich and
Delamere House. Her husband was Sheriff for
the County of Cheshire, and died in 181 3. This
picture is always sold as the pair to " Mrs.
Crewe," but I have spent many weary months
in endeavouring fruitlessly to find any social
connection between the two ladies.

"Mrs. Crewe." — Mrs. Crewe was, of course, one
of the most interesting women of her day. She
was one of the " blue-stockings," and an intimate
friend of Mrs. Montague. She also figured in
the most frivolous society, and was on loving
terms with the famous Duchess of Devonshire.
She was a daughter of Fulke Greville, and
Doctor Burney was her godfather, whilst in her

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

turn, Mrs. Fulke Greville was godmother to
Fanny Burney. Mrs. Crewe inherited her
beauty from her mother and her brilliancy from
her father. It will be remembered that Fulke
Greville, son of the fifth Lord Brooke, eloped
with his wife, and that when he asked forgive-
ness, his father-in-law drily remarked that Mr.
Greville had taken a wife out of the window
whom he might just as well have taken out of
the door. Mrs., afterwards Lady Crewe, was a
very prominent politician on the Whig side, and
Fox, Burke, and Sheridan were frequent visitors
at Crewe Hall. The School for Scandal was dedi-
cated to Lady Crewe, and Horace Walpole
published at the Strawberry Hill press some
verses written by her for Fox, for whom, like
her friend Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire,
she actively canvassed at the Westminster elec-
tion. The most unfortunate circumstance about
Lady Crewe is that her biographers were not
content to tell us of her brilliancy and wit, but
they actually proceeded to give us an instance of
both. Wraxall, Fanny Burney, Walpole, and
Huish all repeat the following poor specimen of
repartee. At a dance at her house after the
famous election of 1784, the Prince of Wales
gave the toast " True Blue and Mrs. Crewe," to
which the bewitching lady brilliantly replied
"True Blue and all of you." This, and the
story of a gentleman who, for a small wager,
expectorated into the hat of one of his fellow-
guests, are the two gems of eighteenth-century

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

humour that most frequently appear among the
chronicles of the day !

"Una" (Miss Elizabeth Beauclerk). — This is
Topham Beauclerk's daughter. Topham Beau-
clerk, friend of Johnson, wit, debauchee, member
of the Literary Club, married Lady Diana
Spencer, eldest daughter of Charles, Duke of
Marlborough, who had been divorced from
Viscount Bolingbroke, and was hardly more
happy in her second marriage. Lady Diana
Beauclerk, who was familiarly known as " My
Lady Bully," was by way of being an artist, and
Horace Walpole admired her work and had a
boudoir devoted to specimens of it at Straw-
berry Hill. But I think it must have been the
lady rather than the painting that he found
attractive ; for, although he made very desperate
mistakes in his criticisms on contemporary art
and artists, it seems impossible to believe he
really could have thought the strange composi-
tionSjWith figures anatomically impossible, in posi-
tions weird and unaccountable, merited a place
amongst his masterpieces. At Holland House
there are drawings by Lady Diana, including a
portrait sketch of Charles James Fox. " Una,"
the subject of the engraving, married George
Augustus, Lord Herbert, afterwards the eleventh
Earl of Pembroke, in 1787, and died in 1793.

The first state of the print is before all letters;
the second with the artist's name and " vide
Spenser s Fairy Queen " ; the third has the title
"Una" with the well-known verse, and is

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

printed in colours. Owing to poor Una's early-
death, the Earl of Pembroke married a second
time in 1808. Her successor was the only
daughter of Count Worronzoff, and was one of
the two Russian children engraved by Caroline
Watson in 1788, after Cosway.

CHARLES WHITE

White (Charles), 1 751-1785, was born in
London and lived the greater number of his days
at Stafford Row, Pimlico, where he died in 1785.
He was apprenticed to Robert Franker, a line-
engraver, but, after serving his apprenticeship, he
abandoned this method for the easier stipple.
He was largely employed in executing insignifi-
cant prints from designs by ladies. Later on he
was engaged on more important plates, but was
prematurely cut off by fever before he had lived
to complete them, in the thirty-fourth year of
his age. Among these designs by ladies, of
which Dodd speaks so contemptuously, were a
large number after Emma Crewe, of which I
may mention "A Lady and Child," "Instruc-
tion," " Biography," " Contemplation," " Ballad
Singers," "Julia," "Annette and Lubin," "The
Cherry Girl," " Lavinia and her Mother," and
" A Good Mother Reading a Story."

A charming "Love," after Peters (a circle),
and the pair to it, which is entitled "The
Enraptured Youth," are amongst his best work.
The first of these is a variation of the celebrated

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

picture mezzotinted by J. R. Smith entitled
" Love in her eyes sits playing." " Mary
Isabella Somerset, Duchess of Rutland," is
another successful study after Peters. " Cottage
Children," after Russell, " Margaret of Anjou,"
and " Palemon and Lavinia " (circles), after
Stothard, and " The Dove," after Miss Bennett,
are other engravings by White. The two most
valued prints that have survived are the
" Infancy," after Cosway, and " Fidelity," after
Gardner. He also engraved a portrait of Lady
Catherine Powlett (an oval), after Cosway.
Three after Bunbury — "A Camp Scene,"
" Patty," and " Charlotte and Werther " — seem
to have been prepared only for colour, and to
have been unworthy of its assistance.

"Infancy" was painted by Cosway in 1785
for the Earl of Radnor. The two children
represented are William, Viscount Folkestone,
afterwards third Earl of Radnor, and his sister
Lady Mary Anne Pleydell-Bouverie. It appears
from the family account - book, 24th October
1785, that the Earl of Radnor paid Cosway
^115: I OS. for this picture. The same account-
book, of nth February 1786, says he paid to
Mrs. White for 24 proof engravings of the print
of Cosway's " Children " ^14 : 8s. The original
picture is still in the possession of the family, and
hangs at Longford Castle.

I have no history of" Fidelity." I have seen
several proofs in monochrome ; but nothing in
colour earlier than the second state.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

CHARLES WILKIN

Wilkin (Charles), 1750- 1814. — Charles
Wilkin was awarded a premium for stipple-work
by the Society of Arts, and, according to Dodd,
he had quite an original manner of working.
He published from Eaton Street, Pimlico. The
most important plate that he engraved is, per-
haps, the well - known " Cornelia and her
Children" (Lady Cockburn and her children),
after Sir Joshua Reynolds, in 1791, a most
beautiful piece of work without which no collec-
tion of stipple-prints is complete. The original
picture was bequeathed by Lady Hamilton to
the National Gallery. It was recently discovered,
however, that the bequest was illegal ; the family
claimed the picture, with others less important
that had been left in the same way, and sold it
to America for a large sum of money. Through
the liberality of the late Mr. Beit it has now,
however, been restored to the nation.

The other important work by Wilkin was a
book entitled A Select Series of Portraits of Ladies
of Rank and Fashion. They were published by
subscription at one guinea the proofs, half a
guinea the prints. A prospectus was issued in
1797, and the engravings were promised every
four months. Hoppner was associated with
Wilkin in this venture, and the original pro-
spectus said : " Subscriptions received by John
Hoppner, Charles Street, St. James's Square, or

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

C. Wilkin, 19 Eaton Street, Pimlico." Before
the second set came out the name of Hoppner
had disappeared, and Wilkin took the entire
responsibility of the publication. Coloured im-
pressions seem to have been an afterthought —
the only ones I have seen are from the plates, in
evidently worn states, and on paper dated 1805
and 1808.

Among the most beautiful of this series are,
perhaps, "Lady Charlotte Duncombe"; "The
Countess of Euston," after Hoppner ; and " Lady
Catherine Howard," from Wilkin's own design.
Others are " Lady St. Asaph " and " Lady Char-
lotte Campbell " (a pretty daughter of one of the
beautiful Misses Gunning), "Lady Langham,"
"Jane Elizabeth, Viscountess Andover," "Mrs.
Parkyns " (Lady Rancliffe), after Hoppner;
" Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick," " Lady Gertrude
Villiers," and " The Duchess of Rutland," after
Wilkin. The late Mr. Tuer issued photogravures
of these in book form, and I believe the edition
was rapidly sold out. Others of Wilkin's stipple-
prints are " Epponina," after Benjamin West, and
the well-known " Children Relieving a Beggar-
Boy," after Beechey. These were the children
of Sir Francis Ford.

A very desirable acquisition is an early proof
of Wilkin's " Master Hoare." Henry Richard
Hoare was the only son of Sir Richard Colt Hoare,
Bart., Fellow of the Royal Society, and historian
of Wiltshire. He was born in 1785, married in
1802 to Charlotte, only daughter of Sir Edward

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Deny, Bart., and died without an heir in 1836.
The baronetcy devolved upon his eldest half-
brother, founder of the now celebrated banking-
house in Fleet Street. The picture by Sir Joshua
Reynolds was painted in 1788, and is familiar to
the public in Loan Exhibitions. I believe it
is now at the family seat at Stourhead in
Wiltshire.

The first state has artist's name, line of pub-
lication in etched letters, " Pubd. May, 1789, by
C. Wilkin, No. 83 Queen Anne Street East";
the second state has the title in etched letters,
"Published June 1789, by C. Wilkin and R.
Evans, Printsellers, Poultry, and Darling, Great
Newport Street W.," and in this state it was
colour-printed.

248

CHAPTER XII

Other Stipple-Engravers. Apologia and Conclusion

In the preceding pages I have given in alpha-
betical order a few particulars of the most
notable engravers of the Bartolozzi school, in
whose work I have specially interested myself,
and who are represented well in my own collec-
tion. The arbitrary omissions, due to causes
more or less personal, are collated shortly in the
following notes.

Agar (John S.), 1776-1858, was a portrait-
painter as well as an engraver, who exhibited
at the Royal Academy between 1796 and 1806.
He was a pupil of Cheesman and Bovi, and was
at one time President of the Society of Engravers.
Amongst his best-known stipple-works, all of
which have been produced at one time or another
in colour, are : —

"The Shepherd Boy" (Sir W. Jones), after
Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a large number of
plates after Cosway, of which " Mrs. Duff" has
been, perhaps, the most admired. This plate is
still in existence, and weak modern impressions,
generally hand - coloured, are often to be met

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

with. " Lady Heathcote," " George, fourth Duke
of Marlborough,'* and his mistress, the latter
entitled " A Lady in the character of a Milk-
maid," are others. " A Lady in the character of
a Gipsy " (Harriet, Lady Cockerell, daughter of
Lady Rushout) is an attractive colour- print.
Agar was also among the many engravers of
" Miss O'Neill."

Baillie (Capt. Wm.), 1 723-1810. — This
brilliant Irishman, who called himself an amateur,
excelled as an etcher. He is best known to
print-collectors as having re-worked Rembrandt's
" Hundred Guilder " plate, " Christ Healing the
Sick," and also for the two handsome folio
volumes, entitled A Series of 225 Prints and
Etchings after Rembrandt, Teniers, Gerard Dow,
Poussin, and others, by Captain William Baillie ;
published by Boydell in 1792. But Captain
Baillie was also a charming stipple-engraver, and
he used this method in combination with the
etching-needle with excellent effect; his work
being met with in colour sufficiently often to
entitle him to a passing notice here. Among his
best plates in this manner are a portrait of George
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, after Van Dyck ;
" A Woman's Head," after G. Dow; " Madonna
and Child," after Rottenhamer, and a fine portrait
of Lord Mountstuart, after N. Hone.

Benedetti (Michele), 1745-18 10. — He was
born in Rome, but spent the greater part of his
life in England. His earliest works are in line,
but he became a pupil of Bartolozzi, and after-

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

wards confined himself almost entirely to stipple,
in which medium, perhaps, his finest work,
printed in colours in its first state, is the well-
known portrait of Edmund Burke, after Sir
Joshua Reynolds, on which he proudly records
the name of his master.

Benedetti also engraved " The Guardian
Angel," after Fuseli, for Sir B. Boothby's fustian
"Sorrows sacred to Penelope," 1796; "The
Child's Dressing " and " The Child First Going
Alone," after H. Singleton ; " Music " and " A
Sybil," a pair, the first after Domenichino, and
the second after Guido Reni ; and " Adoration,"
also after Guido Reni. He worked on the Bun-
bury Shakespeare, published by Macklin, 1792-96.
The majority of his plates lacked delicacy and
refinement, and, whether through honesty or
ignorance, he never attempted to improve the
bad drawing of the designs given to him.

Bettelini (Pietro), 1763- 1825. — He was
born in Lugano, and was sent over to England
to study under Bartolozzi, but master and pupil
were mutually dissatisfied and soon separated.
Bettelini returned to Italy, and was fortunate
enough to be admitted into the studio of the
truly eminent engraver Raffaello Morghen,
where he rapidly improved in his art ; and
ultimately achieved a well -merited individual
renown. Le Blanc gives a long list of Bette-
lini's works in line. Among his stipple-prints
that are to be met with in colour are a miniature
of Signora Storacci ; the delicate and fascinating

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

" Music has charms to soothe the savage breast,"
after Cosway ; and " A Nymph Asleep," after
Cipriani ; " Innocence and Fidelity " ; and " The
Duchess of C . . . delivered from the Cavern,"
after Rigaud.

Blake (William), 1757- 1827. — Idealist, artist,
poet, he was one of the most interesting figures
of this wonderful era. But his stipple-prints
formed so insignificant a part of his contribu-
tion to contemporary chromography, that I have
reserved him entirely for a problematic future
volume.

" Calisto " and " Zephyrus and Flora," after
Stothard ; a delicate stipple - engraving of the
poet Cowper, after Sir Thomas Lawrence ;
" Mrs. Q." (wife of Colonel Quentin), after
Huet Villiers ; " Venus dissuading Adonis from
Hunting," a line and stipple-print after Cosway ;
" The Industrious Cottagers " and " The Idle
Laundress," after Morland ; " Morning Amuse-
ment " and " Evening Amusement," after Wat-
teau, will represent not unworthily this side of
his work. The last-named pair are charming
prints. The portrait of Elizabeth Henrietta
Conyngham, Marchioness of Huntly, is some-
times erroneously sold under the title " Mrs. Q./'
and sometimes, more correctly, as a pendant to
it. It is, however, engraved by Maile. The
art of Blake has already inspired two classic
works : Gilchrist's Life and Swinburne's Critical
Essay.

Bond (William), who worked between 1772

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and 1807, was Governor of the Society of
Engravers, founded in 1803. He engraved in
stipple many prints of large size after West and
Westall.

His best-known prints in colours are " The
Woodland Maid " (a portrait of Miss De Visme),
and " The Marchioness of Thomond," after Sir
Thomas Lawrence ; " The Laughing Girl," after
Sir Joshua Reynolds ; " The Farmer's Visit to
his Daughter in Town " (companion to " The
Visit Returned in the Country," by Nutter, after
Morland), and "Mrs. Young" in the character
of " Cora," after Hobday. A charming print by
Bond, very delicate and refined in workmanship,
though rather straggling and disproportionate in
composition, is the " Madame Tallien," after
Masquerier. Bond engraved " The Expiation of
Orestes," after Westall, for Longman's Fine Arts
of the English School.

Bovi (M.), born in 1760, was a pupil of
Bartolozzi, and published many well-known
stipple-engravings in colour and otherwise. He
had, according to Minasi, three copper-plate
presses, and kept two colour-printers, who had
been trained under Seigneuer, constantly em-
ployed. He was apparently a very industrious
engraver, and one of great merit, but his unfortu-
nate habit of translating the work of inferior
painters makes it impossible in all cases to give
him the credit he deserves for his dexterity.
He seems to have shared Horace Walpole's
admiration for Lady Diana Beauclerk's monstrous

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

drawings, and he constantly reproduced her
designs. His portraits of " Cosway," after Cos-
way, dated 1786, and of " Mrs. Bateman," after
Guttenbrun, have a certain extrinsic interest.
" New Shoes " and " Nice Supper " are not quite
the worst of Lady Diana's prints. " Lady Diana
Sinclair," "Martha Swinburne," "Countess Rad-
nor," " Mrs. Merry," and " Miss Barker " are all
after Cosway ; " Mrs. Brooke " is after C. Read ;
" Grace in all their Steps," after Locke ; " Nymphs
and Satyrs" and "The Arts and Sciences" are
both after Cipriani ; the last being a highly
decorative panel, one of a set of four, which I
have twice seen printed beautifully in colours on
linen.

