MEZZOTINTS
rnrtWMs.
MEZZOTINTS
BY
CYRIL DAVENPORT, F.S.A.
Connoisseurs
METHUEN AND CO.
36 ESSEX STREET A
LONDON
X
V
Edinburgh : T. and A. CONSTABIE, Printers to His Majesty
NOTE
THE BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB has done
its fair share of work in drawing attention
to the beautiful art of mezzotint engraving.
In 1872 there was an exhibition of Turner's Liber
Studiorum; in 1881 a general exhibition showing
the best available specimens of work of all the most
eminent mezzotint engravers; in 1886 a special show
was arranged of the work of James MacArdell, an
Irishman, one of the finest of our engravers in this
manner; and in 1902 yet another exhibition was
got together. This time a special style and a special
period were illustrated, namely the portraits executed
in England from about 1750 to about 1830, among
which are to be found the finest examples of en-
graving in mezzotint.
The greater number of the prints shown at
the last exhibition belonged to the late Lord
Cheylesmore, who has bequeathed his magnificent
collection to the nation. The collection of mezzo-
tints at the British Museum was already very rich,
but more particularly in the earlier examples, and
although specimens of the work of most of the
engravers represented in the Cheylesmore bequest
were to be found, yet our national collection was
certainly weak in them, and we can heartily welcome
the addition of the very large number of splendid
v
MEZZOTINTS
prints added to it by this bequest. I think it is
safe to say that the British Museum now possesses
the finest collection of mezzotint engravings in the
world, and that no important engraver is entirely
unrepresented.
As to the artistic value of mezzotinting. Sir
Joshua Reynolds is said to have given his opinion
that it is the best calculated of all the various styles
of engraving to express a painter-like feeling,
especially in the case of portraits.
I do not think that mezzotinting is a lost art.
There are several engravers living who are able to
execute beautiful work in the old style, and there
are signs that a new style may possibly be evolving
itself, the germs of which may be found in some
of the work of Mr. Frank Short, as well as in that
of Mr. R. S. Clouston. I do not allude to the
engravings that these gentlemen have engraved
purposely in the old manner, such as Mr. Short's
fine plates of the Liber Studiorum, but to those
which they have done independently after their own
fashion, and in these cases there is much similarity
of treatment in the work of these two artists.
I feel that if mezzotints mean to keep their
supreme position as the finest form of engraving
upon metal, they should be engraved upon copper,
and the copper should never be steeled.
If an engraver chooses to take the trouble to
engrave a mezzotint upon steel, let him say so
on his plate as, say, Lupton and Lucas did ; there
is no objection to it, and a purchaser would value
the knowledge it is a proper thing to do. But
although the publisher, and possibly the artist, like
the large editions which a copper plate, steeled,
vi
NOTE
can supply, it nevertheless seems to me a wrong
towards the public, as well as a bad thing for the
esteem in which the engraver hopes to be held by
future generations. If J. R. Smith's ' Mrs. Carnac '
had been printed from a steeled plate, it would not
have been so highly esteemed as it now is.
Another important point concerns the printing.
I think every mezzotint engraver should make his
own prints, and not only superintend the process
as much as the printer will let him. The inking
of a mezzotint plate is a most important process,
and the proper person to do it is the engraver
himself. Rembrandt printed many of his etchings,
and like Rembrandt every mezzotint engraver
should have his own printing-press in his own
house. Other great etchers besides Rembrandt have
done the same. The engraver alone knows what
latent power lies in his engraved copper or steel,
and he alone ought to be responsible for the exact
effect which is seen on each print from it, but as
things are now, he cannot, in most cases, properly
be held so responsible, because he has had little
to do with it.
I am well aware that inking an engraved metal
plate is a very dirty and troublesome matter ; but
it carries much compensation with it, for the
interest and delight which can be found when
successful prints are made by an engraver from
his own work are very great. Many years ago,
when the French etcher Auguste Deltre was in
London, he initiated me into the mysteries of
inking and printing from etchings on copper, and
he always impressed upon me that he could make
a truer print from one of his own etchings than
vn
MEZZOTINTS
any one else could, because he understood them
thoroughly and knew what was wanted ; and this
is equally true of a mezzotint, although it would
not apply to a line engraving. It would also be
of much interest if printers of mezzotints would
borrow another little fashion from the etcher, and
add their names on the copper. The printer is
worthy of more honour than he receives, and of
most honour when he has also engraved the plate.
I am aware that my views on some of the
points considered in the following pages are not
at all in accordance with those of many of my
friends. I realise, however, that mezzotint engravers
are not always their own masters, but are some-
times compelled by circumstances to agree to
certain stipulations which are more commercial
than artistic in their nature. Very likely many
of my adverse or fault-finding criticisms may
well be due more to the commercial necessities of
the trade in prints than to the independent action
of the engravers themselves.
A book such as the present one has naturally
a tendency to fall into the form of a catalogue, and
in this form it is of the greatest value to collectors.
But as an introduction, and possibly an incentive,
to the taste for mezzotints, a few general criticisms
and appreciations may yet have their value. Great
collectors have their Chaloner Smith to refer to.
The only objection to that inestimable book is that
it does not give a small plate of every print
mentioned in it. In time all such catalogues will
have to be fully illustrated, and show a picture of
each state of each print, and then they will have
their full usefulness.
Vlll
NOTE
The notes which I have made about the work
of individual engravers will be found in a rough
chronological order, arranged as nearly as possible
according to the date of the first engraved work ;
but as I have given a full index, it will be best
to consult that directly if the work of any particular
engraver is to be studied.
The illustrations will bear their own witness
to the truth of what I have said as to photogravure
and its possibilities ; but good as they are, I feel
that in the near future such work will be still better
done, so they must only at present be counted as
charming copies of infinitely finer originals.
C. D.
IX
CONTENTS
r.v.t
NOTE, . . .... v
LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT WORKS ON
MEZZOTINTS, xv
INDEX TO PLATES, xix
CHAPTER I. Mezzotint engraving on metal :
what it is and how it is done. How
prints are made from mezzotinted plates,
and how to keep them when they are
made. Inks, papers, and coloured
R rints. The enemies of prints, and the
terature of mezzotints. Continental
engravers in mezzotint, ... i
CHAPTER II. The pioneers of mezzotint en-
graving who worked about the middle
of the seventeenth century: Lud-
wig von Siegen, Prince Rupert, T. C.
von Furstenberg, Wallerant Vaillant,
The Van Somers, Abraham Blooteling,
William Sherwin, and Francis Place.