Cardon (Antoine), 1772-18 13, was an excel-
lent stipple-engraver, but he hardly started work-
ing until the end of the century was well in sight.
He died before he had reached maturity in his
art. But the prints of " Louisa Paolina Angelica
Cosway," " Thaddeus Kosciuszko," " Flora and
Ceres," " Lady Stanhope," " Mrs. Merry," and
" Madame Recamier," after Cosway ; a charm-
ing miniature of Mrs. Billington as " St. Cecilia,"
after Sir Joshua Reynolds ; " Bacchante," after a
design by Bartolozzi ; " Madame Catalani," after
C. M. Pope ; " The Marchioness of Donegal,
Mrs. and Miss May, and the Earl of Belfast,"
after Masquerier, prove at least that he knew
how to engrave for colours. He also showed
this knowledge on the large plate " Catherine of
France presented to Henry V. of England at the

254

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Treaty of Troyes," which he executed for the
Boydells after a picture by Stothard. It is one
of the few large compositions which have not
materially suffered in harmony at the hands of
the colour-printer.

Antoine Cardon worked on the " Cries of
London," and he also engraved " Mother's
Pride " (a portrait of young Jekyll), after Lodder
(there is a much more attractive print with the
same title, after Adam Buck) ; Miss Duncan, as
" Letitia Harding," after J. T. Barber ; " Irish
Peasants " and " Welch Peasants," after Westall ;
" Cupid Unveiling Venus," after Cosway ; and
" The Universal Power of Love," after Kirk.
He translated some devotional subjects, after
Rubens, which were most brilliantly printed in
colours in their proof state.

Delatre (J. M.), 1 745- 1 840, was one of
Bartolozzi's most esteemed pupils, and, according
to his own account, he did a great deal of work
on many plates that his master signed. He
engraved after Wheatley, Stothard, Angelica
Kauffmann, and Hamilton, in a manner very
little inferior to Ryland.

Among his best works are " Damon and
Phoebe," after Harding ; "Strolling Musicians,"
after Rigaud ; " Celestina," after Stothard ;
" Samuel," after Reynolds ; and the following
after Angelica Kauffmann: — "Dido invoking
the Gods before mounting the Funeral Pile,"
" Penelope weeping over the Bow of Ulysses,"
" Posthumus, Consul of Rome," " Beauty, directed

255

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

by Prudence, rejects with scorn the solicitations
of Folly," " Hammond's Love Elegies," " Calais
—The SnufF Box" (Sterne), " Moulines— The
Handkerchief," " Miss Harrop," and " Comic
and Tragic Muse." " The Children in the
Wood " he also engraved, after P. W. Tomkins ;
" May Day or the Happy Lovers," after J.
Saunders ; " Genius with Sickle and Sheaf,"
after Cipriani ; " The Wheelbarrow," after
Wheatley, and " Children playing with a
Mouse," after Hamilton.

DuM^E (E. J.) has a saleroom value for which
it is perhaps a little difficult to account. He
seems to me to lack delicacy in his flesh-tints,
and he invariably exaggerates any faults in draw-
ing that he finds in his models, notably in the
hands, with which he is uniformly unfortunate.
In addition to these defects, there is a certain
woolliness about the hair and drapery that
destroys any possible charm in his figure-sub-
jects. His principal work was done, in the early
part of the present century, after Morland, Cos-
way, and R. West.

"The Benevolent Lady," "The Discovery,"
" The Fair Seducer," after Morland ; " The
Love Letter," after R. West ; " Hebe," after
Cosway ; and " Agatha," after J. R. Smith, are,
perhaps, the best-known of Dumee's prints.

DuTERREAu (B.) workcd at the end of the
eighteenth century in France and England.
Very little is known of this engraver, but two
prints by him, " The Squire's Door " and " The

256

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Farmer's Door," after Morland, are much
esteemed in colours or monochrome. They
were so much in favour, and the public demand
for them was so great, that the plates wore out,
and the subjects were re-engraved by Levilly
in his usual inferior manner. Duterreau also
engraved "The Country Schoolmistress" and
"The Yorkshire Schoolmistress," after Saunders ;
" Fancy " and " Simplicity," after Artaud ; and
he worked on the Bunbury Shakespeare pub-
lished by Macklin.

Earlom (Richard), 1743- 1822, was a very
important and very industrious engraver, largely
employed by the Boydells. He etched, mezzo-
tinted, and stippled. He was amongst the few
engravers who used the point in a mezzotinted
plate. The public know Earlom best for his
fruit and flower pieces after Van Huysum and
Van Os, proofs of which still realise high prices.
But they are mezzotints.

Among his stipple-prints are to be found
" Sensibility " and " Alope," portraits of Lady
Hamilton, after Romney ; and " Lord Heath-
field," after Sir Joshua Reynolds. " Cipriani,"
after Rigaud, is hardly interesting, and the
pretty little " Cupid," after Cipriani, is insigni-
ficant. The designs for the painted window
of New College, Oxford, which he executed
in conjunction with Facius, were magnificently
colour -printed, and issued to the public in
proof state.

Eginton (John), like Blake, merits a chapter,
257 s

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

if not a volume, to himself. Both he and his
brother were remarkable men in the world of
little arts ; but their back-painting, and glass-
painting, and camera- obscura work threw their
stipple- engravings quite into the shade. The
historian of photography will, however, find
reference to their inventions of great interest.
Both the Egintons, John especially, issued
prints in colour, of which, perhaps, the most
notable are : " Setting out to the Fair," " The
Fairings," " Filial Piety," and " The Affectionate
Daughter," after Wheatley ; "The Ballad Singer,"
after Singleton ; and " Hebe " and " Adelaide,"
after Hamilton.

Facius (George Sigismund and Johann Gott-
lieb) were two brothers attracted to England by
the Boydell Shakespeare scheme, and they settled
here in or about 1776. They are known as
etchers as well as stipple-engravers, but it is on
their stipple-engraving that their reputation prin-
cipally rests. Their plate of the " New College
Window," and their early interest in colour-
printing, make them worthy of note. Among
their principal works are the following :

" Angelica and Medora," " Prince Octavius,"
and " The Golden Age," after West ; " Cupid's
Pastime," " Industry attended by Patience, and
assisted by Perseverance, crowned by Honour
and rewarded with Plenty," " Ariadne abandoned
by Theseus," " Sappho, inspired by Love, com-
posing an Ode in honour of Venus," " Sopho-
nisba, Queen of Carthage," and " Phcenissa, friend

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

of Sophonisba," oval prints after Angelica Kauff-
mann ; " Diana," " Hebe," " Spring," and " Sum-
mer," after Hamilton ; a " Venus " and " Danae,"
after Titian ; and a number of large prints after
West, Westall, Hamilton, etc.

George Facius executed the frontispiece to the
fourth volume of the Series of Prints after the most
noted Pictures in England^ which was issued in
seven volumes by subscription. All the best-
known stipple-engravers of the day were employed
on this work, but, on the whole, it proved a
disappointing production. The prints were
afterwards sold separately. The pictures were
from the collections of George III., the Duke
of Devonshire, the Duke of Newcastle, Lord
Radnor, Sir Peter Leicester, Lord Bessborough,
the Duke of Marlborough, Lord Bute, Lord
Grosvenor, Lord Orford, Peter Delme ; all of
whom figure in the list of subscribers.

Freeman (Samuel), 1773- 1857. — The ma-
jority of his plates were executed at the beginning
of the nineteenth century, and he is of interest to
a collector of colour-prints chiefly for his work
after Adam Buck. " The Quarrel " and " The
Reconciliation," "The Little Busybody," "The
Four Seasons," " Madame Catalani," and many
of the children -subjects, have found admirers.
A number of the Buck prints by Freeman have
aquatint backgrounds, the stipple is peculiarly
regular and even, and the colour-printing, in the
best specimens, delicate and refined. Williamson
and Cheesman also engraved after Adam Buck.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

The painter has treated his subjects in every case
with a certain quaintness and simplicity that give
them a typical and decorative quality, and he has
dressed his figures, almost without exception, in
Empire costumes. But the drawing is so singu-
larly bad that connoisseurs with the highest
artistic sense banish these " Buck " prints from
their walls and folios.

Graham (G.) worked at the end of the
eighteenth century. The serious business of his
life was mezzotint, but he executed one or two
stipple-plates that became popular colour-printed,
and that still find admirers ; notably " Lucy,"
after C. Hodges, "The Young Nurse and Quiet
Child," "The Angry Boy and Tired Dog,"
" The Soldier's Return," and " Morning Reflec-
tion," after Morland. He also engraved several
of the illustrations for Campbell's Pleasures of
Hope ; and a few impressions from three of the
plates were subsequently issued separately in
colours.

Grozer (Joseph) worked about 1784-1792.
I suppose it is hardly allowable to call Grozer a
stipple-engraver, but he executed a few plates in
this medium, and, even if they are looked upon
as the merest quips of a serious chalcographer,
the measure of his reputation as a mezzotint-
engraver deserves that they should not be passed
over entirely without mention ; particularly as
such quips include " The Age of Innocence " and
" Lady St. Asaph," after Sir Joshua Reynolds,
and " Morning, or the Reflection," after Ward.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Haward (Francis), 1759- 1797. — He en-
graved principally after Sir Joshua Reynolds and
Angelica Kauffmann. Perhaps his best work in
stipple is Mrs. Siddons as " The Tragic Muse,"
after Sir Joshua Reynolds. But by far the most
popular, printed in colours, were "The Infant
Academy " and " Cymon and Iphigenia," from
the same artist.

Haward's speciality as a stipple-engraver was
miniature subjects, of which "Flora and Zephyr,"
"Psyche and Zephyr," "Hebe," and "Juno,"
after Hamilton ; " Astarte and Zadig," after
Hone ; and " Cupid crowning the Arts," from
his own design, are the most charming.

Josi (C). — Died about 1828. Josi was born
in Holland, came early to this country, and
worked under J. R. Smith, a fact he gratefully
noted on his plates. He wrote a short life of
Ploos Van Amstel, in which there is a good deal
of autobiography. He had previously published
for, or in conjunction with. Van Amstel, a
volume of imitations of Dutch drawings, partly
printed in colour in a combination of aquatint
and etching. Ploos Van Amstel was a rich
amateur ; C. Josi was an engraver, a publisher,
and, what we call to-day, a dealer. He was a
man of great taste and knowledge, and, reading
between the lines of any work executed by the
two men in common, it is not difficult to imagine
that Van Amstel was largely indebted to Josi for
more than the art-treasures he found for him,
and the introduction he wrote to their joint book.

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Several of Josi's stipple-prints are popular in
colours, and fetch high prices : for instance, the
" Innocent Revenge " and " Innocent Mischief,"
after Westall, published in 1795. "The Little
Gipsy," after the same artist, is an attractive little
print, and " The Peasant's Repast " and " The
Labourer's Luncheon," after Morland, deserve a
passing notice. There is in existence a portrait
by Josi of Cosway, executed in stipple and printed
in colours, but I have not been fortunate enough
to see a fine example.

Keating (George), 1762- 1842, was an Irish
engraver of exceptional taste. He was a pupil
of Dickinson, and mezzotint was his real medium,
although he executed almost as many plates with
the point as with the scraper. He worked after
Sir Joshua Reynolds and Romney, Gainsborough
and Lawrence, and perhaps his talent in selection,
as much as his talent in delineation, is responsible
for the esteem in which he was held. But, like
the majority of the most cultured of the mezzo-
tinters, he is never quite happy in colour. Either
his plates are too large, or his stippling is too
coarse, to suit the exactions of that delicate
mistress. He suffered, like so many of his con-
temporaries, from the absence of a formula, for
want of an authoritative decision as to the possi-
bilities and limitations of the printer's palette.
Compare, for example, an early impression in
colour after Romney, of " St. Cecilia " by Keat-
ing, with a " Serena," after the same artist, by
J. Jones. The one engraver set the printer an

262

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

impossible task, the other exactly understood how
far he might legitimately go. " Camilla Faint-
ing " and " Camilla Recovering," after Singleton,
from the novel of David Simple^ are fair examples
of his method.

Lewis (Frederick Christian), 1 779-1 841. —
His principal work was done in the last century,
when colour-printing was dying out. He illus-
trated Ottley's School of Design, and engraved a
large number of portraits, after Sir T. Lawrence,
in imitation of drawings. But perhaps the
public will be more interested in hearing that
he was a pupil of Joseph Constantine Stadler,
another of the engravers after Adam Buck.
Lewis used the roulette in his delicate stipple-
work in such a manner as to give his prints a
mechanical effect that is not always pleasing.
Many of them were issued in monochrome,
slightly touched with the brush.

Meadows (R. M.) worked about 1780-181 1.
His best works are : " Gathering Wood " and
"Gathering Fruit," after G. Morland, 1795;
"A Ferncutter's Child" and "A Girl Gather-
ing Mushrooms," after Westall ; and a large
print after the same artist entitled " A Storm
in Harvest." " Attention " and " Inattention,"
after J. R. Smith (a charming pair) ; "Juvenile
Culprits Detected," after R. M. Paye ; " The
Fortitude of Sir T. More," after Hamilton ;
" Ethelinda and the Knight" and "Ethelinda
restored to her Father," after Stothard ; " The
Marchioness of Thomond," after Thomson ;

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EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

" Gipsies stealing a Child " and " The Child
Restored," after Singleton, are others of his
colour-prints. He worked for the Boydell
Shakespeare and also for the Bunbury Shake-
speare, published by Macklin, 1 792-1 796. He
published three lectures on engraving in 181 1,
and died in 181 2.

Meyer (Henry), 178 2- 1847, ^^^ ^ nephew
of Hoppner, and a pupil of Bartolozzi. He
engraved in mezzotint as well as in stipple, and
was peculiarly successful in portraits. One that
he engraved of Alderman Boydell, after Stuart, is
remarkable at once for its vigour and its delicacy.
He was one of the original members of the
Society of British Artists. Now and again,
stipple-prints in colour by Henry Meyer come
up in salerooms : they are always refined, but
somewhat mechanical and not particularly in-
teresting. The best are Mrs. Jerningham as
" Hebe " ; " Psyche " (Honble. Mrs. Paget),
after Hoppner ; Lady Leicester as " Hope,"
after Lawrence ; " Pam, Flush, and Loo," after
Opie ; " Father's Delight," after W. Derby
(companion to "Mother's Pride," after Lodder).
He also engraved a number of ladies' portraits
for Anne Mee's Gallery of Beauties.

MiNAsi (James Anthony), 1 776-1 865, of
whom an excellent account is to be found in
Mr. Tuer's Bartolozzi and His Works, worked
late into the nineteenth century. He was one of
Senefelder's earliest victims, and I should never
have considered him seriously but for his stipple-

264

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

prints after Cosway. " A Lady with a Young
Girl," for instance, proves that it was only lack
of inclination, and not of capacity, that prevented
him successfully pursuing this branch of his art.
"The Apotheosis of Princess Amelia," after L.
A. Byam ; " Ferdinand IV. of Italy," a portrait
of " Mrs. Whiteford," and some of the Holbein
Heads are amongst the work that has survived
him. In the later 'twenties of the nineteenth
century he was living in Regent Street, and his
son, a clever young flautist, gave concerts and
gathered around him a musical circle. To any
of their friends who were interested in olden
days and the plastic arts the old man would
gossip with great freedom. My own first in-
terest in stipple-engraving dates from the recol-
lection of some of these conversations repeated
by my grandfather in his old age.