The later mezzotint engravers of the
seventeenth century: E. Luttrell, Isaac
Beckett, W. Faithorne, R. Williams,
J. Vandervaart, John Smith, and J.
Verkolje 50
xi
MEZZOTINTS
CHAPTER III. The mezzotint engravers of
the eighteenth century : the Fabers,
P. Pelham, T. Frye, J. MacArdell, R.
Houston, R. Earlom, Valentine Green,
E. Fisher, W. Dickinson, J. Watson,
J. Spilsbury, R. Dunkarton, John
Dean, J. R. Smith, J. Murphy, and
C. Turner,
CHAPTER IV. Mezzotint engraving in the
nineteenth century. The work of S.
W. Reynolds, J. M. W. Turner, W. Say,
G. Clint, T. G. Lupton, W. and J.
Ward, D. Lucas, Samuel Cousins, C.
W. Campbell, Frank Short, John D.
Miller, Gerald P. Robinson, Miss E.
Gulland, R. S. Clouston, and Norman
Hirst,
INDEX,
PAGE
I 08
171
2O I
Xll
I AM much indebted to the compilers of the
following works of reference, which I have consulted
freely during the writing of this book :
BRYAN (M.) : Dictionary of Painters and En-
gravers. London, 1886-89.
NAGLER (G. K.) : Kiinstler-Lexicon. Munchen,
1835-52.
REDGRAVE (S.) : Dictionary of Artists of the
English School. London, 1874.
SMITH (J. CHALONER) : British Mezzotinto Por-
traits. London, 1883.
STEPHEN (L.) : Dictionary of National Biography.
London, 1885-1900.
XI 11
LIST of the more important Works on
MEZZOTINTS, as well as of Books con-
taining valuable references to them.
BROWNE (ALEXANDER) : Ars Pictoria : or an
Academy treating of Drawing, Painting,
Limning, Etching, etc. London, 1669.
Containing a short technical description of
the art of engraving in mezzotint, being the
first printed account of the processes used in
that art.
BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB PUBLICATIONS :
1872. Catalogue of Exhibition of J. M. W.
Turner's Liber Studiorum.
1881. Catalogue of Exhibition of Engravings in
Mezzotint, with Introduction by J. M.[aberly].
1886. Catalogue of Exhibition of Mezzotints by
J. MacArdell.
1902. Catalogue of Exhibition of British Mezzo-
tint Portraits, 1750 to 1830, with Introduction
by Frederick Wed more, and Notes by W. G.
Rawlinson and G. B. Croft Lyons.
1903. An illustrated edition of the foregoing,
with plates in photogravure.
CHELSUM (H. D.): A History of the Art of
Engraving in Mezzotinto. Winchester, 1786.
Contains a short notice of the origin of the
art, and imperfect lists of English and foreign
engravers and their works.
xv
MEZZOTINTS
EVELYN QOHN) : Sculptura : or the History and
Art of Chalcography and Engraving on
Copper. ... To which is annexed a new manner
of Engraving or Mezzo Tinto communicated
by his Highness Prince Rupert to the author
of this treatise. London, 1662.
A gossipy little tract with a print of the
head of the executioner, copied from the larger
plate after Spagnoletto, engraved in mezzotint
for John Evelyn by Prince Rupert. The first
book illustrated with a mezzotint engraving.
FIELDING (T. H.) : The Art of Engraving. London,
1854.
With a chapter on the process of engraving
in mezzotint.
FRANKAU (JULIA) : John Raphael Smith. London,
1903.
A biography, with list of engravings and
a large portfolio of mezzotints and photo-
gravures.
HAMERTON (P. G.) : The Graphic Arts ; A Treatise
on the Varieties of Drawing, Painting, and
Engraving. London, 1882.
With a short notice, and an example, of
mezzotint engraving.
HERKOMER (H. VON) : Etching and Mezzotint
Engraving. London, 1892.
Contains a very interesting account of the
technique and artistic possibilities of mezzotint
engraving, and some excellent plates,
xvi
LIST OF WORKS
LABORDE (LoN DE) : Histoire de la Gravnre en
maniere noire. Paris, 1839.
Contains the full early history of the art of
mezzotinting, with a few lithographic illustra-
tions. There is also a catalogue of mezzotint
engravers of all nationalities, with list of their
works, not complete. This is the most im-
portant book published as to the art of mezzo-
tint, considered generally.
LE BLON (J. CHR.): Coloritto. London, 1737.
A curious little book, with mezzotints
printed in colour on the principles advocated
by the author.
MABERLY (J.) : The Print Collector. London, 1844.
With some valuable notes on mezzotints.
PATON (H.): Etching, Drypoint, Mezzotint. London,
1895.
RAWLINSON (W. G.) : Turner's Liber Studiorum.
London, 1878.
Contains detailed descriptions of the various
states. A most valuable book, and indispen-
sable for ' Liber ' collectors.
SHORT (FRANK) : On the Making of Etchings.
London, 1888.
With valuable notes on the technique of
mezzotint, and a few examples.
SINGER (H. W.) and STRANG (W.) : Etching,
Engraving, and other Methods of Printing
Pictures. London, 1897.
Contains most useful and reliable descrip-
tions of the various methods of engraving.
b xvii
MEZZOTINTS
The illustrations by Mr. Strang are all ex-
cellent.
SMITH (J. CHALONER): British Mezzotinto Portraits.
London, 1883.
With an excellent history of the art of mez-
zotint engraving from the commencement, and
a note about printing in colour. The list of
engravers, each of which has a short bio-
graphical notice, is arranged alphabetically.
There are full index lists. Illustrated with
very good photogravure plates. An absolutely
necessary work of reference for collectors of
English mezzotint portraits.
WEDMORE (FREDERICK) : Fine Prints. London,
1897.
Belongs to the ' Collector Series.' One of
the chapters is devoted to an appreciative
consideration of the later mezzotints, from a
collector's point of view.
WHITMAN (A.) : Masters of Mezzotint. London,
1898.
With excellent plates.
WHITMAN (A.) : Valentine Green. London, 1902.
One of a series entitled ' British Mezzo-
tinters.' With small but excellent plates.
xvin
INDEX TO PLATES
MRS. DAVENPORT, AFTER G. ROMNEY.
Engraved by J. JONES. Frontispiece.
Lettered: 'Painted by G.
Romney. Engraved by
J. Jones. London,
Publish'd as the Act
directs, May 29th, 1784,
by J. Jones, No. 63
Great Portland Street
Marylebone.'
H. ni. W. ii.
Charlotte, daughter of
Ralph Sneyd, of Keel, in
Staffordshire, who married,
about 1777, Davies Davenport of Capesthorne,
Cheshire.
XIX
MEZZOTINTS
AMELIA ELIZABETH, LANDGRAVINE OF HESSE.
Engraved by L. VON SIEGEN, after a drawing by
himself. Page 54.
Lettered : ' Amelia Elisabetha
D. G. Hassiae Landgravia,
etc., Comitessa Hanoviae
Montzenb : Illustrissimo ac
Celssimo Pr: ac Dno Dno
Wilhelmo vi. D. G. Hassiae
Landg : etc., hanc Serenis-
simae Matris et .Incompar-
abilis Heroinae effigiem, ad
vivum a se primum de-
pictam novoq. jam sculp-
turae modo expressam, dedicat consecratq. L. a
S. Ao. Dnj. CIDIDCXLII.'
H.
W. i2f
O
She was Regent of Hesse-Cassel during the
minority of her son, from 1637 to 1650. This
is the earliest known example of a mezzotint
engraving.
xx
INDEX TO PLATES
WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE, AFTER HONDTHORST.
Engraved by L. VON SIEGEN. Page 58.
Lettered: ' G. Hondthorst
pinxit. L. a Siegen
inventor fecit 1644.'
H. 2o. W. i6f.
William n. was reigning
Prince of Orange from 1647
to 1650. He married Mary,
daughter of Charles i. of
England, and his son
William succeeded to the
English throne in 1689.
THE LARGE EXECUTIONER,' AFTER SPAGNOLETTO.
Engraved by PRINCE RUPERT. Page 66.
On the sword is a crown and
the letters ' R.P.F. 1658,'
and below ' Spag. inv.'
On the scroll hanging on
the cross is the legend :
'Ecce agnus dei qui tollit
Peccata mundi.'
H. 2 4 f W. 17*.
XXI
MEZZOTINTS
'THE STANDARD-BEARER,' AFTER GIORGIONE.
Engraved by PRINCE RUPERT. Page 68.
On the border of the shield
are the words : ' 1658
Rup. P. Fee,' and at the
top, on the right, 'Gior-
gione.'
H. ii. W. yf.
This print is called 'David'
by Laborde.
THE COKE FAMILY, AFTER HUYSMAN.
Engraved by PAUL VAN SOMER. Page 73.
Probably represents
the children of Sir
Edward Coke of Long-
ford, County Derby.
H. i8|. W. 2 5 f.
xxn
INDEX TO PLATES
JAMES, DUKE OF MONMOUTH, AFTER SIR P. LELY.
Engraved by A. BLOOTELING. Page 76.
Lettered : ' lames, Duke of
Monmouth. P. Lely
pinxit. A. Blooteling
fecit.'
H. 25. W. i9|.
Sir James Scott was
created Duke of Monmouth
in 1662 by Charles n. He
was noted for his beauty.
In 1685 he proclaimed him-
self king, landing from
France at Lyme Regis. Shortly afterwards he
was taken prisoner by the king's forces, attainted
of high treason, and executed on Tower Hill.
xxin
MEZZOTINTS
THE DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH, AFTER SIR P. LELY.
Engraved by A. BLOOTELING. Page 78.
Lettered : ' Louise, Dutchesse
of Portsmouth, &c. P.
Lely pinxit. A. Bloote-
ling fecit. lo. Lloyd
excudit.'
H. 6. W. 5f.
o v O
Louise Rende de Kerou-
alle was the daughter of a
Breton nobleman, and maid
of honour to Henrietta,
Duchess of Orleans, daughter of Charles i. She
came to England in 1670. Charles n. created her
Duchess of Portsmouth in 1673. Her son Charles
was created first Duke of Richmond in 1675.
PHILIP WOOLRICH, AFTER J. GREENHILL.
Engraved by FRANCIS PLACE. Page 84.
Lettered : ' Mr. Philip Wool-
rich, R P. fet: J.
Greenhill pinx.'
H.9f.
XXIV
INDEX TO PLATES
MADAME TURNER, AFTER SIR G. KNELLER.
Engraved by ISAAC BECKETT. Page 94.
Lettered : ' Madame Turner.
G. Kneller pinx: I. Beckett
fe : et ex.'
H.
W
She was a daughter of
Algernon, son of William,
second Earl of Salisbury, and
wife of John Turner.
CHARLES n., AFTER SIR G. KNELLER.
Engraved by R. WILLIAMS. Page 96.
Lettered : ' Carolus n. dus D :
G : Ang : Sco : Fra : et
Hib : Rex Fidei Defensor
&c. G. Kneller pinx. R.
Williams fecit. Sold by
I. Smith at ye Lyon &
Crown in Russel Street
Covent Garden.'
H. i. W. .
XXV
MEZZOTINTS
THE COUNTESS OF RANELAGH, AFTER
SIR G. KNELLER.
Engraved by JOHN SMITH. Page 100.
Lettered : ' The Countess of
Ranelagh. G. Kneller
Eques. pinx. I. Smith
fee. Sold by I. Smith
at the Lyon & Crown in
Russell Street Covent
Garden.'
H. i2l W. 9 f.
Probably Margaret,
daughter of the third Earl
of Salisbury, who married,
as his second wife, in 1695, Richard Jones,
created first Earl of Ranelagh in 1674. His first
wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Willoughby
of Parham. ^
' JUPITER, JUNO, AND Io/ AFTER TITIAN.
Engraved by JOHN SMITH. Page 102.
Lettered : ' Jupiter Juno & Io.
Ex Tabula Titiani. J.
Smith fecit. Londini 1709.'
H. isf. W. ii.
One of a series of nine
mezzotints engraved after the
pictures by Titian, representing
the ' Loves of the Gods," now
at Blenheim Palace.
xxvi
INDEX TO PLATES
MRS. T. C. PHILLIPS, AFTER HIGHMORE.
Engraved by JOHN FABER, Jun. Page 1 18.
Lettered: 'J. Highmore
pinx. J. Faber fecit,
1748.'