Ogborne (John), 1725-1795. — Ogborne was
a pupil of Bartolozzi, indefatigable in industry,
successful in his results, thoroughly characteristic
of the period. He was largely employed by
Boydell, and he associated his daughter Mary
with him in some of his later prints. He started
his professional life as a line-engraver, and did
some fairly good plates after Van Dyck and
Lucas de Heere. He also etched and bit his
plates with aquafortis, using the graver after-
wards, but very sparingly, which accounted for
the comparative failure of this series of his
work. He had a shop at one time in Great
Portland Street, and it was here that the best

265

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

part of the colour-printing of the stipple-
engravings, which were, after all, the backbone
of his trade, was done under his personal super-
intendence. I have seen some of his price-lists,
from which it appears that, when he published
an engraving in monochrome and in colour
simultaneously, he charged only double for the
latter. This is very inexplicable to me, though
many of the publishers of the day preserved the
same proportion. It is a proportion in no way
commensurate with the difference in skill and
even in actual labour ; labour, of course, was
cheap at the time, but skill is never a drug in
any market.

Among Ogborne's best-known and most ad-
mired works is the volume of Specimens of Modern
Masters^ dedicated to Lavinia, Countess Spencer,
only the presentation copy of which was printed
in colours ; this being, I understand, still in the
possession of the family. Also I may mention
the following : — a set of " The Seasons," done in
conjunction with Nutter and White ; " Dormant
Love," a charming miniature subject after Kauff-
mann, which has been extensively reproduced ;
" Abelard offering Hymen to Eloisa " and " The
Power of Love," after the same artist ; " The
Guardian Angel," after Cosway (a fat-faced, badly
drawn Cupid in the chalk manner) ; " Sunshine "
and "Storm," "Cottage Breakfast," "Cottage
Supper," and " Rural Misfortune," after Bigg ;
a fascinating little fancy print, " Marchande de
Cupidon," after a drawing by Bartolozzi, from

266

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the antique ; illustrations, after Stothard, of
"Caroline and Lindorf"; "Ballad Monger,"
after Walton ; " Elysium, or Cupid Punished,"
finely printed in colour and published at fifteen
shillings ; " The Village Maids," after Stothard ;
a set of " History," " Music," and " Painting,"
after his own designs (very poor) ; " The Birth
of American Liberty " (a crowded engraving,
well illustrating what should not be printed in
colour) ; " The Venus of Toterdown Hill,"
after Harding ; " The Sad Story," after Westall ;
Mrs. Jordan as " The Country Girl," after
Romney ; " Eleanor Gwynne," after Lely (I
have seen an impression of this print with Barto-
lozzi's name attached to it) ; illustrations to
Cecilia^ 1784; and a very large number of the
Boydell Shakespeare series, for Hamlet, Henry VI.,
and King John.

Ogborne (Mary) did one or two plates, or
signed one or two plates, in which her father is
supposed to have had no hand, but they are of
little importance.

Pariset (D. p.), a French engraver, was
born at Lyons in 1740. He was a pupil of
Demarteau, and he joined Ryland when the
latter first established himself in the Royal
Exchange. Later on he came under the influ-
ence of Bartolozzi, and is one of the group of
engravers whose plates the popular Italian was
supposed to have signed. But in Pariset's case
the accusation would appear to have been un-
founded ; for Pariset had a distinct style and

267

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

personality of his own ; delicate, careful, and
sincere. He proved his own plates in colour,
and he managed his palette with a facility that
never failed. The miniature portraits which he
stippled and printed in colours, after Falconet's
famous series of " Twelve Leading London
Artists," place us under a distinct debt of grati-
tude to him. Sir William Chambers and Sir
Joshua Reynolds were amongst the portrayed
artists, so was Francis Cotes. Others of his por-
traits— "James Paine," " Horatio Walpole, the
fourth Earl of Orford," and many contemporary
celebrities — are much sought after by aspiring
Grangers.

Paye (Richard Morton), about 1778- 1820,
was a chaser on metal, a painter, a poet, and
finally an engraver. We have only " Peter
Pindar's " word for his having been a poet,
for none of his works seem to have been pub-
lished.

Wolcot and Paye were friends, but they
quarrelled, and the venomous tongue of the
unscrupulous satirist was never weary of malign-
ing his sensitive friend. Paye made a feeble
effort at retaliation ; he published a caricature of
the Doctor in a bad imitation of Hogarth's satire
on Churchill ; Wolcot was depicted as a bear
standing before an easel. But after this issue
he discovered himself to be too sensitive, or too
proud, to continue the warfare. He made no
further fight ; he suffered in silence, and unfor-
tunately his work suffered with him. He became

268

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

ill and poor, and the one evil accentuated the
other, until death ended both. To me he is
another of those pathetic shadow-figures of the
eighteenth century ; wanting only a Forster and
a little more talent to prove him a Goldsmith.
J. Young and Valentine Green engraved his
pictures, and he himself engraved " Puss in
Durance," " No Dance, no Supper," and " Dis-
appointment," all of them printed in colour.
Paye left a son who also engraved in stipple.

Phillips (Sam), about 1797, is chiefly remark-
able because he was neither Charles Phillips, the
early mezzotint engraver, nor George Henry
Phillips, the late one, with both of whom he
has at one time or another been confused.
" The Birth of Shakespeare," and " The Birth of
Otway," after Westall," are two of his well-
known colour-prints, as are also " Meditation "
and " Gaiety " after the same artist. " The
Guardian Angel," after Maria Cosway, is another.
He also engraved " Ariadne," " Bacchus," and
" Innocence," after Richard Cosway, and three
of the set of " The Five Senses," after Schiavo-
netti. Perhaps his best stipple-plate is " Taste
in High Life," after Hogarth.

PicoT (Victor Marie), 1 744-1 802, was another
of Ryland's foreign friends who joined him in
England. Picot married Ravenet's daughter, and
was elected a member of the Incorporated Society
of Artists. His son, Louis Victor, was the
popular miniaturist. On the death of his first
wife Victor Marie returned to his native country,

269

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and settled at Abbeville, where he joined his
brother in engraving and exporting prints.

Among his plates in stipple are a number of
female heads w^ith oriental head-dresses, and a
pretty print entitled " Lovers," from his own
design. They are all printed in red. One of
his best-known works is Mrs. Cargill as "Clara,"
in Sheridan's Duenna, after Peters ; it is gener-
ally attributed to Walker, by whom it was pub-
lished. This celebrated actress was drowned in
1784 in the wreck of the Nancy packet, on her
way from India. Her body was found on the
rocks of Scilly, with an infant in her arms.

Picot also engraved the well-known and
much - sought - after print of "The Fencing
Match." This famous match between Chevalier
D'Eon and M. de St. George took place before
the Prince of Wales, several of the nobility, and
many eminent fencing - masters, on the 9th of
April 1787, at Carlton House.

Other colour-prints by Picot are the "Nymphs
Sporting," and " Diana and her Nymphs Bath-
ing," after Zuccarelli.

Pollard (Robert), 1755- 1835. — An artist,
driven into the ranks of the engravers by poverty
and a non-appreciative public. He was a pupil
of the equally unfortunate genius Richard Wilson,
and was the last surviving member of the Incor-
porated Society of Artists. He engraved in
various styles, and occasionally mingled several
on one plate with anything but satisfactory
results. But when he kept to stipple and super-

270

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

intended the colour-printing he was more
successful. Amongst the proofs of his success
are to be found, in addition to those after his
own designs, " Beauty governed by Prudence,
crowned by Virtuous Love," after A. Kauff-
mann ; and " Love " and " Friendship," after
Cosway.

Reading (Burnet), who worked about 1770-
1820, was a Colchester man, and enjoyed the
unique position of being at once riding and
drawing master to Lord Pomfret. He was a
friend of the elder Angelo, and was not too old
to join Harry Angelo in the Wargrave orgies.
His stipple - prints include " Lavinia and her
Mother," after Bigg ; " Charlotte at the Tomb
of Werther," from his own design ; and a large
number of contemporary portraits, both after Fal-
conet and from his own drawing and engraving.
Amongst the best-known are those of "Jeremiah
Meyer," miniature painter to George IIL, the
ubiquitous "David Garrick," "Ozias Humphrey,
R.A.," "George Stubbs," "Francis Hayman,"
and " Paul Sandby." He was never a first-class
engraver, but there is a certain quality about his
portraits that lifts them out of the sphere of
amateurism. They are slight, unimportant, but
generally intelligent and characteristic.

Ryder (Thomas), 1746-18 10, was a super-
excellent stipple - engraver, and employed the
colour-printer almost invariably. He engraved
eight large plates for the Boydell Shakespeare
Gallery, and they arc amongst the best of that

271

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

poor lot. " The Murder of James I., King of
Scotland," after Opie, is one of the worst of his
engravings printed in colour ; " The Hours
Crowning Virtuous Love," a miniature after
Cosway, is one of the best. In fine condition, it
is a perfect little gem, and shows everything
the united arts are capable of producing. The
children's heads in this print are supposed to be
portraits of Colonel Braddyl's family. He also
engraved many of Bunbury's ill-drawn, well-
conceived designs.

Illustrations of" Charlotte and Werther," after
C. R. Ryley ; " The Last Supper," after West ;
" Prudence and Beauty," " Penelope taking down
the Bow of Ulysses," after Kauffmann ; " Lady
Pembroke," after Hogarth ; " A Boy of Glamor-
ganshire," " A Girl of Carmarthenshire," and
" Miss Linley," after Westall, show how well
Ryder varied his style to suit his subjects. He
associated himself with Cosse in " The Genius
of Modesty preventing Love unveiling Beauty,"
after Cipriani, and this proves an exception to
the rule " f union fait la force " ; it is a weak and
unimaginative piece of work, reflecting credit on
none of the three artists concerned in its produc-
tion. The " Visit to the Woman of the Lime
Trees," after Ramberg ; " The Captive," after
Wright ; and " Scenes from the Arabian Nights^"*
after Bunbury, might also be added to the long
list of stipple-prints by Ryder.

ScoRODooMOFF (Gabriel), 1748- 1792, was a
young Russian draughtsman who came over to

272

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

England to learn engraving in Bartolozzi's famous
school. Bryan says he was the first Russian who
obtained a reputation as an engraver. But it was
chiefly in the reflected light of his master that he
seems to have shone. As was the case with all
Bartolozzi's pupils, colour was largely employed
in the issues of his engravings.

His principal plates include " The Parting of
Romeo and Juliet," after West, and a suite of six
pieces for the Boydells, after Angelica Kaufl^-
mann — these are circular prints, neoclassic in
design ; " The Young Circassian," after Peters ;
a large number of Russian portraits, and
"Justice," " Prudence," "Fortitude," and "Tem-
perance," published as " The Four Virtues."
They are none of them epoch-making. He also
engraved " The Duty of a Mother," " Maternal
Instruction," after West ; " Abelard and Eloisa
surprised by Fulbert," and " The Parting of
Abelard and Eloisa," after Kauflrnann ; to all of
which the same remark applies.

Scott (Edmund), 1 746-1810, was one of the
best stipple-engravers of his day, and was amongst
the most original of the many famous pupils of
Bartolozzi. He was engraver to Prince Frederick,
Duke of York, and one of the first of the plates
for which he claimed the entire credit was a
superb one of his patron's brother, the Prince of
Wales. A large plate dedicated " To the Memory
of Captain Richard Price, his daughter, and
others, who perished on board the Halscivcll^
East Indiaman, wrecked near Seacombe, Isle of

273 T

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Purbeck, 1786,*' is an ambitious piece of work
after Stothard. It is, however, coarse, harsh,
and discordant. The size and subject place it
outside the limits of either of the arts employed
in its manufacture, but the subject ensured a
contemporary success far from merited. A
charming little " Cottage Girl," after Braine,
on the other hand, is highly characteristic both
of artist and medium.

" Lingo and Cowslip " (Mr. Edwin and Mrs.
Wells in O'Keeffe's Agreeable Surprise), after
Singleton ; " Palemon and Lavinia " and " The
Children in the Wood," after Stothard, are other
interesting prints. Morland, Russell, Singleton,
Dunthorne, Ramberg, and Lady Diana Beau-
clerk were all glad to supply Edmund Scott
with designs for the colour - prints which he
issued, or to encourage him to engrave plates for
their books. Among desirable prints by E.
Scott may be mentioned " The Age of Bliss,"
after Russell ; " Margaret," " Rosina," and
" Stella," after Dunthorne ; " The Modern
Graces," after Bunbury ; " Tom Jones and
Molly Seagrim," " Tom Jones and Sophia
Western," " Boys Robbing an Orchard," and
" The Angry Farmer," after Morland.

Sherwin (John Keyse), 1751-1790, was the
son of a Sussex carpenter, to which trade he was
originally apprenticed. But his artistic gifts
attracted the attention of one of his father's
customers, and in the result he was sent first to
Astley, and then to Bartolozzi, to learn drawing

274

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

and engraving. His stipple-work does not repre-
sent his talents at all adequately. He went very-
near to WooUett in his line-engravings, and suc-
ceeded that master in his appointment as Engraver
to the King. He is supposed to have largely
assisted Bartolozzi in the famous " Clytie," after
Carracci.

Among his principal works in stipple are Mrs.
Abington as " Roxalana," after Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds ; " A Tale of Love," after Bunbury ;
" Marriage of Lucinda and Fernando," after T.
Stothard, which is another of the rare prints on
which the colour-printer has been allowed to
inscribe his name (" Printed in colour by T. B.
Freeman " is on the margin) ; "Toilet of Venus "
(supposed to be a portrait of Mrs. Robinson),
"Meditation," "The Deserted Village" (this
pair in a mixture of line and stipple), and a little
gem engraved from the antique, representing the
marriage of Cupid and Psyche ; all from his own
design. Also there is a fine portrait of" Mrs.
Hartley " in the character of Andromache, and a
quaint picture of " Mrs. Robinson " seated before
a mirror, wearing a curiously large hat, engraved
in very fine stipple, almost as delicate as the work
of Caroline Watson.

Simon (Pierre), 1750-1810. — Generally called
" Simon the Younger." He executed a number
of the plates for Worlidge's Antique Gcrns^ and
was extensively employed by the Boydells, tor
whose Shakespeare Gallery he did his best work.
Perhaps his finest, certainly his best-known,

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

work in stipple is "Angels' Heads" (Miss
Frances Isabella Ker Gordon), after Sir Joshua
Reynolds, 1789. The original is in the National
Gallery, but the engraving has been so con-
stantly and variously reproduced that one is apt
to forget the charm of the picture in its famil-
iarity. Simon's print of it still commands high
prices.

"The Sleeping Nymph," after Opie, and
" The Credulous Lady and Astrologer," after J.
R. Smith, are popular, and two pleasant com-
positions illustrating " The Adventures of Tom
Jones," after drawings by Downman, deserve
popularity. "The Three Holy Children" is after
Peters ; " Fair Emaline " and " Young Thorn-
hill's First Interview " are both after Stothard.
" Celadon and Celia " and " The Lover's Anger,"
after Wheatley, are prints by Simon which I
have met with in colour — met with and passed by.

Smith (Anker), 1759- 1819; (Benjamin),
1 789-1 83 3. — They were both pupils of Barto-
lozzi. The former was more successful, or at
any rate more largely employed, in line than in
stipple, and engraving for book-illustration was
his great forte. His colour-work is unimportant
and scarcely deserves a passing note. Benjamin
Smith, on the other hand, although he lived
well into the nineteenth century, was an indefatig-
able seeker after colour-effects, and rarely engraved
a plate that did not in one state or another come
into the colour-printer's hands. He engraved
the celebrated " Sigismunda," after Hogarth,

276

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

about which Allan Cunningham and the author
of The Life of Nollekens are so pleasingly anec-
dotal, and also a portrait of " William Hogarth
and his Dog." A very good portrait of George
III., very carefully printed in colour, is charac-
teristic of his skill as an engraver ; and a couple
of prints after Romney, of " Shakespeare nursed
by Tragedy and Comedy " and " The Infant
Shakespeare attended by Nature and the Pas-
sions," testify to his indiscriminate desire for
colour-printing.