H. i2. W. 10.
Mrs. Phillips was the
author of an Apology for
her conduct. She was un-
happily married to a rich
merchant, Henry Muilman.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE.
Engraved by THOMAS FRYE, from one of his own
drawings. Page 126.
Lettered : ' Thos. Frye pic-
tor ad vivum delineavit
et sculpsit. Her Most
Excellent Majesty Char-
lotte, Queen of Great
Britain &c. Published
by Thomas Frye, accord-
ing to Act of Parliament,
May 24th, 1 762, and sold
by him at the Golden
Head in Hatton Garden.'
H. 22|. W. i6|.
Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Charles Louis,
Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, married
George HI., King of England, September 8, 1761.
xxvii
MEZZOTINTS
THE DUCHESS OF ANCASTER, AFTER T. HUDSON.
Engraved by J. MACARDELL. Page 130.
Lettered : ' Thos. Hudson
pinx. Js. McArdell fecit.
Mary, Dutchess of An-
caster, 1757. Publish'd
according to Act of Par-
liament & sold at the
Golden Head in Covent
Garden. Price 55.'
H. i8f. W. i3|.
The Duchess was a
daughter of Thomas Panton,
and a celebrated beauty.
She was Mistress of the Robes to Queen Charlotte,
and in 1750 married the third Duke of Ancaster.
Her portrait was also painted by Sir Joshua
Reynolds.
MRS. BONFOY, AFTER SlR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P. R. A.
Engraved by J. MACARDELL. Page 132.
/>
Lettered : ' J. Reynolds
pinxt. J. McArdell fecit.
Publish'd according to
Act of Parliament 1755.'
H. i 3 f. W. io|.
She was a daughter of
Richard Eliot, M.P., and
wife of Captain Hugh Bon-
foy, R.N.
XXVI 11
INDEX TO PLATES
LADY MIDDLETON, AFTER SIR P. LELY.
Engraved by J. MACARDELL. Page 134.
Lettered : ' Lady Middleton.
Done from the original
picture. Painted by Sr.
Peter Lely in the Royal
Palace at Windsor. By
James McArdell.'
H. 17$. W. 14.
She was a daughter of
Sir Robert Needham.
' NIGHT,' AFTER P. MERCIER.
Engraved by R. HOUSTON. Page 136.
Lettered: ' Publish'd accord-
ing to Act of Parliament
Jany. 1758. Ph. Mercier
pinxt. Richd. Houston
fecit. Night. . . . London.
Printed for Robt. Sayer
opposite Fetter Lane Fleet
Street. Price is. 6d.'
H. I2f. W. 10.
One of a series of the times
of the day. The others are entitled ' Morning,'
1 Noon,' and ' Afternoon.'
xxix
MEZZOTINTS
COLONEL MORDAUNT'S COCK-MATCH, AFTER
ZOFFANY.
Engraved by R. EARLOM. Page 138.
Lettered : ' Colonel Mordaunt's Cock Match at
Lucknow, in the Province of Oude, in the year
1786, at which were present several High and
Distinguished Personages. J. Zoffany pinxit.
R. Earlom sculpt., Londini.'
H. 21. W. 26^.
XXX
INDEX TO PLATES
FLOWERS AND FRUIT, AFTER J. VAN HUYSUM.
Engraved by R. EARLOM. Page 140.
Lettered, scratched : ' J. van
Huysum pinx. Rich.
Earlom sculpst., 1781.
John Boydell excudit,
1781.'
'Published Sep. i,
1781, by John Boydell,
engraver in Cheapside,
London.'
H. i8i. W.
There is a companion plate of Flowers only,
engraved in 1778, which is also very beautiful.
xxxi
MEZZOTINTS
THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, AFTER SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by VALENTINE GREEN. Page 140.
Lettered : ' Painted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds. En-
grav'd by V. Green,
Mezzotinto Engraver to
his Majesty & to the
Elector Palatine. His
Grace the Duke of Bed-
ford, with his Brothers,
Lord John Russell,
Lord William Russell,
and Miss Vernon. Pub-
lish'd May ist, 1778, by W. Shropshire, No. 158
New Bond Street.'
H. i8|. W. 17.
The fifth Duke of Bedford. Lord John suc-
ceeded him as sixth duke in 1802. Lord William
was murdered in 1840 by his valet, Courvoisier,
and Miss Vernon married George, Earl of
Warwick, in 1776.
xxxi i
INDEX TO PLATES
THE COUNTESS OF SALISBURY, AFTER SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by VALENTINE GREEN. Page 142.
Lettered: 'Painted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds. En-
graved by V. Green, Mez-
zotint Engraver to His
Majesty & to the Elector
Palatine. Emily Mary,
Countess of Salisbury.
Published Deer, ist, 1781,
by V. Green, No. 29 New-
man Street, Oxford Street,
London.'
H. 24. W. i 5 .
She was a daughter of the first Marquis of
Downshire, and in 1773 she married James,
seventh Earl of Salisbury. She was burned to
death in a fire at Hatfield Hall in 1835.
XXXlll
MEZZOTINTS
KITTY FISHER, AFTER SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by E. FISHER. Page 144.
Lettered : ' J. Reynolds
pinxt. E. Fisher fecit.
Miss Kitty Fischer in
the character of Cleo-
patra. Painted for
Thos. Bowles in St.
Paul's Church Yard &
Jno. Bowles and Son at
the Black Horse in
Cornhill.'
H. ii.
In 1766 Miss Fisher married a Mr. John
Norris. She was a noted wit and a well-known
beauty, and is said to have died from the poisonous
effects of painting, in 1771.
xxxiv
INDEX TO PLATES
1 HOPE NURSING LOVE," AFTER SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by E. FISHER. Page 146.
Lettered : ' Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds pinxit. Publish'd
according to Act of Par-
liament, 25 July 1771,
and sold by E. Fisher
at the Golden Head in
Leicester Square. E.
Fisher sculpt. Hope
Nursing Love.'
H. 194. W. 14.
Said to be a portrait of Theophila Palmer,
afterwards Mrs. Gwatkin.
XXXV
MEZZOTINTS
MRS. BOUVERIE AND SON, AFTER SlR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by J. WATSON. Page 148.
Lettered, on block: 'The
Honble. Mrs. Bou-
verie.' ' Sr. Joshua
Reynolds pinxt.
James Watson fecit.