SoiRON (F. D.), about 1790. — His fame as a
stipple-engraver rests chiefly on the two prints
after Morland, entitled respectively " A Tea
Garden " and " St. James's Park." Finely printed
in colours, they fetch anything from £100 up-
wards, at which, or indeed at any figure, they
are a very enviable possession. The record price
of >r250 was given for them at Christie's early
in the year 1902. There are a large number of
copies and imitations in the market, and several
" states." The earliest is without borders, the
second with, and in the third there is a certain
amount of landscape added, which turns the
prints into squares. There is also in existence a
horrible French copy. Of all these misfortunes,
for in a portfolio anything but the first two states
is a misfortune, collectors should beware. But,
like the infant with the much-advertised soap,
they " won't be happy " until they get these two
engravings, which as subject-pictures, character-
istic both of period and painter, and as specimens

277

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

of the united arts /« excelsis^ are equally repre-
sentative and charming.

Another interesting engraving of Soiron's is
" The Promenade in St. James's Park," after that
celebrated topographer Dayes, which contains
portraits of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of
York. Some plates, after designs by Bunbury,
show that Soiron was not entirely dependent
upon the skill of the artist for the value of his
engravings, and prove also that he understood
what was necessary for the colour-printer.

Strutt (Joseph), 1749- 1802, is the well-
known author of the Biographical History of
Engravers, the plates of which were executed by
himself ; a valuable volume which at the time
of its appearance was, nevertheless, very severely
criticised by George Steevens.

Strutt also published a large number of other
books illustrated in the same way. The Pilgrim's
Progress, for instance. His next important work
was on The Manners and Customs and Dresses of
the English, the first volume published 1796, and
the second 1799. The last work he completed
was the volume entitled Sports and Pastimes of the
People of England.

Amongst the most interesting of his remains,
however, was a manuscript romance of the
fifteenth century entitled Queen Hoc-Hall, which
Sir Walter Scott finished in 1808. He seems
to have been a good master as well as a capable
executant, for Ogborne, Nutter, and Meadows
were all apprentices to him. So was Ryland's

278

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

eldest legitimate son, but he seems to have taken
but slight advantage of his opportunities.

Joseph Strutt's colour-printed stipple- plates
include " The New Sash," after Russell ; " Caro-
line and Walstein," " Active Love," " Cupid and
Campaspe," " The Power of Innocence " and
" The Innocent Stratagem," " Nurs'd at Home,"
" Nurs'd Abroad," and a number of others after
Stothard, from whose works he engraved con-
tinually. " The Imprudence of Candaules, King
of Lydia," after E. Le Sueur, was admired in its
day.

Vendramini (Giovanni), 1769- 1839. — He
was born at Roncade, near Bassano, Italy, came
to England in 1780, and enrolled himself imme-
diately under the banner of Bartolozzi, becoming
one of the best of his pupils. With a grace and
attractiveness in person and deportment that were
wanting in his master, he became so popular
amongst the patrons of the studio, the print-
sellers, and the public, that when Bartolozzi
retired to Portugal in 1802 Vendramini took
over the business, the clientele, and the house at
Fulham, together with a certain number of
pupils. Three years later, however, either in-
stinctive restlessness, or the falling-off of public
patronage, induced him to make a journey to
Russia, where he immediately found employ-
ment with the Czar. Unfortunately for the
engraver, his efforts met with only too much
appreciation, and when, wearied of the capital,
he sought for permission to leave, his passports

279

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

were refused him, and on his persisting in his
request, he was imprisoned. He ultimately
escaped in disguise, and fled to England. Cured
by this experience of his desire for foreign travel,
he married an English wife, and settled down
finally to work. He was employed by Colnaghi,
and executed five of "The Cries of London,"
after Wheatley. He also engraved " The Power
of Love," after Pellegrini, and many works of the
old masters.

In addition to " The Cries of London," the
following prints by Vendramini are often met
with in colour : " Comedy " and " Tragedy,"
" Love Caressed," "Love Rejected," "Sympathy"
and " Serenity," after Cipriani, and " St. John the
Baptist," after Raphael.

Ward (James), 1769-1859, was a brother of
William Ward, and was apprenticed in the first
instance to J. R. Smith. James painted as well
as engraved, and, considering the period, was
very successful with animal subjects. Stipple-
prints in colour executed by him are occasionally
to be met with, but in 1794 he was appointed
painter and mezzotint engraver to the Prince of
Wales, after which he gave up stipple, and, for
obvious reasons, it is unnecessary to follow his
career here.

Watson (Caroline), 1760- 1 814, was a
daughter of James Watson, the Irish mezzo-
tinter, who was one of James M'Ardell's most
distinguished pupils. Caroline Watson was a
great favourite at Court, and was extensively

280

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

patronised in the early part of the reign of
George III. by the Earl of Bute, who procured
for her the appointment of Engraver to Queen
Charlotte. By the time that the Earl, now
Marquis, of Bute had fallen into disfavour, how-
ever, her own talents and the Queen's conserva-
tism had gained for her a permanent position.
She engraved the homely features of the young
Princesses, after Hoppner, when they were still
children, and lived long enough to delineate their
unfortunate niece, the Princess Charlotte, in the
year of her marriage. The first two had an
extensive sale in colour, and the plates went on
printing long after they were worn out. They
are therefore by no means rare in the later con-
dition, but early impressions are still well worth
buying.

Caroline Watson was one of the most talented
and charming engravers of the day ; in her hands
the art reached its extreme limit. Her finest
stipple-work is as delicate as a miniature paint-
ing ; as soft, and as full of play, as a mezzotint.
She was independent of the colour-printer, and
never employed him on a plate in its early state.
She not only engraved in stipple, but, under her
father's tuition, learned to scrape a mezzotint
plate, and later to work in aquatint, in which
medium, by the way, she produced the set ot
" Female Virtue " and " Female Dissipation,"
after Maria Cosway.

Amongst the best of her stipple-plates, per-
haps, are the " Woronzow Children," and

281

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

" Charles Anderson Pelham (son of Lord Yar-
borough) with his Lady and their Six Children,"
after Cosway. Impressions of this latter print
are very rare ; they are without inscription and
are all engravers' proofs — the plate was either
lost or destroyed, according to Dodd, but with-
drawn by the family, according to information I
have received. The best also include " Robert
Auriol, Earl ofKinnoull," and "The Countess of
Kinnoull," " Viola," " The Goddess of Wisdom,"
and " Mrs. Drummond and her Children," after
Shelley ; " Lady Elizabeth Foster," after Down-
man (one of the Richmond House set) ; The
Honourable Mrs. Stanhope as " Contemplation,"
and " Prince William Frederick " in Vandyck
dress, after Sir Joshua Reynolds ; two of the
Romney heads of Lady Hamilton, and " Miss
Bover," after Hoppner.

Others are " Filial Piety," after Russell ; Mr.
Kemble and Mrs. Siddons as " Tancred and
Sigismunda," after Shirriff. Caroline Watson
also engraved Mrs. Siddons as " The Grecian
Daughter," after R. E. Pine ; " Psyche," and
" Adoration," after Beechey. She was very suc-
cessful also with her portraits of men, amongst
which one might particularise : " Sir Joshua
Reynolds," "Sir Benjamin West," " Ozias
Humphrey," "Dr. Chauncey," "W. Woollett,"
and " Sir James Harris."

With Caroline Watson I bring to an end this
short supplementary list of stipple -engravers.
It is by no means inclusive. Stipple-engraving

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

was a comparatively easy art, and it is not un-
usual to meet a really charming specimen signed
by an unknown name. I myself am the pos-
sessor of a print entitled " Beauty, Love, and
Pleasure," which is an excellent engraving, and
a super- excellent colour- print, but is to all
intents and purposes an anonymous work. And
as there are many examples of authors who have
produced but one book whereon their fame can
rest, so in the same way there are several stipple-
engravers whose names are only familiar to us by
one or two prints of value and interest. The
following are a few such instances, and I have no
doubt the list could be added to considerably : —

Adam (T.) — " Friendship," after Van Assen.

Baldrey (J.) — "Evelina," "Cecilia," after
Hoppner.

Birch (W.) — Mrs. Robinson as " Contempla-
tion," after Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Clarke (J.) — " Silence," " Guardian Angels,"
after Bartolozzi.

Cooper (R.) — "Mrs. Russell Manners," after
Stoehling ; " Love Wounded," " Love Healed,"
after Shelley.

Fogg (A.)—" The Blackberry Gatherer,"
"The Cowslip Gatherer," after Hamilton.

Jenkins (D.) — " A Nymph Feeding Swans,"
after Angelica Kauffmann.

Legoux (Louis). — " Bacchante," after Dovvn-
mann ; " Natural Philosophy" and "Navigation."

Martin (E.)—" The Tender Mother," a set
of six.

283

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Michel (J. B.) — "Peasants with Fruit and
Flowers," after Peters.

Nugent (T.)— " Mrs. Sheridan and Child,"
after Hoppner.

Orme (D.)— "The Royal Rose," "The Glass
of Pleasure."

Prattent (T.) — "Discipline," "Puss in
Favour," after Morland.

Sailliar (L.) — " Prince of Wales," " Duke
of Clarence," and a set after Cosway.

Sedgwick (W.) — " Brotherly Affection," after
Angelica Kauffmann.

Spilsbury (J.)— "The Flower Girl," after
Angelica Kauffmann.

Vincent (F.) — " Christ's Hospital," after J.
Cristall.

Williams (E.) — " Lindamira."

Being fully conscious how much further the
whole subject could have been carried, I am
anxious to add a few words of advice to any
amateur who, having read this book, may dis-
cover a desire to join the ranks of the collectors.
Two sentences contain the pith of what I would
say.

If you want to furnish your walls or your port-
folios with eighteenth-century prints^ and have little
or no practical experience^ frequent the establishment
of an honest dealer, and use it as a hot- house in which
to grow your taste. Do not grudge the money to keep
the f re burning.

It is quite possible that any one who takes

284

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

this advice, in its entirety, will buy, in the first
instance, according to the wishes of the dealer.
But, as he gains experience, and the dealer
realises him as a regular customer, he will find
himself accommodated in a thousand ways that
he would otherwise miss.

The honest and intelligent print-seller, and
there are such people, will take back or ex-
change, will search for pendants, will draw
attention to sales, will assist in the hanging and
framing, will, as soon as a genuine appreciation
is defined, often go out of his way to gratify it.

An aspiring collector should realise that the
days of " wonderful bargains " are over, or, if
such are still to be had, they do not come in the
way of the inexperienced. A really fine stipple-
print in colour, by a good engraver, after a well-
known artist, cannot be paid for too highly ;
should he haggle when such is ofifered to him,
the next chance that occurs will be given to a
more generous client. There is only a limited
number of really fine things in the market, and
there is practically an unlimited demand.

It may further be as well incidentally to point
out that to sit for hours looking at a hundred-
pound note is an entertainment that will soon
pall. But the pleasure of gazing at a really fine
print is practically everlasting.

As a precautionary measure, — for the above
reads, perhaps, as if I advocate indiscriminate
buying, — I should further add ; when in doubt, —
wait. A print may be looked at, and left. If it is

285

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

the right thing and taste is sprouting, it will be
found to be a haunting thing, and desire will grow
ever more desperate. There is no real danger in
the delay, for the dealer, if he understands and
values his customer, and knows he is offering him
a treasure, will keep it for him, or even let him
have it home on approval. If, on the other
hand, the doubt be based on good grounds, and
the print have serious flaw, such flaw will grow
in consequence, and the hesitation be justified,
and will but raise the would-be purchaser in the
estimation of the dealer, to his ultimate benefit.

But it is wonderful how soon doubt and
hesitation disappear when once the fascinating
game of print-collecting is duly learned.

If, however, instead of taking the foregoing
hints, the would-be collector, even, with this
book, and a natural instinct, to guide him, pre-
fers to learn to play it in his own way, and,
having the vanity of ignorance, wanders from
shop to shop, and from saleroom to saleroom ;
he will be in the position of the man who buys
his knowledge of cards from sharpers. Every
man's hand will be against him, and he will find
himself in the unenviable position of " pigeon."
A possible occasional bargain, or win, will be
balanced by a variety of losses, by the acquisition
of a vast amount of rubbish, and by numberless
deceptions and overcharges. An aspiring buyer
must be educated to his requirements. And for
such an education a master, or trustworthy guide,
is essential.

286

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Two or three other suggestions may perhaps
be found worthy of consideration. The question
of " states " is a very debatable one, and not, I
think, quite so important as it is usually con-
sidered. As I am nearing the end of my space
and have already said something of this matter,
I will summarise my views briefly.

If the collection is to be for the portfolio ;
" state " is of importance, " margin " is of im- ^
portance, " publication line," " title," everything, j
is of importance. But if the collection is to be !
for the walls, margins and all the rest of it sink
into insignificance, and their consideration may |
be absolutely discarded. For the walls, once j
the subject has been approved, nothing but brilli- '
ancy of impression need be considered at all.
And, in brilliancy of impression, I have seen a
third, or print state, almost equal to a so-called
" proof." There is no decoration nor beauty
in a margin, and the money value put upon
it by the dealers is chiefly a sentimental one.
As a matter of fact, the large majority of colour-
prints look better cut, and framed close. In this
way they hold their own with water-colours of
the same period, and can safely be hung together
with them.

Another point to which it is perhaps as well
to draw attention is the value of variety, if the
collection be for decorative purposes ; and the
value of uniformity, if it be for the portfolio.
That is to say, if buying for the walls, colours
or monochromes, stipple or mezzotint, beautiful

287

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

women, illustrious men, children, fancy-subjects,
can be bought promiscuously. If buying for
the portfolio, greater interest will be found in
specialising, and grouping the collection under
subjects, engravers, or painters.

A word about framing and I have done.

Old prints should never be put in elaborately
decorated modern frames. The simplest Adams
mouldings should be used for all engravings of
this period, either in black and gold, or in gold ;
there are two or three of these mouldings being
constantly repeated, which are both inexpensive
and effective.

The closer together the prints are hung, the
better will be the general effect.

And now, before I say my reluctant " Adieu "
to my readers, I want to repeat the plea of my
preface. The subject of colour-printing and its
connection with stipple-engraving needed for its
proper elucidation an historian with a critical
mind ; and it has fallen into the hands of a mere
collector with a taste for romance. Thus it is
that certain stories have been told at too great
length, certain facts, dates, and details have been
dismissed with too little comment. I am fully
conscious of all the shortcomings of the book,
my severest critic cannot be more so.

But in mitigation of judgment I want to plead
that, ever since I have been a collector, I have
been waiting for that historian to arise ; and he
has not arisen. I have been waiting for that
authoritative dictum ; and no word has been

288

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

spoken. So, out of the fullness of my desul-
tory portfolios, my pen has written. I took
up that pen with a great reluctance, but I lay
it down with a far greater regret. In the
years it has taken me to write the book, I have
learnt more than I can hope to teach. Not,
perhaps, about colour-printing, and stipple -
engravings, but about the large generosity of
my fellow men and women, the collectors who
have been eager to help me with the loan of
valuable prints, the dealers who have placed
their experience and their expert knowledge at
my command. It was the loyal and untiring
assistance from my many friends that gave me
the encouragement with which to start the
work, and the confidence with which to finish
it. It is no affectation of modesty to doubt
my worthiness of such support.