Publish'd accord-
ing to Act of Par-
liament, Sepr. 3Oth,
1770: and Sold by
James Watson,
Queen Anne Street
near Titchfield
Street Oxford Road, and B. Clowes, No. 18 Gutter
Lane, Cheapside, London.'
H.
W.
She was Henrietta, daughter of Sir Everard
Fawkener. She married firstly (1764) Edward
Bouverie, brother of the Earl of Radnor, am"
secondly Lord Robert Spencer, son of the secom
Duke of Marlborough.
XXXVI
INDEX TO PLATES
Miss JACOBS, AFTER SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by J. SPILSBURY. Page 150.
Lettered : ' J. Reynolds
pinxt. J. Spilsbury fecit.
This print obtained the
highest Premium in the
year 1761, granted by
the Society for the En-
couragement of Arts,
Manufactures and Com-
merce, instituted in Lon-
don. Publish'd by J.
Boydell, Engraver in
Cheapside, Jany. ist,
1762, according to Act of Parliament.'
H. 18. W. 14.
XXXVll
MEZZOTINTS
THE COUNTESS OF ANCRUM, AFTER SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by J. SPILSBURY. Page 151.
Lettered : ' Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds pinxt. Jonn. Spils-
bury fecit. To the Right
Honbl. Willm. Kerr,
Earl of Ancram, This
Print is most humbly
dedicated by his Lord-
ships very obedient &
much obliged Servant
Jonn. Spilsbury. Pub-
lished According to Act
of Parliament, April 10,
1770, and Sold at Spilsbury's Print Shop in
Russel Court.'
H. isi. W. ii.
William Kerr succeeded to the earldom of
Ancrum in 1690, when the title became merged
in that of the earldom of Lothian.
xxxvin
INDEX TO PLATES
MRS. ABINGTON, AFTER SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by Miss ELIZABETH JUDKINS. Page 154.
Lettered : ' Sr. Joshua
Reynolds pinxt.
Elizth. Judkins fecit.
Mrs. Abington. Pub-
lish'd According to
Act of Parliament,
May 20th, 1772, by
James Watson, No.
45 little Queen Ann
Street.and B.Clowes,
No. 1 8, Gutter Lane,
Cheapside.'
H. 13$. W. ii.
A celebrated actress, Frances Barton was born
in 1737, and married Mr. James Abington. She
was a favourite subject with artists.
LADY KENT, AFTER SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by JOHN DEAN. Page 158.
Lettered: 'Published Feby.
i, 1779, by J. Dean, No.
27 Berwick Street. Sir
Joshua Reynolds pinxit.
J. Dean fecit.'
H. i W.
She was a daughter of
Josiah Wordsworth, and wife
of Sir Charles Kent, Bart.
XXXIX
MEZZOTINTS
BOY WITH LAMB, AFTER SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by JOHN DEAN. Page 160.
Lettered, scratched : ' Sir Joshua Reynolds pinxit.
Published November the ist, 1776, by Jn.
Walker, No. 13 Parliament Street. John
Dean fecit.'
H. i2|. W. 15.
Said to be a portrait of Master Wynne, son
of Sir W. Williams Wynne, in the character of
St. John.
xl
INDEX TO PLATES
LADY CATHERINE PELHAM-CLINTON, AFTER
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by J. R. SMITH. Page 160.
Lettered : 'Painted by Sr.
Joshua Reynolds. En-
Civ'd by J. R. Smith,
dy Catherine Pelham
Clinton. London, Pub-
lish'd Feby. ist, 1782, by
J. R. Smith, No. 83,
opposite the Pantheon,
Oxford Street.'
H. 18. W. 14.
She was a daughter of
Henry Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, and in 1800 she
married William, Lord Folkestone, afterwards
Earl of Radnor.
' SERENA,' AFTER G. ROMNEY.
Engraved by J. R. SMITH. Page 162.
Lettered: 'Painted by G.
Romney. Engraved by
J. R. Smith. Serena.'
H. i8f. W. i 3 f
Possibly Miss Sneyd,
afterwards Mrs. Davenport
of Capesthorne.
MEZZOTINTS
THE COUNTESS SPENCER, AFTER SIR JOSHUA
REYNOLDS, P.R.A.
Engraved by CHARLES HODGES. Page 166.
Lettered: 'Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds pinxt. C. Hodges
fecit. Countess Spencer.
London, Pubd. i6th
Febry. 1785 by W. Hum-
phrey, No. 227 Strand.'
H. i2|. W. 10$.
Lavinia, daughter of Sir
Charles Bingham, after-
wards Earl of Lucan,
married in 1781 George,
afterwards second Earl Spencer.
'THE SHIPWRECK,' AFTER J. M. W. TURNER, R.A.
Engraved by C. TURNER. Page 168.
Lettered along
the lower edge
of the picture:
'London. Pub.
Jany. I, 1807,
by C. Turner,
No. 50 Warren
Str., Fitzroy
Square.'
INDEX TO PLATES
THE DUCHESS OF BEDFORD, AFTER
J. HOPPNER, R.A.
Engraved by S. W. REYNOLDS. Page 178.
Georgiana Elizabeth Byng
was the second daughter of
George, fourth Viscount
Tornngton, and in 1786 she
married John, afterwards
sixth Duke of Bedford, Lord-
Lieutenant of Ireland.
H. 25*. W. i 7 f.
INVERARY PIER.
Etched and engraved by J. M. W. TURNER, after
a sketch by himself. Page 182.
Lettered: 'Drawn
Etched & En-
graved by I.
M. W. Turner,
R.A. Inverary
Pier, Locn
Fyne. Morn-
ing. Published
June i, 1811,
by I. M. W.
Turner, Queen
Anne Street West. 1
H.
W. 10.
xliii
MEZZOTINTS
THE COTTAGERS, AFTER G. MORLAND.
Engraved by W. WARD. Page 188.
Lettered : ' Painted
by G. Morland.
Cottagers. En-
grav'd by W.
Ward. London,
Publish'd Feby.
1791 by T. Simp-
son, St. Paul's
Church Yard.'
H. 1
W. 20.
QUEEN VICTORIA, AFTER A. E. CHALON, R.A.
Engraved by S. COUSINS. Page 194.
Lettered : ' Painted by Alfred
E. Chalon, R.A., London.
Published May ist, 1839,
by F. G. Moon, Printseller
by Special Appointment
to Her Majesty, aoThread-
needle Street. Engraved
by Samuel Cousins,
A.R.A. Victoria R.'
H. 24. W. isi.
xliv
INDEX TO PLATES
MRS. WOLFF, AFTER SIR THOMAS
LAWRENCE, P.R.A.
Engraved by S. COUSINS. Page 196.
Lettered : ' Engraved by
Samuel Cousins, from
a picture by the late
Sir Thomas Lawrence,
P.R.A., &c. &c. Mrs.
Wolff. London, Pub-
lished March ist, 1831,
by Colnaghi Senr.,
Dominic Colnaghi &
Co., Printsellers to
their Majesties, Pall
Mall East.'
H. 15*. W. 12.
NOTE
It must be understood that the lettering
on mezzotints often varies considerably, so that
any given lettering may only occur on one par-
ticular state. So the letterings given above are
only to be taken as those which are most commonly
found. In the case of proofs there is very often
no lettering at all.
In the same way the dimensions given, namely
the height and width of the subject in inches,
are also liable to variation, so these can only be
safely considered as approximate.
xlv
MEZZOTINTS
MEZZOTINTS
CHAPTER I
Mezzotint engraving on metal : what it is and how it is
done. How prints are made from mezzotinted plates,
and how to keep them when they are made. Inks,
papers, and coloured prints. The enemies of prints, and
the literature of mezzotints. Continental engravers in
mezzotint.
IF a polished sheet of metal be slightly indented
or scratched, and ink be rubbed into the
mark, when damp paper is strongly pressed
in it a cast of the lines will be made on the paper in
relief, the ink which has rested in the lines in the
metal being absorbed and retained by the paper.
On the other hand, if most of the metal surface
be cut away either by graver or by acid, and a few
lines left sticking up at their original surface-level,
these lines being inked, and paper lightly pressed
on them, an impression of them in intaglio will be
left on the paper, the ink being retained by the
paper equally as in the first case.
These two processes, exactly opposite in prin-
ciple, have both been largely used for the multi-
plication of prints from metal plates or blocks. The
first, which may be called the intaglio process, is
made use of in the case of line engravings, etchings,
rouletted work, dry-points, ana aquatints ; the
A I
MEZZOTINTS
second, the relief process, was most effectively used
in the case of the beautiful illustrations found in
the French Horce of the fifteenth century, especially
those printed, and possibly engraved, by Pigouchet
or Simon Vostre, and also in the eighteenth
century when William Blake cut or etched copper
blocks in relief from which he printed his curious
poems with their illustrations.
A metal plate, engraved as a mezzotint with
rocker and scraper, holds an intermediate place
between the two methods of intaglio and relief.
The groundwork, prepared by roulette, rocker, or
file, begins by being intaglio, but by reason of
much trituration part of the surface metal is
actually raised above its original level in small
points, forming a surface which may be considered
somewhat analogous to an untouched wood block,
inasmuch that if inked each would make a black
impression, although one is rough and the other
is smooth. Again, if the wood block be engraved
that is to say part of it cut away a corresponding
light mark will appear on a print made from it ; so
also, if part of the rocked surface of the metal plate
be scraped away or pressed down, a corresponding
light mark will appear on the print.
But in practice few mezzotints actually exist by
themselves ; they are generally helped by some more
definite touches either of the burin or of the etching
or dry-point needle, and the existence of much of
this work brings the plate at once into the class of
intaglio engravings.
When a plate has been etched before it has been
roughened by rocker or roulette, the etched lines
will appear on the print in low relief. Sometimes,
2
ETCHING, STIPPLE AND DRY POINT
if the rocking, rouletting, or grounding has been
carried very deeply, it may obliterate the etched
lines altogether in dark places, but they can gene-
rally be detected by their difference of texture to
that of the soft mezzotinting. As a rule an etched
ROULETTE' LIKE A SPUR-ROWEL.
line has blunted ends, whereas an engraved line has
delicately pointed ends, and also has cleaner edges.
Etching, as well as engraving, removes some metal
from the plate on which it occurs, but rouletting or
rocking does not unless it is carried too far, in
which case the plate is ruined.
Graining by stipple, a process much used by
mezzotinters, especially those of Cousins' school, is
a sort of etching, but instead of lines the etcher
makes dots, and the acid eats the metal away ir-
regularly, so that no two dots are the same shape.
Pointilld work, the fine dotting which can be seen
on faces, is usually simply done by hand with a fine
point. Microscopically, on a print, both the stipple
stars and the pointilld dots project above the general
level of the paper.
Dry-point consists of scratches made on a metal
plate with a sharp, strong needle. These scratches
have fine ends lilce those of an engraved line, but
no metal is removed ; the needle only cuts a furrow
like that made by a plough, and throws up the
superabundant metal at the side in a burr. In a
print a dry-point line shows with a blurred effect,
due to the burr catching some extra ink under its
sheltering ridge. When the burr is worn or scraped
3
MEZZOTINTS
off, the line itself shows only as if it were engraved
by the burin.
A normal engraved line shows on a print with
pointed ends, and is in relief. It is a trench cut
out of the surface of the metal by means of a sharp
burin of steel, which removes a strip of metal in the
same way that a wood-engraver's tool cuts out a
thread of wood from a piece of boxwood.
Lines produced in these ways show more or
less on almost all mezzotints, and although no
doubt an excess of any of them should take a plate
out of the category of true mezzotints, it must be
allowed that a small amount of such auxiliary work
is advisable, inasmuch as it is, for instance, all but
impossible to engrave a human eye properly with
rocker and scraper alone. As to subject pieces and
landscapes in mezzotint, they are so universally
etched, aquatinted (another kind of etching), or
engraved as well, that almost all of them should
really be designated as engraved in ' mixed manner.'
The existence, however, of even a small amount
of mezzotinting in a plate has been for a very long
time considered enough to justify its inclusion in
the class of mezzotints, and perhaps this is well,
because the supplementary work is after all only
intended to strengthen and improve the mezzo-
tinting.
On all first-rate mezzotints a grain of definite
form can be seen in light places, and this is now
and then quite large so large indeed that it is often
wonderful how well a soft effect has been managed.
When the grain is very fine, it seems to me that the
effect is never so good. As a general rule, the finer
the grain the harder the effect on the print.