289 u

INDEX OF STIPPLE-ENGRAVERS

Adam, T., 283

Agar, John Samuel, 249

Austin, William, 189

Baillie, (Capt.) William, 250

Baldrey, John, 283

Bartoli, 195

Bartolini, 207

Bartolinii, 238

Bartolotti, 240

Bartoiozzi, Francesco, ix, xii, 23, 64,
92, no, 119, 124-128, 135, 137-146,
157-168, 174, 181, 189, 191, 204,
205, 210, 211, 2i8, 224-226, 249-
256, 264, 267, 273, 274, 275, 276,
279

Bartoiozzi, Gaetano, 158, 161

Benedetti, Michele, 161, 250, 251

Bettelini, Pietro, 251

Birch, William, 283

Blake, William, 216, 252, 257

Bond, William, 212, 252, 253

Bonnet, Louis Martin, 22, 23, 113

Bovi, Mariano, 232, 249, 253

Brown, Mather, ix

Burke, Thomas, xii, 169-174, 195, 226

Campagnola, Giulio, 3, 12-22, 60

Cardon, Antoine, 254

Checsman, Thomas, 174, 175, 249, 259

Clarke, John, 283

Collyer, Joseph, xii, 175-184

Condi, John, 185, 186

Cooper, Robert, 283

Coui, 272

Debucourt, Philibert Louis, 97, 114
Delatre, Jean Marie, 232, 255
Dcmarteau, Gilles, 22, 113, 267
Dickinson, William, 154, 173, 187-190,
200, 205, 212, 240, 241, 262

Dumee, E
Duterreau,

±

, 256

2;6

Earlom, Richard, 257
Eginton, John, 257

Facius, George Sigismund, 258-259

Facius, Johann Gottlieb, 258

Fogg, A., 283

Francois, Jean Charles, 22, ni, H2,

113, 120
Freeman, Samuel, 259

Gaugain, Thomas, xii, 190-195
Gaugain, Peter, 192
Gillray, James, ix, 183, 236
Giuseppe dall' Aqua, 207
Graham, G., 260
Grozer, Joseph, 260

Haward, Francis, 261
Hellyer, Thomas, 193
Hogg, James, 195-197

Jenkins, D., 283

Jones, John, xii, 198-204, 262

Josi, C, 261

Keating, G., 262
Kirk, T., 255

Knight, Charles, 154, i8i, 188, 204-
209

Legoux, Louis, 283

Leoni, Ottavio, 3, 22, 23

Levilly, J. P., 226, 257

Lewis, Frederick Christian, 22, 263

Lutma, Jan, 1 1 1

Macklin, Thomas, 170
Maile, G., 252

291

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Marcuard, Robert Samuel, 209-211
Martin, 283

Meadows, Robert Mitchell, 263-264,278
Meyer, Henry, 264
Michel, Jean Baptiste, 284
Minasi, James Anthony, 119, 127, 146,
161, 253, 264-265

Nugent, Thomas, 284

Nutter, William, 206, 21 1-2 15, 266,

278

Ogborne, John, 213, 265-266, 278
Ogborne, Mary, 265, 267
Orme, D., 284

Pariset, D. P., 267-268
Paye, R. M., 268-269
Phillips, Samuel, 269
Picot, Victor Marie, 269-270
Pollard, Robert, 270-271
Pond, Arthur, 71, 98, 112
Prattent, T., 284

Reading, Burnet, 271

Rowlandson, Thomas, ix, 183

Ryder, Thomas, 271-272

Ryland, William Wynne, xii, 99, 110,

112-136, 144, 157, 161, 190, 255,

267, 269, 278

Sailliar, Louis, 284
Schiavonetti, Luigi, 21 5-2 18, 269
Schiavonetti, Niccolo, 215
ScorodoomofF, Gabriel, 272-273

Scott, Edmund, 273-274

Sedgwick, W., 284

Sherwin, John Keyse, 186, 274-275

Simon, Pierre, 275-276

Sloane, Michael, 217

Smith, Anker, 276

Smith, Benjamin, 276-277

Smith, John Raphael, xiv, 195, 205,

209, 212, 219-222, 226, 236, 245,

256, 261, 263, 276, 280
Soiron, F. D., 192, 277-278
" Speculatie, Johannes." See Teyler
Spilsbury, John, 284
Stadler, Joseph Constantine, 263
Strutt, Joseph, 116, 278-279

Teyler, Johannes, "Speculatie," 3, 12,

54, 59-68, loi, 113, 151
Thew, Robert, 222, 223
Tomkins, Peltro William, xii, 224-233,

256
Turner, Charles, 234-236

Vendramini, Giovanni, 279-280
Vincent, F., 284

Ward, James, 280

Ward, William, 220, 236-240, 260, 280

Watson, Caroline, 226, 244, 275, 280-

282
Watson, Thomas, 189, 240-244
White, Charles, 213, 244-245, 266
Wilkin, Charles, 246-248
Williams, E,, 284
Williamson, Thomas, 259

392

INDEX OF TITLES

(STIPPLE-ENGRAVERS)

Abelard and Eloisa surprised by Fulbert

[Kauffmann — Scorodoomoff), 273
Abelard and Heloisa. See Mr, and Mrs.

Cosway
Abelard offering Hymen to Eloisa {Kauff-

mann — Ogborne), 266
Abington, Mrs. {Cosway — Bartoloxzi),

167
Abington, Mrs., as " Roxalana " {Rey-
nolds— Sher^win), 275
Abra {Kauffmann — Burke), 170
Active Love {Stoihard — Strutt), 279
Adelaide {Cheeiman), 174
Adelaide {^Hamilton — Eginton), 258
Adelaide {fVheatley — Hogg), 195
Adelaide and Penrose {Hamilton — Mar-

cuard), 210
Adoration {Reni — Benedetti), 251
Adoration {Beechey — C fVatson), 282
Affection {Conyers — Tomkim), 227
Affection and Innocence {Bartolozzi —

Tomiint), 226
Affectionate Daughter, The {fVAeatlty —

Eginton), 258
Agatha [J. R. Smith — Dumie), 256
Age of Bliss, The {Rusull— Scott), 274
Age of Innocence, The {Reynolds —

Groaer), 260
Ale-House Door, The {Singleton — Nutter),

Alexander resigning hii mistress Cam-
paspe to Apelles {Kauffmann — Burke),
170

Alinda {fV. fVard), 238

A Loisir {y. R. Smith), 220, 238

Alope. See Lady Hamilton

Amelia, Princess {La-wrence — Bartoloxizi),
167

Amelia, Princess {Ramberg — fV. ff^ard),
238

Amyntor and Theodora {Stothard — Tom-
kins), 227

An Airing in Hyde Park {Dayes — Gau-
gain), 192

Andover, Jane Elizabeth (Coke), Vis-
countess {Hoppner — JVilkin), 247

Andromache weeping over the Ashes of
Hector {Kauffmann — Dickinson), 189

Andromache. See Mrs. Hartley

An Evening Walk {J. R. Smith), 220

Angelica and Medora {TVest — Facius),
258

Angelica and Sacriponte {Kauffmann —
Burke), 171

Angels' Heads. See Miss F. I. Ker
Gordon

Angry (The) Bov and Tired Dog {Mcr-
land — Graham), 260

Angry Farmer, The {Morland — Scott),

274

Annette and Lubin {J. R. Smith — ff.
fVard), 239

Annette and Lubin {E, Crewe — fVhite),
244

Apotheosis (The) of Princess Amelia
{Byam — Minasi), 265

Ariadne {Cosway — Phillips), 269

Ariadne abandoned by Theseus {Kauff-
mann— Facius), 258

Arthur and Emmcline {Ansell — Tomkir.s),
226

Arts (The) and Sciences {Cipriani — Bovi),

Ashburton, Elizabeth (Baring), Lady

{Dott/nman — Barlolooi'zi), \(ij
Astartc and Zadig {Hone — Haiuard), 261

»9i

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Attention {Smith — Meadows), 263
Augusta Sophia, Princess {Ramberg —

JVard), 238
Autumn {fV heat ley — Bartolomict), 167

Bacchante {Bartoloxzi — Cardon), 254
Bacchante {Dcnvnman — Legoux), 283
Bacchante. Sec Mrs. Hartley
Bacchante, A. See Lady Hamilton
Bacchus {Cosway — Phillips), 269
"Ball" (C. Turner), 235
Ballad Monger {fValton — Ogborne), 267
Ballad Singer, The {Singleton — Eginton),

258
Ballad Singers {Crewe — White), 244
Banks, (Sir) Joseph {Russell — Colly er), 177
Banks, Lady {Russell — Colly er), 177
Barker, Miss {Cosrway — Bovi), 254
Bartolozzi, Francesco {Reynolds — Mar-

cuard), 211
Bateman, Mrs. {Guttenhrunn — Bovi), 254
Bathers Surprised, The {Bartoloxzi —

Marcuard), 210
Bathurst, Georgina, Countess {Lawrence

— Bartolo-zzi), 167
Bayham, Lady {Reynolds — Schiazmnetti),

216
Beatrice {fVestall — Cheesman), 175
Beatrice {Harding — Marcuard), 210
Beauchamp, Lady {Reynolds — Nutter),

214
Beauclerk, (Miss) Elizabeth, as " Una "

{Reynolds — T. Watson), 243
Beauclerk, Topham, xvi
Beauty directed by Prudence, rejects with

scorn the Solicitations of Folly {Kauff-

mann — Delatre), 255
Beauty governed by Prudence, crowned

by Virtuous Love {Kauffmann — Pol-
lard), 271
Beauty, Love, and Pleasure {Anon^, 283
Beckford (Mr.) Horace (Lord Rivers)

[Cosnvay — Condi), 187
Belemire, The Count de {Rigaud —

ffogg)^ 195

Belissa {J. R. Smith), 220

Benevolent Lady, The {Morland —
Dumie), 256

Betty, Master, xvi

Billiards {Bunbury — Dickinson), 188

Billington, lAn.{De Koster — Burke), 171

Billington, Mrs., as " St. Cecilia " {Rey-
nolds— Cardon), 254

Bingham, Miss {Reynolds — Bartoloxzi),
167

Biography {Crewe — White), 244

Bird Catcher, The {Barney — Gaugain),

.'93
Birth of American Liberty {Harding —

Ogborne), 267
Birth of Otway, The {Westall—Phillifs),

269
Birth of Shakespeare, The {Kauffmann —

Bartolozzt), 167
Birth of Shakespeare, The {Westall —

Phillips), 269
Birth of the Thames {Cosway — Tomkins),

227
Birthday (A) Present to Old Nurse {Bigg

— Gaugain), 194
Black, Brown, and Fair {J. R. Smith),

220
Blackberry Gatherer, The {Hamilton —

Fogg), 283
Bligh, Mrs. {Cosway — Conde), 1 87
Blind Man's BufF {Hamilton — Knight),

207
Blind Man's Buff {Kauffmann — Tomkins),

227
Bloomfield, Miss {Buck — Cheesman), 174
Bouverie, Mrs. {Cosway — Cond/), 187
Bover, Miss {Hoppner — C. Watson), 282
Bowles, Miss {Reynolds — Turner), 235
Boy mending Net {Westall — Gaugain),

194
Boy of Glamorganshire, A {Westall —

Ryder), 272
Boyd, Lucy {Downman — Tomkins), 227
Boys robbing an Orchard {Morland —

Scott), 274
Breaking up {Hamilton — Nutter), 213
British Plenty {Singleton — Knight), 206
Brooke, Mrs. {Read — Bo^i), 254
Brotherly Affection {Kauffmann — Sedg-

•wici), 284
Bryam, Mrs., and her Children {Shelley —

Nutter), 213
Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of

{f^an Dyck—Baillie), 250
Buffet the Bear {Stothard — Knight), 206
Bulkeley, Elizabeth Harriet (Warren),

Viscountess {Cosivay — Bartolozzi), 167
Burghersh, John, Lord {Reynolds — Barto-
lozzi), 167
Burke, Edmund {Reynolds — Benedetti),

251

Cagliostro {Bartolozzi — Marcuard), 210

Cakes {Artaud — Gaugain), 194

Calais — The Snuff Box {Kauffmann —

Delatre), 256
Calisto {Stothard — Blake), 252

294

INDEX OF TITLES

Camilla Fainting {Singleton — Keating),

263
Camilla Recovering {Singleton — Keating),

263
Camp Scene, A {Bunbury — fVhite), 245
Campbell, Lady Charlotte {Hoppner —

JVilkin), 247
Captive, The {JVright— Ryder), 272
Cargill, Mrs., as " Clara " {Peters —

Picot), 270
Caroline, Princess of Wales {Cosway —

Schiavonettt), 216
Caroline, Princess of Wales, with the

infant Princess Charlotte {Russell —

Colly er), 176
Caroline and Lindorf {Stothard — Ogborne),

267
Caroline and Walstein {Stothard —

Strutt), 279
Castle in Danger, The {Hamilton —

Gaugain), 194
Catalani, Madame {Pope — Cardan), 254
Catalani, Madame {Buck — Freeman), 259
Catherine of France presented to Henry

V. of England at the Treaty of Troyes

{Stothard — Cordon), 254
Cawdor, Caroline (Howard), Lady {Ed-
ridge — Schiavonetti), 216
Cecilia {Hoppner — Baldrey), 283
Cecilia {Stothard — Ogborne), 267
Cecilia overheard by Young Delville

{Stothard — Nutter), 213
Celadon and Celia {fVheatley — Simon),

276
Celestina {Stothard — Delatre), 255
Chambers, Sir William {Falconet —

Pari set), 268
Chanters, The {Peters — y. R. Smith),

221
Charlotte, Princess of Wales (C. fVatson),

281
Charlotte and Werther {Ryley — Ryder),

272
Charlotte and Werther {Bunbury —

tVhite), 245
Charlotte at the Tomb of Werther

{Saunders — Marcuard), 210
Charlotte at the Tomb of Werther {B.

Reading), 271
Charlotte Augusta, Princess {Romberg —

fy. fVard), 238
Chauncey, Charles, M.D. {Cotes — C.

fVatson), 282
Cherry Girl, The {Crewe— IVhite), 244
Child First Going Alone, The {Singleton

— Bentdetti), 251

Child Restored, The {Singleton —

Meadows), 264
Childhood {Hoare — Gaugain), 193
Childish Impatience {Cosway — Gaugain),

193
Children feeding Chickens {Russell —

Tomkins), 226
Children feeding Goats {Morland —

Tomkins), 226
Children in the Wood {Stothard — Collyer),

176
Children in the Wood, The {Tomkins —

Delatre), 256
Children in the Wood, The {Stothard —

Scott), 274
Children playing with a Mouse {Hamilton

— Delatre), 256
Children relieving a Beggar Boy

(Children of Sir Francis Ford)

{Beechey — fFilkin), 247
Children with Bird {Hamilton —

Marcuard), 210
Children with Mouse Trap {Hamilton —

Marcuard), 210
Child's Dressing, The {Singleton —

BeneJetti), 251
Choice, The (Af. fP'ard), 238
Chop House, The {Bunbury — Dickinson),

188
Christ's Hospital {Cristall — Vincent), 284
Chryseis restored to her Father {Cipriani

— BartoloQszi), 168
Cipriani, Giovanni Baptista [Rigaud —

Ear lorn), 257
Clara. See Mrs. Cargill
Clarence, William, Duke of {Cosway —

Sailliar), 284
Clarke, Mrs., xvi
Cleopatra throwing herself at the feet of

Augustus {Kauffmann — Burke), 1 70
Cockburn (Lady) and her Children,

" Cornelia and her Children " {Reynolds

—fVilkin), 246
Cockerell, Harriet (Rushout), Lady, as

a Lady in the character of a Gipsy

{Costvay — Agar), 250
Collina. See Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick
Comedy {Cipriani — Vendramini), 2 80
Comic and Tragic Muse {Kauffmann —

Delatre), 256
Comic Readings {Bcyne — Knight), 207
Coming from School {Stothard — Knight),

206
Conjugal Affection {Smirke — The^v), 222
Conjugal Love {Kauffmann — Burke), 17 I
Constancy {Morland— JV. fVard), 239

295

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Contemplating the Picture (y. R. Smith),

Z20

Contemplation (Crewe — fVhite), 244
Contemplation. See Mrs. Robinson
Contemplation. See The Honourable

Mrs. Stanhope
Content {Cheetman), 174
Contentment {Cipriani — Bartolozzi), 165
Contentment and Innocence [Kauffmarm

— Burke), 170
Cora. See Mrs. Young
Coram, Captain {Hogarth — Nutter), 212
Cordelia {Kauffmann — Bartolozxt), 167
Cornelia. See Mrs. Ruspina
Cornelia and her Children. See Lady

Cockburn
Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi {Kauff"-

mann — Bartolozzi), 167
Cosway, Louisa Paolina Angelica {Cosway

— Car don), 254
Cosway, Maria Cecilia Louisa {Cosway —

Sch'tavonettt), 2 16
Cosway, Maria Cecilia Louisa, as "A

Milkmaid " {Cosway — Hogg), 195
Cosway, Mr. and Mrs., as " Abelard and

Heloisa " {Cosway — Tkew), 222
Cosway, Richard {Cosway — Bovi), 254
Cotes, Francis {Falconet — Pariset), 268
Cottage Breakfast {Bigg — Ogborne), 266
Cottage Children {Russell — fVhite), 245
Cottage Girl {Braine — Scott), 274
Cottage Girl Gathering Nuts {Bigg —

Tomiins), 226
Cottage Girl shelling Peas {Bigg —

Tomkins), 226
Cottage Supper {Bigg — Ogborne), 266
Cottager, The {A Lady — Tomkins), 227
Country Girl, The. See Miss Horneck.

See Mrs. Jordan
Country Scnoolmistress, The {Saunders

Duterreau), z^j
Courtship {Milbourne — Gaugain), 193
Cowper, William {Laxurence — Blake),

252
Cowslip Gatherer, The {Hamilton —

Fogg), 283
Credulous (The) Lady and Astrologer

{y. R. Smith — Simon), 276
Crewe, Mrs. {Gardner — T. IFatson), 241
Cries of London, 157, 255, 280
Crouch, Mrs., xvi

Crouch, Mrs. {Romney — Bartoloaxsi), 167
Cumberland, Mrs. Elizabeth {Lady E.

Bentinck — Tomkins), 228
Cupid {Bartolomxi — Burke), 17 1
Cupid {Reinagle — Burke), iji

Cupid {Cipriani — Earlom), 257

Cupid and Aglaie {Kauffmann — Ryland),
136

Cupid and Campaspe {Stothard — Strutt),
279

Cupid and Cephisa {Kauffmann — Burke),
170

Cupid and Ganymede {Kauffmann —
Burke), 170

Cupid binding Aglaia {Kauffmann —
Burke), 170

Cupid crowning the Arts {Ha%uard), 261

Cupid Disarmed {Benwell — Knight), 206

Cupid disarmed by Euphrosine {Kauff-
mann— Burke), 170

Cupid making his Bow {Correggio —
Bartolozzi), 167

Cupid Sleeping {fVestall — Nutter), 213

Cupid unveiling Venus {Cosway — Car-
don), 255

Cupid's Pastime {Kauffmann — Facius),
258

Cupid's Revenge {Benvtell — Knight), 107

Cymon and Iphigenia {Reynolds —
Howard), 261

Cymon and Iphigenia {Kauffmann —
Ryland), 136

Darner, Mrs. {Cosway — Schia-vonetti), 216
Damon and Delia {Kauffmann — Barto-

loxzi), 167
Damon and Musidora {Kauffmann —

Bartoloxzi), 167
Damon and Musidora {Kauffmann —

Knight), 207
Damon and Phoebe {Harding — Delatre),

255
Danae {Titian — Facius), 259
Dancing Dogs {Morland — Gaugain), 192
Delia in the Country {Morland — j. R.

Smith), 220
Delia in Town {Morland— J. R. Smith),

220
D'Eon, Chevali^re, as Minerva {Conde'),

185
Deserted Village, The {Shenvin), 275
Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of, xvi
Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of

{Do^vnman — Bartolozzi), 165
Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of

{Nixon — Bartolozzi), 168
Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of {T.

fVatson), 241
Devonshire (The Duchess of) and Lady

Duncannon {Kauffmann — Dickinson),

173. ^H

296

INDEX OF TITLES

Diana (Hamilton — Facius), 259

Diana and Nymphs Bathing [Pernotln —

Bartolojixi), 165
Diana and her Nymphs {Gaugain), 1 94
Diana and her Nymphs Bathing \Zucca-

relit — Picot), 270
Dido invoking the Gods before mount-
ing the Funeral Pile (Kauffmann —

Delatre), 255
Diligence and Dissipation {ff^estall —

Gaugain), 193
Disappointment (Paye), 269
Discipline (Prattent), 284
Discovery, The {Morland — Dumie), 256
Donegal (Marchioness of) Mrs. and Miss

May and the Earl of Belfast {Mas-

querier — Cordon), 254
Dormant Love {Kauffmann — Oghorne),

266
Dormio Innocuus {Kauffmann — Ryland),

136
Dove, The {Bennett — JVhite), 245
Drummond (Mrs.) and her Children

{Shelley— C. JVatson), 282
Du Barry, Madame {Convoy — Conde),iSj
Duchess of C . . . delivered from the

Cavern {Rigoud — Bettelini), 252
DufF, Mrs., xvi

Duff, Mrs. {Convoy — -^gar), 249
Duncan, Miss, as " Letitia Harding"

{Barber — Cordon), 255
Duncannon, Lady. See Duchess of

Devonshire
Dunce Disgraced, The {Stothard —

Knight), 206
Duncombc, Lady Charlotte {Hoppner —

H^ilkin), 247
Dundas, Lady Jane {Hopfmer — Barto-

lo^au), 168
Dungarvan (Edmund Boyle, Viscount)

and the Honourable Courtenay and

Charles Boyle {Cotv>ay — yones), 200
Duty {Conyers — Tomkins), 227
Duty of a Mother, The {H^ett—Scoro-

doomoff), 273

Edwin, Mr. See "Lingo and Cowslip "
Edwin and Angelina (Fi<»jf»i<w — Mar-

cuard), 210
Eleanora and Edward I. {Kauffmann —

Ryland), 136
Elfrida'i Vow {Stothard — Marcuard), 210
Elizabeth, Princess {Romberg — ff^.

fTord), 238
Elysium, or Cupid Punished {Stothard —

Ogborne), 267

Emma. See Lady Hamilton

English Dressing-Room, The {Ansel! —

Tomkins), 226
English Fireside, The {Ansell— Tomkins),

226
English Fruit -Girl, An {Northcote —

Gaugain), 194
English Milk -Girl, An {Northcote —

Gaugain), 194
Enraptured Youth, The {Peters — JVhite),

244
Epponina {West — fVilkin), 247
Erminia {Cheesman), 175
Erminia {Kauffmann — Hogg), 195
Erminia {Rcmney — jfones), 199
Ethelinda and the Knight {Stothard —

Meadcnvs), 263
Ethelinda restored to her Father {Sto-
thard— Meadows), 263
'EMX'<jXK.t. {Kauffmann — Bortolouszi), 167
Euston, Charlotte Maria (Waldegrave),

Countess of {Hoppner — ff^ilkin), 247
Evelina {Hcppner — Baldrey), 283
Evening {Hamilton — Tomkins), 231
Evening Amusement {fVatteau — Blake),

252
Expiation of Orestes, The {fVestall —

Bond), 253

Fair Emmeline {Stothard — Simon), 276
Fair Seducer, The {Morland — Dumie),Z 56
Fairings, The {fVheatley — Eginton), 258
Family (The) of the Duke of Marl-
borough {Shelley — Bartolo^xi), 167
Fancy {Artaud — Duterreau), 257
Farm- Yard, The {Singleton — Nutter),iii
Farmer's Door, The {Morland — Duter-
reau), 257
Farmer's (The) Visit to his Daughter
in Town {Morland — Bond), 212,

253
Farren, Elizabeth (Countess of Derby)

{Dovmman — Collyer), 176, 180
Farren, Elizabeth (Countess of Derby)

{Lawrence — Knight), 167, 181, 205
Farren (Elizabeth) and Thomas King

{Dcnvnman — yones), 200
Father's Delight {Derby — Meyer), 264
Favourite Rabbit, The {Russell — Knight),

206
Feeding Chickens {Stothard — Knight),

206
Felina. See Offie Palmer
Fencing Match, The {Rcbineau — Picci),

270
Ferdinand IV. of Italy {Minasi), 265

297

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Ferncutter's Child, A {H^estall —

Meadows), 263
Fidelity {Gardner — Pf^hite), 245
Fifth of November, The {Stotkard —

Knight), 206
Filial Piety [Wheatley—Egtnton), 258
Filial Piety {Russell— C. IVatson), 282
Finery {Artaud — Gaugain), 194
First Bite, The {Stothard— Nutter), 213
First Pledge of Love, The {Morland—

fFard), 237
Fitzherbert, Mrs. {Russell — Collyer), ij6
Fitzherbert, Mrs. {Cosway — Conde), 186
Fitzpatrick, Lady Anne, " Sylvia " {Rey-
nolds— yones), 199
Fitzpatrick, Lady Gertrude, " CoUina "

{Reynolds — yones), 199
Fitzpatrick, Lady Gertrude (C. fTtliin),

247
Five Senses, The {Sciia-vcnetti —

Phillips), 269
Flirtilla {J. R. Smith), 220
Flora {Stothard — Knight), 207
Flora {Kauffmann — Tomkins), 227
Flora and Ceres {Cosnvay — Cardon), 254
Flora and Zephyr {Hamilton — Hatvard),

261
Flower Girl, The {Kauffmann — Spils-

bury), 284
Flower Girl, The {Princess Elizabeth—

Tomkins), 226
Fonrose and Adelaide {Hamilton — Mar-

cuard), 210
YortituAt {Kauffmann — Scorodoomoff), 273
Fortitude of Sir T. More {Hamilton —

Meadvws), 263
Fortune {Cipriani — Bartolozzi), 168
Fortune Tellers, The. See Lord Henry

and Lady Charlotte Spencer
Foster, Lady Elizabeth (Duchess of

Devonshire) {Reynolds — Bartolo%%i),

»S9. 165
Foster, Lady Elizabeth (Duchess of

Devonshire) {Downman — C. Watson),

282
Four Seasons, The {Buck — Freeman),

Four Virtues, The {Kauffmann — Scoro-
doomiff), 273

French Dressing-Room, The {Ansell —
Tomkins), 226

French Fireside, The {Ansell — Tomkins),
226

Friar Philip's Geese {Bunbury — T. Wat-
son), 241

Friendship {Van Assen — Adam), 283

Friendship {Cipriani — Bartolozzi), 165
Friendship {Kauffmann — Marcuard), 210
Friendship (Cosway — Pollard), 271

Gaiety {Westall— Phillips), 269

Gardens of Carlton House with Nea-
politan Ballad Singers {Bunbury —
Knight), 1 88, 205

Garrick, David {Falconet — Reading), 27 I

Gathering Fruit {Morland — Meadows),
263

Gathering Wood {Morland — Meadows),
263

Genius of Modesty preventing Love un-
veiling Beauty {Cipriani — Ryder and
Cosse), 272

Genius with Sickle and Sheaf {Cipriani
— Delatre), 256

George, Prince of Wales {Cosway —
Burke), 171

George, Prince of Wales {Russell —
Collyer), 176

George, Prince of Wales {Cosway —
Sailliar), 284

George, Prince of Wales {Scott), 273

George IIL {B. Smith), 277

Ghost, The (" L'Apparition ") {Westall
— Schiavonetti), 218

Gibbs, Mrs. {Cheesman), 175

Gipsies stealing a Child {Singleton —
Meadovfs), 264

Girl gathering Mushrooms, A {Westall
— Meadoivs), 263

Girl of Carmarthenshire, A {Westall —
Ryder), 272

Girl of Modena, The {Bunbury — Tom-
kins), 227

Girl of the Forest of Snowdon, The {Bun-
bury— Tomkins), 227

Girl returning from Milking, A {Wes-
tall— Gaugain), 193

Glass of Pleasure, The {Orme), 284

Gloucester, William Frederick, Duke of
{Romney — Jones), 199

Goddess of Wisdom, The {Shelley— C.
Watson), 282

Golden Age, The {West—Facius), 258

Good Mother reading a Story, The
{Crewe — White), 244

Gordon (Miss), Frances Isabella Ker
(Angels' Heads) {Reynolds — Simon),
276

Grace in all their Steps {Locke — Bovt),

254
Grantham (Lord) and his Brothers {Rey-
nolds— Cheesman), 174

298

INDEX OF TITLES

Grecian Daughter, The. See Mrs.

Siddons
Grey, Sir Charles (Lawrence — Collyer),

176
Grey (Lady Elizabeth) and Edward IV.

{Kauffmann — Ryland), 136
Griselda (Kauffmann — Barto/ozzi), 167
Guardian Angel, The (Fuseli — Benedetti),

Guardian Angel, The (Conway — Ogborne),

266
Guardian Angel, The (Cosway — Phillifs),

269
Guardian Angels (Bartolozzi — Clarke),

283
Guinea Pigs (Morland — Gaugain), 192
Gunn, Martha {Russell — Nutter), 213
Gwatkin (Miss)Theophila,"Simplicity "

(Reynolds — Bartolo-zzi), 167
Gwynne, Eleanor (Lely — Ogborne), 267

Halsewell, Wreck of the (Stothard —

Scott), 273
Hamilton, Lady (Romney — C. IVatson),

282
Hamilton, Lady, ''Emma" (Romney —

yones), xvi, 200
Hamilton, Lady, as " A Bacchante "

(Romney — Knight), 206
Hamilton, Lady, as " Alope " (Romney —

Earlom), 257
Hamilton, Lady, as " Sensibility "

(Romnty — Earlom), 257
Hamilton, Lady, as "The Spinster"

(Romney — Cheesman), 174
Hammond's Love ^\cpti (Kauffmann —

Delatre), 256
Hare, Francis George, " Infancy "

(Reynolds — Thew), 223
Harrington (Jane, Countess of), with her

Children (Reynolds — Bjrtclo-zzi), 165
Harris, Sir James (Reynolds — C. IVatson),

282
Harrop, Miss (Kauffmann — Delatre), 256
Hartley, Mrs., as " Andromache "

[Egremont — Slierzvin), 275
Hartley (Mrs.) and Child, as " Bacchante "

(Reynolds — Nutter), 213
Hayman, Francis (Falconet — Reading),

Health and Sickness (Bigg — Gaugain),

194
Heathcote, Katherine Sophia (Manners),

Lady (Ccnvay — Agar), 250
Heathfield, George Augustus Eliot,

Lord (Reynolds — Earlom), 257

Hebe (Kauffmann — Bartolozzi), 167

Hebe (Cos'way — Dume'e), 256

Hebe (Hamilton — Eginton), 258

Hebe (Hamilton — Facius), 259

Hebe (Hamilton — Howard), 261

Hebe (Bartolozzi — Marcuard), 210

Hebe. See Mrs. Jerningham

Hector and Andromache (Cipriani —

Bartolozzi), 168
Henderson, John (Hogg), 195
Henry and Emma (Kauffmann — Burke),

171
Henry and Emma (Stothard — Marcuard),

210
Hesitation (fVard), 238
He Sleeps (Tomkins), 226
Hilligsberg, Mdlle. (Janvry — Conde),

236
History (Ogborne), 267
Hoare, Master (Reynolds — JVilkin), 247
Hobbinella and Luberkin (Northcote —

y.R. Smith), 221
Hobbinol and Ganderetta (Gainsborough

— Tomkins), 226
Hobby-Horse, The (Cosway — Conde),

187
Hogarth (William) and his Dog

(Hogarth — B. Smith), 277
Hop Girl, The (Princess Elizabeth —

Tomkins), 226
Hope. See Lady Leicester
Hope nursing Love (Reynolds — Barto-
lozzi), 167
Horneck, Miss, " The Country Girl "

(Peters — Dickinson), 189
Hours, The (Shelley— Nutter), 2 1 3
Hours crowning Virtuous Love, The

(Cosvjay — Ryder), 272
Howard, Lady Catherine (fVilkin), 247
How Smooth, Brother, Feel Again

(Hamilton — Gaugain), 194
How sweet's the Love that meets Re-
turn (Morland — Gaugain), 1 93
Hudibrai and Sidrophel (Hogarth —

Gaugain), 190
Humphrey, Ozias, R.A. (Falconet —

Reading), 271
Humphrey, Orias (Romney — C. Ifatscn),

282
Humphreys, Mrs. (Buck — Cheesman), 174
Huirtly, Elizabeth Henrietta (Conyng-

ham). Marchioness of (Barmo —

Maile), 252

Idle Laundress, The (Morland— Blake),

299

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Idleness [Murland — Knight), 207
Illustrations from Horace {Kauffmann

— RylanJ), 136
Imprudence (The) of Candaules, King

of Lydia {Le Sutur — Strutt), 279
Inattention {J. R. Smith — Meadows),

263
Industrious Cottagers, The {Morland —

Blake), 252
Industry attended by Patience and

assisted by Perseverance, crowned by

Honour, and rewarded with Plenty

{Kauffmann — Facius), 258
Infancy (Cosway — fVhite), 245
Infancy. See Francis George Hare
Infant Academy {Reynolds — Howard),

261
Infant (The) Shakespeare attended by

Nature and the Passions {Romney — B.