4
ENGRAVING IN MEZZOTINT
We see, then, that in line engravings, etchings,
or aquatints, some of the metal itself is removed in
the process by burin or acid. On the other hand,
in the cases of dry-point, hammered work, roulette
work, or mezzotints made by the use of rocker and
burnisher alone, none of the metal is removed, but
only the arrangement of its particles is altered. In
'SCRAI'ER.'
the case of a mezzotint it is usual to effect another
process, that of actually removing some of the
burred surface, as may be considered advisable, by
means of a sharp scraper. I take it that the exist-
ence of some of this scraped work on a plate is really
the criterion of true mezzotinting. It exists in
every plate of the first rank. At the same time,
numbers of so-called mezzotints have no scraped
work at all upon them. These plates have been
entirely engraved by means of roulettes or similar
instruments, sometimes only rouletted just where
shadows were required, and sometimes roughened
more or less all over, and then lightened and finished
by the use of a burnisher only.
It will be readily understood that a needle point
set in a convenient handle is an efficient instrument
for making slight dots on the surface of a piece of
polished metal ; that such a piece of metal, not
dotted, would provide no proper nidus for ink to
rest in, but that if a design were carried out in
dots on the surface, ink would remain in them, and
ordinary prints could be made from such a plate
5
MEZZOTINTS
as long as the surface of the metal was not worn
down so far as to obliterate the traces of the needle-
point. It is also evident that as the dots become
shallower and tend to disappear, so pari fiassu the
fainter the resulting print from the plate would
appear. A dot made on copper with a sharp point
held perpendicularly will make some burr, but so little
that it may be ignored, and will not show on a print
if the inking is skilfully done with that purpose.
PointiHe" work of this kind has been made use
of generally as an accessory to line engraving or
etching for so long that it is practically co-existent
with the art of line engraving itself, both before this
art was utilised for the express purpose of re-
duplicating prints as well as afterwards.
It is interesting to note that although an en-
graved design on a metal plate will hold ink in
such a way that numbers of practically identical
prints can be made from it, it is also possible to
make an unique print from a plate that has no
engraving at all upon it. This can be done by so
inking the plate that a picture is formed by the ink
alone, and then when printed in the usual way, a
print will be produced, good or bad, according to the
skill with which the inking has been done. But only
one print can be drawn from such a plate, because
the first one made carries off the whole of the ink.
The possibility, however, of making such a print
is a valuable index of the immense power of the
printer to make or mar prints from any engraved
plate, a power that in my opinion should be retained
in the hands of the engraver himself.
After the needle-point, held in the hand of the
engraver, had been used for a long time to make
6
ROULETTING
dots one by one slowly and laboriously, it occurred
to a soldier artist, Ludwig von Siegen, a German
officer in the Hessian army, that some more effective
and quicker instrument might be devised that would
produce a similar result with less labour. Von
Siegen brought into his service an instrument like
a small cog-wheel with sharp teeth, set in a con-
venient handle so as to revolve easily. When such
an instrument is run
face of a metal plate, it ANOTHER ro ^ Qf , ROULETTE> ,
leaves a line of slightly L ,KE A LITTLE BARREL.
burred dots, and this
was exactly what Von Siegen wanted. All his
earlier plates were engraved by means of these
little wheels, or roulettes, used as a pencil or brush
might be, and in his skilled and able hands the
resulting effect is admirable.
It is certain that Von Siegen must have experi-
mented well with his new instrument before he
engraved the earliest of his plates, prints from
which still exist, as the work on this plate shows
the touch of a very practised hand, ana also when
he engraved it he had already a well chosen stock
of tools. This can be surmised by reason of the
existence of lines of dots variously spaced, for any
one roulette will only make lines of dots spaced
continuously one particular way. A very careful
examination is required to tell exactly what pattern
of roulette has been used in any given case, as they
vary largely. They may have several rows of teeth
of different patterns, or only one ; they may be
like spur-rowels or like little garden rollers. The
portrait of Amelia Elizabeth, Landgravine of Hesse,
7
MEZZOTINTS
referred to above, is a very charming example of
roulette engraving, the first that was ever made,
delicate and effective, and it undoubtedly shows
the first important step towards the discovery of
the art of mezzotinting. Several other fine plates
were excellently engraved by Von Siegen in the
same way with the roulette alone, but presently he
went one step further in the development of the
new art.
After having engraved several masterly plates
with roulettes used freely as pencil or brush, simply
to make shadows as required, Von Siegen ultimately
found that when a roulette was made to cross and
recross the surface of the metal again and again in
the same place with some pressure, a new effect
became apparent on the print. The separate lines
of dots now merged into each other in a remark-
able way, losing their structural identity as dots
altogether, and ultimately producing a roughened or
triturated surface by reason of the running together
of the burrs surrounding each dot. The result was
a sort of trap for the ink, which would lie on a
place treated in such a manner in an unduly large
proportion, and consequently yielded on the print
itself a very strongly inked patch having a more or
less velvety texture.
I hardly think that the utilisation of the small
wheel, or a modification of it, to actually roughen
the whole of a metal plate, irrespective of the design
afterwards to be lightened out of it, ever occurred
to Von Siegen, and I do not think any of his plates
were so treated.
The roughening of the surface of a polished
sheet of metal can be accomplished in many ways.
THE ROCKER
A wash of strong acid will remove the polish slightly
and unevenly ; sulphur will remove it more manage-
ably ; sandpaper can be pressed into it by means of
a roller ; the surface can be filed or rolled over by
a file ; a roulette or a small roughened roller can be
run all over it ; a needle point can scratch it all
over; and, finally, the instrument called a 'rocker*
can be used. Each of these processes respectively
will achieve the same main result, but with marked
HAND 'ROCKER.'
differences in the grain, which will show in the
light places of a print. A modern ' rocker ' is
like an ordinary chisel with a rounded instead of
a straight edge, one side of it, moreover, being
channelled with close parallel lines. The rounded
end permits of the instrument being easily rocked
sideways by hand, like a cradle, each movement
making one line of dots. It is easily kept sharp
by grinding or hone-stoning on its reverse side.
POLE ARRANGEMENT OF 'ROCKER.'
The mezzotinting of plates is now usually done
by means of a 'rocker' set in a long handle and
9
MEZZOTINTS
easily worked by a skilled workman, but even so it
is a slow process. The plate should be gone com-
pletely over about eighty times.