Smith), 277
Innocence {Kauffmann — Marcuard), 210
Innocence {Cosway — Phillips), 269
Innocence and Fidelity {Bettelint), 252
Innocent Mischief {fVestall — Josi), 262
Innocent Play (Tomiins), 227
Innocent Revenge {fVestall — Josi),

262
Innocent Stratagem {Stothard — Strutt),

279
Instruction {Crewe — White), 244
Irish Peasants {JVestall — Cordon), 255
Isabella. See Miss O'Neill
Italian Fruit Girl, An {Peters — Mar-
cuard), 210

Jackson, Mrs. {Cosway — Conde), 187
January and May {Gaugain), 190, 191
Jenny and Roger {Morland — Gaugain),

193
Jemingham, Mrs., as Hebe {Hoppner —

Meyer), 264
Jones, Sir William, as " The Shepherd

Boy" {Reynolds — Agar), 249
Jordan, Mrs., as " The Country Girl "

{Romr.ey — Oghorne), 267
Judgment of Paris, The {Kauffmann —

Ryland), 136
Julia {Crewe — White), 244
Juno {Hamilton — Harvard), 261
Juno Cestum {Kauffmann — Ryland), 136
Jupiter and Calisto {Kauffmann — Burke),

170
Just Breech'd {Stothard — Nutter), 213
Justice {Kauffmann — Scorodoomoff), 273
Juvenile Culprits Detected {Page —

Meadows), 263

Kemble, Miss (Mrs. Twiss) {Dotvnman
— Jones), 200, 202

Kemble (Mr.) and Mrs. Siddons as
" Tancred and Sigismunda " {Shirriff
— C. Watson), 282

Keppel, Augustus Kcppel, Viscount
{Cerrachi — Marcuard), 210

Kinnoull, Robert Auriol Hay Drum-
mond,Earl oi {Shelley— C. Watson),z%z

Kinnoull, Sarah (Harley), Countess of
{Shelley— C. Watson), 282

Kite Compleated, The {Barney — Gau-
gain), 193

Kosciuszko, Thaddeus {Cosway — Car-
don), 254

Labourer's Luncheon, The {Morland —

Josi), 262
Lady (A) and Child {Crewe— White), 244
Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament {Mrs.

Jockell—Conde), 187
Lady (A) in the character of a Gipsy.

See Cockerell
Lady (A) in the character of a Milkmaid

{Cosrivay — Agar), 250
Lady (A) with a young Girl {Cosway —

Minasi), 265
Lady (A) with her Children in the

Garden {Gaugain), 193
Lady's Last Stake, The {Hogarth —

Cheesman), 175
Lais {Cipriani — Bartolozzi), 168
Landlord's Family, The {Stothard —

Knight), 207
Langham, Henrietta Elizabeth Frederica

(Vane), Lady {Hoppner — Wilkin), 247
L' Apparition. See The Ghost
Lass of Levingstone, The {Morland —

Gaugain), 193
Last Supper, The {West — Ryder), 272
Laudit Amabiliter {Kauffmann — Ryland),

136
Laughing Girl, The {Reynolds — Bond),

253
Lavinia {Shelley — Smith), 220
Lavinia and her Mother {Bigg — Reading),

271
Lavinia and her Mother {Ramierg —

Tomkins), 22 J
Lavinia and her Mother {Crewe — White),

244
Lecture on Gadding {jf. R. Smith —

Nutter), 212
Leda {Cosviay — Condi), 187
Leicester, Lady, as " Hope " {Lawrence

— Meyer), 264

300

INDEX OF TITLES

Letitia {MorUtnd — Bartolozzt), 167
Liberal Fair, The {Kauffmann — Tom/tins),

227
Libertine Reclaimed, The {Harding —

Bartolozxi), 167
Lindamira {fydliams), 284
Lingo and Cowilip (Mr, Edwin and

Mrs. Wells) {Singleton — Scott), 274
Linley, Miss Maria {fVatall — Ryder),

272
Linley, Miss. See Mrs. Sheridan
Linleys, The, xvi
Little Busybody, The {Buck — Freeman),

259
Little Gipsy, The {Weitcdl—Joit), 262
Lcetitia {Morland — y. R. SmitA), 220
Long Minuet at Bath, The {Bunbury —

Dickinson), 188
Louisa {Morland — Gaugain), 193
Louisa {Nixon — Tomkini), 227
Louisa {JV. fTardS, 238
Louisa Mildmay (iV. fVard), 238
Louisa, reigning Landgravine of Hesse-
Darmstadt {Schroeder — Burke), 17 1
Louisa, the celebrated Maid of the Hay-
stack {Palmer — Tomkins), 227
Love {Cosivay — Pollard), 271
Love {Peters — JVhite), 244
Love and Beauty {Cheesman), 174
Love Caressed {Cifriani — f^endramini),

280
Love Enamoured {Hoppner — Tomkins),

226
Love Healed {Shelley — Cooper), 283
Love Letter, The {R. fVest — Dume'e),

256
Love Rejected {Cipriani — yendramini),

280
Love Repentant {Benwell — G. dall '

Aqua), 207
Love Triumphant {Benwell — G, dall'

Aqua), 207
Love Wounded {Shelley — Cooper), 283
Lovers {Picet), 270
Lover's Anger, The {Wheatley — Simon),

276
Lubin and Rosalie {Beechey — Marcuard),

210
Lucy {Hodges — Graham), 260
Lucy of Leinster {fV. fVard), 238
Lunardi the Aeronaut, xvi
Lydia {Peters — Dickinson), 189

Madonna and Child {Rottenhamer —

Baillit), 250
Maid, A {J. R. Smith), 220

Manners, Catherine Rebecca, Lady {Cos-
ivay— Conde"), 187
Manners, Lady Catherine {Reynolds —

Gaugain), 193
Manners, Lady Louisa {Reynolds —

Knight), 206
Manners, Mrs. Russell {Stoehling —

Cooper), 283
Mansfield, William Murray, Earl of

{Grimaldi — Jones) 199
Marchande de Cupidon {Bartoloxzi —

Ogborne), 266
Marchesi, Signor {Cosway — Schia-venetti),

216
Margaret {Dunthorne — Scott), 274
Margaret of Anjou {Stothard — ff^hite),

24s

Maria {Russell — Tomkins), 226

Marian {Bunbtay — Tomkins), 227

Marianne {Ryland), 136

Marion and Colin Clout {Conyers — Tom-
kins), 227

Marlborough, George, 4th Duke of
Cosway — Agar), 250

Marlborough, Duke of. See Family

Marriage of Cupid and Psyche {Sherivin),

275
Marriage of Lucinda and Fernando

{Stothard — Sherioin), 275
Mary, Princess {Hoppner — C. fVatson),

281
Mask, The. See Ladies Charlotte and

Anne Spencer
Masquerade, The {Hamilton — Nutter),

213
Match Boy, The {J. R. Smith— Knight),

209
Maternal Affection {Cheesman), 174,

175
Maternal Affection. See Lady Mel-
bourne
Maternal Instruction {fVest — Scoro-

doomoff), 273
Maternal Love. See Mrs. Morgan
Matrimony {Milbcume — Gaugain), 193
May Day, or the Happy Lovers {Saunders

— Delatre), 256
Meditation {IVestall— Phillips), 269
Meditation {Sherwin), 275
Melania. See Mrs. Robinson
Melbourne, Elizabeth (Milbanke), Vis-
countess, " Maternal Affection " {Rey-
nolds— Dickinson), 189
Merry, Mrs. {Cosivay — Bovi), 254
Merry, Mrs. {Corway — Cardan), 254
Merry Story, The {J. R. Smith), 220

301

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Meyer,Jeremiah {Falconet — Reading)^zj i
Michal, y Isabella z Lasockich Oginscy

[Corway — Schiatnnetti), 216
Milbank, Ralph {Riynoldt — Marcuard),

2IO

Milk Girl, The {Princeu Elixaheth —
Tomkins), 226

Milkmaid, A. See Maria Cecilia Louisa
Cosway

Minerva. See Chevali^re D'Eon

Minerva directing the Arrows of Cupid
{Copway — Condi), 187

Minstrel, The {OpU — fVard), 239

Miranda and Ferdinand (Kauffmann —
Tomkins), 227

Mirror, The (y. R. Smith), 220, 222

Mirror (The), Serena and Flirtilla {J.
R. Smith), 220

Modern Graces, The {Buniury — Scott),
274

Moira, Francis Rawdon Hastings, Earl
of {Reynolds — Jones), 199

Montague, George, Duke of {Beechey —
Colly ei), 176

Months, The, 157

Moralist, The [J. R. Smith— Nutter), 212

Morgan, Mrs., " Maternal Love ' ' {Russell
— Tomkins), 231

Morning {Hamilton — Tomkins), 231

Morning Amusement {fVatteau — Blake),
252

Morning Amusement. See Lady Hester
Stanhope

Morning, or the Reflection {fVard —
Grosser), 260

Morning Reflection {Morland — Graham),
260

Mother's Care, The {Bartolozzi — Mar-
cuard), 210

Mother's Darling, The {Bartolczzi —
Marcuard), 2IO

Mother's Fairings (C Turner), 235

Mother's Pride (Master Jekyll) {Ladder
— Cardon), 255, 264

Moulines— The Handkerchief {Kauff-
mann— Delatre), 256

Mountain, Mrs. {Buck — Cheesman), 174

Mountstuart, Lord {Hone — Baillie), 250

Murder (The) of James I., King of Scot-
land {Opie — Ryder), 272

Muscipula {Reynolds — Jones), 199

M«sic {Domenichino — Benedetti), 251

Music {Oghorne), 267

Music has charms to soothe the savage
breast {Cosway — Bettelint), 252

Musing Charmer, The {fT. H^ard), 238

Narcissa {J. R. Smith), 220, 221
Natural Philosophy {Legoux), 283
Nature {Hoppner — Knight), 207
Navigation {Legcux), 283
Nest of Cupids, A {Aspinall — Schia-

•vcnetti), 216
New Sash, The {Russell— Strutt), 279
New Shoes {Lady Beauclerk — Bovi), 254
Nice Supper {Lady Beauclerk — Bo-vi), 254
Night {Hamilton — Delatre), 232
No Dance, No Supper {Paye), 269
Noon {Hamilton — Delatre), 232
Nurs'd Abroad {Stothard — Strutt), 279
Nurs'd at Home {Stothard — Strutt), 279
Nymph Asleep {Cipriani — Bettelint), 252
Nymph feeding Swans, A {Kauffmann —

Jenkins), 283
Nymph of Immortality crowning the

bust of Shakespeare {Cipriani — Barto-

lozzi), 168
Nymphs and Satyrs {Cipriani — Bovi),

254
Nymphs Bathing {Cheesman), 175
Nymphs Sporting {Zuccarelli — Picot), 270

Octavius, Prince {Gainsborough — Chees-
man), 175

Octavius, Prince {fVest — Facius), 258

Of such is the Kingdom of God {Peters
— Dickinson), 189

Olim Truncus {Kauffmann — Ryland), 136

O'Neill, Miss {Cosway — Agar), 250

O'Neill, Miss (C. Turner), 235

O'Neill, Miss, as " Isabella " {Boaden —
Cheesman), 175

Orford, Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of
{Falconet — Pariset), 268

Orgar and Elfrida {Jefferys — Marcuard),
210

0 Venus Regina {Kauffmann — Ryland),
136

Paine, James {Falconet — Pariset), 268

Painting {Osborne), 267

Palemon and Lavinia {Kauffmann —

Knight), 207
Palemon and Lavinia {Stothard — Scott),

274
Palemon and Lavinia {Stothard — fVhite),

245
Palmer, Offie, " Felina " {Reynolds —

Collyer), 176
Pam, Flush, and Loo {Opie — Meyer),

264
Parisot, Mademoiselle {Masquerier — C.

Turner), 235, 236

302

INDEX OF TITLES

Parkyns, Mrs. (Lady RanclifFe) {Hopfner

—fViltdn), 247
Parting of Abelard and Eloisa {JCauff-

mann — Scorodoomoff), 273
Parting of Achilles and Briseis {Cipriani

— Barto/ozzi), 168
Parting (The) of Romeo and Juliet

[fVest — Scorodoomoff), 273
Patience and Perseverance (Kauffmann —

Ryland), 136
Patty {Bunbury — fVhite), 245
Peasant's Little Maid, The {Russell —

Nutter), 213
Peasant's Repast, The {Morland — jfosi),

262
Peasants with Fruit and Flowers [Peters

—Michel), 284
Peleus and Thetis {Kauffmann — Tonkins),

227
Pelham (Charles Anderson) with his

Lady and their six Children {Cofway

—C. fVatson), 282
Pembroke, Lady {Hogarth — Ryder), 272
Penelope taking down the Bow of

Ulysses {Kauffmann — Ryder), 272
Penelope weeping over the Bow of

Ulysses {Kauffmann — Delatre), 255
Perdita {JVestall — Cheestnan), 175
Perdita. See Mrs. Robinson
Phcenissa, friend of Sophonisba {Kauff-
mann— Facius), 258
Plenty {Cheesman), 175
Polite Courtship {Dayes — Thew), 223
Poor Soldier, The {yinsell — Tomkins),

226
Posthumus, Consul of Rome {Kauffmann

— Delatre), 255
Power of Innocence, The {S tot hard —

Strutt), 279
Power of Love, The {Kauffmann — Og-

borne), 266
Power of Love, The {Pellegrini— ^en-

dramini), 280
Power of Music, The {Kauffmann —

Powlett, Lady Catherine {Cosway —
fThite), 245

Prelude to Matrimony, The {Harding —
Bartolozzi), 167

Primrose Girl, The {y. R. Smith-
Knight), 209

Private Amusement {Ramberg — fV.
ff^ard), 238

Promenade in St James's Park, The
{Dayes — Soiron), 192, 278

Prudence {Kauffmann — Sccrodeomoff), 273

Prudence and Beauty {Kauffmanni —

Ryder), 272
Psammetichus in Love with Rhodope

{Kauffmann — Bartolozzi), 1 67
Psyche {Beechey—C. fVatton), 282
Psyche (Hon. Mrs. Paget) {Hopfner —

Meyer), 264
Psyche and Zephyr {Hamilton — Howard),

261
Puss in Durance {Paye), 269
Puss in Favour {Morland — Prattent),

284
Pyramus {Hoppner — Knight), 206

Q., Mrs. See Mrs. Quentin
Quarrel, The {Buck — Freeman), 259
Queen Margaret with her son the Prince

{A. Borel — Hogg), 195
Quentin, Mrs., " Mrs. Q." {Huet-f^ilUers

— Blake), 252

Radnor, Countess {Costuay — Bovi), 254
R^camier, Madame {Cosway — Cardon),

^54 . .
Reconciliation, The {Buck — Freeman),

259
Reflection {Ramberg — fVard), 238
Reflections on Werther. See Miss

Turner
Refreshment {Tomkins), 227
Reverie, The {Reynolds — Cheesman), 174
Reynolds, Sir Joshua {Falconet — Pariset),

268
Reynolds, Sir Joshua {Reynolds — Turner),

23s
Reynolds, Sir Joshua {Reynolds — C. fVat-

scn), 282
Richmond, Mary (Bruce), Duchess of

{Kauffmann — Ryland), 136
Richmond, Mary (Bruce), Duchess of

{DoTvnman — Burke), 1 7 I
Riddell, (Lieutenant) George James

{Downman — Bartolo-zzi), 165
Rinaldo and Armida {Kauffmann —

Burke), 169, 170, 172-1 J J
Rinaldo and Armida {Kauffmann — Hogg),

«9S

Rivers, Lord. See Mr. Bcckford
Robin Goodfellow {Reynolds — Schia-

•vonetti), 216
Robinetta. See Hon. Anna Tollemache
Robinson, Mrs., xvi
Robinson, Mrs., " Per<lita " {Reynolds —

Dickinson). 189
Robinson, Mrs., as " Contemplation "

{Reynolds— Birch), 283

303

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR PRINTS

Robinson, Mrs., at " Melania " {Conde),

i86
Robinson, Mrs., as " Venus " {Sierwin),

186, 275
Robinson, Mrs. (in large hat) {SAenvin),

*75
Roderick Random ( Trewingard — Knight),

2o6
Rosalind and Celia {Lawrenson — Tomtins),

227
Rosebud, The {fVeitall— Nutter), 213
Rosina {Stothard — Knight), 207
Rosina [Dunthorne — Scott), 274
Roxalana. See Mrs. Abington
Royal Rose, The {Orme), 284
Runaway Love (^Stothard — Knight), 207
Rural Amusement {Morland — y. R.

Smith), 219
Rural Contemplation {fVestall — Gaugain),

193
Rural Misfortune {^Bigg — Oghorne), 266
Rural Music {JVettall — Gaugain), 193
Rushout, Rebecca (Bowles), Lady {Plimer

— Burke), 170
Rushout, Rebecca (Bowles), Lady, and

Daughter [Kauffmann — Burke), 169,

170, 171, 172, 173
Ruspina (Mrs.) and Child, " Cornelia "

{Shelley — Knight), 207
Rustic Courtship {Dayes — Thew), 223
Rustic Employment {Morland — y, R.

Smith), 219, 220
Rutland, Elizabeth (Howard), Duchess

of (C. fVilkin), 247
Rutland, Mary Isabella (Somerset),

Duchess of {Nixon — Bartolozzt), 168
Rutland, Mary Isabella (Somerset),

Duchess of {Peters — fVhite), 245

Sacrifice to Cupid, A {Cipriani — Barto-

loTszi), 127, 165
Sad Story, The {fVestall— Oghorne), 267
Sailor Boy's Return, The {Bigg — Gau-

gain), 194
St. Asaph, Lady Sophia {Reynolds —

Grozer), 260
St. Asaph, Lady Charlotte (Percy), Vis-
countess {Hoppner — C fVilkin), 247
St. Cecilia {Romney — Keating), 262
St. Cecilia. See Mrs. Billington
St. Cecilia. See Mrs. Sheridan
St. Giles's Beauty, A {Benwell — Barto-

lozzi), 168
St. James's Beauty, A {Benwell — Barto-

lozzi), 168
St. James's Park {Morland — Soiron), 277

St. John the Baptist {Raphael — Vendra-

mini), 280
Samuel {Reynolds — Delatre), 255
Sandby, Paul {Falconet — Reading), 271
Sappho, inspired by Love, composing an

ode in honour of Venus {Kauffmann —

Facius), 258
Saturday Night {Bigg — Nutter), 213
Savoyard, The {Turner), 235
Scarcity in India {Singleton — Knight), 206
Scenes from the " Arabian Nights "

{Bunbury — Ryder), 272
Scholar Rewarded, "The {Stothard —

Knight), 206
Seasons, The {Hamilton — Nutter), 213
Seasons, The {Hamilton — Oghorne), 266
Seasons, The Four {Buck — Freeman), 259
See-Saw {Hamilton — Knight), 207
Sefton, Isabella (Stanhope), Countess of

{Cofway — Dickinson), 189
Sempstress, The. See Miss Vernon
Sensibility. See Lady Hamilton
Sensitive Plant, The {JVestall — Nutter),

213
Serena. See Miss Sneyd
Serenity {Cipriani — f^endramini), 280
Setting out to the Fair {Wheatley — Egin'

ton), 258
Seymour, Hugh Henry John {Cosway —

Cheesman), 174
Shakespeare nursed by Tragedy and

Comedy {Romney — B. Smith), 277
Sharp, Mrs. {Cheesman), 175
Sheffield, John, Lord {Reynolds — yones),

199
Sheltered Lamb, The {Hamilton — Gau-
gain), 193
Shepherd Boy, The. See Sir William

Jones
Shepherdess, The {Woodford— y. R,

Smith), 220
Shepherdess of the Alps, The {Kauff-

mann — Bartolozzi), 167
Shepherdess of the Alps, The {Gaugain),

194
Sheridan (Hester Jane) and Child {Hopp-
ner— Nugent), 284
Sheridan, Eliza Anne (Miss Linley)

{Coeway — Condi), 187
Sheridan, Mrs., as St. Cecilia {Reynolds —

Dickinson), 189
Sheridan, Mrs., as St. Cecilia {Reynolds

—T. Watson), 241
Shipwrecked Sailor Boy, The {Bigg —

Gaugain), 194
Showman, The {Barney — Gaugain), 193

304

INDEX OF TITLES

Sibyl, A (Reni — Benedetri), 251
Siddons, Mrs., xvi

Siddons, Mrs. {Bateman — Burke), 171
Siddons, Mrs. (Doivrnnan — Tomitns), 233
Siddons, Mrs., as " The Grecian

Daughter" {Pine — C. JVatson), 282
Siddons, Mrs., as " The Tragic Muse "

{Reynolds — Haivard), 261
Siddons, Mrs. See Mr. Kemble
Sigismunda [Hogarth — B. Smith), 276
Silence (fiar:;/azis; — Clarke), 283
Simplicity {Artaud — Duterreau), 257
Simplicity. See Miss T. Gwatkin
Sinclair, Diana (Macdonald), Lady {Cos-

ivay — Bo-vi), 254
Sleepmg Girl, The {Reynolds — Janes), 199
Sleeping Nymph, The(0/>/V — Simon), 276
Smith (Lady) and her Children {Reynolds

— Bartolozzi), 165
Smyth, Lady. See Smith
Snake in tne Grass, The {Reynolds —

Smith), 220
Sneyd, Miss, as "Serena" {Romney —

Jones), 199, 262
Soldier's Return, The {Morland —

Graham), 260
Soliloquy, The (^. JVarS), 238
Solitude {Smith), 220
Sophia {Peters — Hogg), 196
Sophia, Princess {Ramherg — fVard), 238
Sophia, Princess {Hopfner — C. fVatson),

281
Sophonisba, Queen of Carthage {Kauff-

marm — Facius), 258
Spencer, The Ladies Charlotte and Anne,

"The Mask " {Reynolds — Schiavonetti),

217
Spencer, Georgiana, Countess {Gains-

borough — Bartolo-zzi), 167
Spencer, Lord Henry and Lady Char-
lotte, "The Fortune-Tellers" {Rey-
nolds— Jones), 199
Spencer, Lavinia, Countess {Reynolds —

Bartoloziii), 167
Spinster, The. See Lady Hamilton
Spirit of a Child, The {Peters — Bar-

tolozzi), 22 1
Spirit of a Child {Peters — Dickinson),

189
Spring {IVheatley — Bartolozzi), 167
Spring {Cheesman), 175
Spring {Hamilton — Facius), 259
Squire's Door,Thc [Morland — Duterreau),

256
Stanhope, Isabella. See Countess of

Sefton

Stanhope, Hon. Mrs., as " Contempla-
tion " [Reynolds — C. fVatson), 282

Stanhope, Lady Anna Maria [CosTvay —
Car don), 254

Stanhope, Lady Hester (Morning
Amusement)[Kauffmann — Ryland), 136

Stanhope, Hon. Leicester [Reynolds —
Bartolozzi), 167

Stella [Dunthorne — Scott), 274

Storacci, Signora [Bettelini), 251

Storm [Bigg — Ogborne), 266

Storm in Harvest, A [fVestall —
Meadoivs), 263

Strangers at Home, The [Morland —
Nutter), 213

Strolling Musicians [Rigaud — Delatre),

Stubbs, George [Falconet — Reading), 271
Studious Fair, The [Marcuard], 210
Summer [fVheatley — Bartolo-zzi), 167
Summer [Cheesman), 175
Summer [Hamilton — Facius), 259
Summer's Amusement [Hamilton — Gau-

gain). 194
Summer Amusements [Bartolczzi —

Marcuard), 2io
Sunday Morning [Bigg — Nutter), 213
Sunshine [Bigg — Ogborne), 266
Sweet Poll of Plymouth [Stothard —

Knight), 208
Swinburne, Martha [Cosioay — Bovi), 254
Sylvia [Peters — Dickinson), 189
Sylvia [fVheatley — Hogg), 195
Sylvia. See Lady Anne Fitzpatrick
Sylvia overseen by Daphne {Kauffmann —

Tomkins), 227
Sympathy {Cipriani — ^endramini), 280

Tale of Love, A [Bunbury — Sherwin),

275
Tallien, Madame [Masquerier — Bond),

Tancred and Sigismunda. See Kemble
Taste in High Life [Hogarth — Phillips),

269
Tea Garden, A [Soiron — Morland), 277
Telemachus in AulS Spartana [Kauffmann

— Ryland), 136
Telemachus Red use [Kauffmann —

Ryland), 136
Temperance [Kauffmann — Scorodoomoff),

273
Temptation [Romberg — fV. fVard), 238
Tenant's Family [Stothard — Knight), 207
Tender Mother, The [Martin), 283
Thisbe [Hoppr.cr — Nutter), 206

305

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY COLOUR-PRINTS

Thomond, Mary (Palmer), Marchioness

of {Latvrer.ce — Bond), 253
Thomond, Marchioness of {Thomson —

Meadows), 263
Thoughts on Matrimony {y, R. Smith —

IV. fVard), 220, 237
Thoughts on a Single Life (J. R. Smith),

220, 238
Three Holy Children, The {Peters —

Simon), 276
Tickell, Mrs. {Cosway — Conde'), 187
ToUemache, Hon. Anna, " Robinetta "

{Reynolds — Jones), 199
Tom and his Pigeons {Russell — Knight),

206
Tom Jones, The Adventures of (Dozun-

man — Simon), 276
Tom Jones and Molly Seagrim {Mor-

lund — Scott), 274
Tom Jones and Sophia Western {Mor-

lana— Scott), 274
Tomb of Shakespeare, The {Kauffmann

— Bartolozzi), 167
Topham, Major Edward {Russell — Tom-

kins), 228-230
Tovvnshend, Hannah, Marchioness of

{Reynolds — Cheesman), 175
Tragedy {Cipriani — f^endramini), 280
Tragic Muse, The. See Mrs. Siddons
Tragic Readings {Boyne — Knight), 207
Triumph of Beauty and Love, The

{Cipriani — Bartolozzi), 127, 165
Turkish Ambassador, The {Miller — N.

Schia-vonetti), 216
Turner, Miss, "Reflections on Werther "

{Crosse — Thew), 222
Twelve Leading London Artists {Falconet

—Pariset), 268

Una {Kauffmann — Burke), 170
Una. See Miss E. Beauclerk
Universal Power of Love, The {Kirk —
Car don), 255

Valentine, The {Ansell — Knight), 207

Variety {Morland — fV. JVard), 239

Venus {Titian — Facius), 259

Venus. See Mrs. Robinson

Venus and Cupid {Titian — Cheesman),

'75
Venus and Cupid {Reynolds — Collyer),

176
Venus chiding Cupid {Reynolds — Barto-

loz%i), 167
Venus dissuading Adonis from Hunting

{Ccstvay — Blake), 252

Venus lending her Cestus to Juno {Kauff-
mann— Gaugain), 190

Venus of Toterdown Hill, The {Harding
— Ogborne), 267

Venus presenting Helen to Paris {Kauff-
mann— Ryland), 136

Venus Sleeping {Pernotin — Bartolo%%i),
159, 165

Venus, Toilet of. See Mrs. Robinson

Vernon, Miss, as " The Sempstress "
{Romney — Cheesman), 174

Village Maids, The (Stothard — Ogborne),
267

Villager, The {A Lady—Tomiins), 227

Villagers Dancing (C. Turner), 235

Villiers, Lady Gertrude (C. fVilkin),

247
Viola {Shelley— C. Watson), 282
Visit (The) returned in the Country

{Morland — Nutter), 212, 253
Visit to the Woman of the Lime Trees

{Romberg — Ryder), 272
Visme, Miss De, "The Woodland

Maid" {Laivrence — Bond), 253

Waddy, Miss {Buck — Cheesman), 174
Wales, T.R.H. The Prince and Princess

of {M. Sloane), 217
Walpole, Horatio. See Orford
Wanton Trick, The (Tomkins), 227
Wedding Ring, The {Ansell— Knight),

207
Welch Peasants {fVestall — Cardon), 255
Wells, Mrs. See '" Lingo and Cowslip "
Wenzel, Baron {Conde), 187
West, Sir Benjamin {Stuart — C. fVatson),

282
What you will {J. R. Smith), 220
Wheelbarrow, The {Wheatley — Delatre),

256
Whiteford, Mrs. {Cosvuay — Minasi), 265
Whitehead, William {Doughty — Collyer),

177
Widow, A {y. R. Smith), 220
Wife, A {y. R. Smith), 220
Wife of Bath, The {Gaugain), 190,

191
Wilbraham, Mrs. {Gardner — Watson),

241
William Frederick of Gloucester, Prince

{Reynolds — C. Watson), 282
Willis, Dr. {Russell— Collyer), 177
Window of New College, Oxford

{Reynolds — Earlom), 257
Window of New College, Oxford

{Reynolds — Facius), 258

306

INDEX OF TITLES

Winter {fVheatUy — Bartoloxzi), 167
Winter's Amusement {Hamilton — Gau-

gain), 194
Woollett, William {Stuart— C. fVatson),

282
Woman feeding Fowls, A {Morland —

J. R. Smith), 219
Woman (An old) opening a Gate

{Gaugaitt), 193
Woman tending Flowers, A {Morland —

y. R. Smith), 219
Woman's Head, A {Dow—JV. Baillie),

250
Wood Girl, The {Princess Eli-zaheth—

Tomkins), 226
Woodland Maid. See Miss De Visme
Wood Nymph, The {Woodford— J. R.

Smith), 220
Woronzow Children, The {Cosvoay —

C. Watson), 281

Yarborough, Lord. See Pelham

York, Duchess of, 154

York, Duchess of {Conde), 187

York, Duchess of {Beechey — Knight),

207
York, Frederick, Duke of {Reynolds —

Jones), 199
Yorkshire Schoolmistress, The {Saunders

— Duterreau), 257
Young, Mrs,, as Cora {Hobday — Bond),

253
Young Circassian, The {Peters — Scoro-

doomoff), 273
Young (The) Nurse and Quiet Child

{Morland — Graham), 260
Young Thornhill's First Interview

{Stothard — Simon), 276
Youth {Hoare — Gaugain), 193

Zephyrus and Flora {Stothard — Blake),

252
Zeuxis composing the Picture of Juno

{Kauffmann — Bartolozzi), 167

THE END

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COLLEGE LIBRARY

This book is due on the last date stamped below.

HfcgP COL m

jun y'S6
JUN5 1968

Book SUp-36m-7,'63(D8634B4)4280

A 001 058 459 7

Ck>llege
Library

l**«i«il» of CaMoma. Los Angeles

L 005 477 242 1

NE

1906
cop, 2