The theory is that the whole plate should be
carefully rocked all over so as to be quite evenly
roughened, and when the rocking is done by some
assistant, or automatically, this result is quite easily
attained ; but whenever an engraver rocks his own
plate, it seems to me that it is better that he should
do so sympathetically with his subject rather than
blindly. At the same time, rocking is so wearisome
a process that now almost all mezzotinters have
their plates ready rocked for them to any grain they
may prefer, and find it more satisfactory to give
themselves a little more work with the scraper, than
to prepare the plate entirely with their own hands.
I think that probably most of the great engravers
rocked their plates themselves, but in a few cases
they undoubtedly made their assistants do it. The
minute dots, grains, or marks found on mezzotints
vary greatly. Many are quite coarse, while others
are so fine as to produce a mere grey shadow. Some
of these delicate roughenings indeed may quite pos-
sibly be only sulphur or acid stains, or even a slight
film of ink judiciously left on the bare polished
copper ; but in all cases the finest prints show
largish grains in light places. A mezzotint should
not be examined as a miniature or even as an
etching, but should be viewed rather from such a
distance as to give full value to the major distri-
butions of light and shade. From the technical
point of view, however, the grain is a most im-
portant witness, as from observation of it we could
reconstruct the instrument with which it was made.
10
ROCKING
Microscopically, the thoroughly rocked surface
of a metal plate closely resembles a choppy sea
suddenly solidified. The level of calm is non-
existent it lies theoretically midway between the
tops of the highest waves and the bottoms of the
lowest troughs. Although the first immediate effect
of the rocker or roulette is to make only a few
scattered dots in intaglio, when this process is
repeated again and again the dots get so mixed
up that they all run into each other and become
separated only by small irregular walls or burrs of
metal raised above their normal surface-level. At
a certain stage the rocking must be stopped or the
delicate burrs will themselves get so fine that they
will break off, and the plate will be spoiled. The
exact amount of rocking that each metal will bear
is a point that must be thoroughly understood by
the operator. It will thus be seen that one effect
of a close rocking is practically to raise up a series
of projecting points divided from one another by
irregular pits, each of which will, in the process of
inking, become .filled with ink. When soft wet
paper is pressed upon such a surface, the sharp pro-
jecting asperities of the much roughened surface
will pierce it everywhere, thereby not only allowing
much of the ink to be absorbed within the actual
thickness of the paper, but also actually causing a
certain disintegration of its substance into some-
thing distantly resembling the pile of velvet. So
we find that peculiarly soft velvety effect in the very
dark places of mezzotint prints that are inked in
such a way as to bring it out. This tendency to
velvety appearance, however, has its danger, as it
is not proper that it should show much or in places
ii
MEZZOTINTS
where it is wrong for instance in trees so the
proper subservience of this quality is one of the
tests of a finely produced print from a mezzotinted
plate. In fine prints, heavily inked places possess a
delicate bloom which is very easily marred indeed
it is dimmed even if gently rubbed with the finger-
tips, and some of it will come off if touched finely
with a white handkerchief. Hence the necessity of
keeping valuable proofs so that their surfaces shall
not be in any way rubbed or pressed.
A similar velvety effect can be seen to a smaller
degree in dry-point etchings or places worked with
dry-point, and for the same reason.
When the burr from a dry-point line is removed
by a scraper, a bare line incised on the copper is
left, and on the print the velvety effect disappears.
When, likewise, the rough burred surface of a
mezzotinted plate is flattened and blunted by the
action of a scraper, the tendency of the print is
to show light places, and in such places the grain
of the tool used in roughening the plate can be
seen and studied, because by scraping off the sur-
face we get gradually down to the first intaglio-
marks of the roulette or rocker on the surface of
' BURNISHER.'
the metal. If the scraping process is continued
far enough, in either case, to remove the copper
until all the holes or lines upon it are gone, a space
will be left on which the ink will not stick, and
which, consequently, will print white. Such places
can be further flattened and polished by means of
12
BURNISHING AND SCRAPING
a burnisher, but the use of this instrument is
always very sparing in good work, appearing only
at a few small points. The great art of the mezzo-
tint engraver lies in his use of the scraper, which
is, at its best, a thoroughly artistic process, re-
quiring the greatest skill and experience on the
part of the operator.
The mere working of a mezzotint plate after the
rocking is done is quick and easy. A screen of
oiled paper is set up before a window or lamp, and
the plate firmly fixed at a suitable angle. There
are many ways of marking the plate for working
upon : one of the easiest is to cover it over with
lamp black and on that draw the design in white.
All the white must then be scraped away to a
depth which the engraver must judge as well as
he can. If the engraving is an original, the artist
will probably know how far to scrape ; but if he is
making a copy, he must proceed slowly and care-
fully, and will first probably make a reversed study
in monotone of the picture to be copied, the same
size as his engraving is to be, ana he will have
this drawing close to his side and work from it.
The effect of his touches with the scraper are at
once apparent as lights on the metal if anywhere
he scrapes away too much, he can roulette that
place again if he doesn't scrape away enough at
first, he goes on until the proper effect is reached.
Every touch has a visible value immediately, but
the lighter places show better on steel than on
copper, as tnis latter oxidises and darkens very
quickly. Some art processes help their votaries,
some do not. Line engraving helps least of all the
methods of engraving upon metal ; etching with
13
MEZZOTINTS
acid helps most an unskilled draughtsman can be
made to produce an etching with artistic qualities
in it. Mezzotinting comes between these two
extremes. It is easy to produce a bad mezzotint,
but excessively difficult to produce a good one.
Definite lines in certain places appear to be
necessary to counteract the indefiniteness insepar-
able from mezzotint alone. In portraits such
marks can usually be found about the eyes, nose,
mouth, and hands, and they have been made
either with the burin, dry-point, or etching-needle.
Etching with acid as a preliminary to mezzotinting
has commonly been resorted to in the case of
landscapes, notably in the case of Turner's Liber
Studiorum. Here it has been used to define the
outlines only, and the printed plates are, more-
over, also sometimes helped with aquatinting ;
but etching has also been much used generally for
outlining and defining designs to be afterwards
finished in mezzotint.
Aquatinting is a method of roughening the
surface of a metal plate which was invented about
the middle of the eighteenth century by a German
engraver, Le Prince. It has a delicate and soft
effect, if well managed. It is, however, largely auto-
matic, the process requiring only careful control
on the part of the artist. The plate is covered
with small grains of resin in carefully graduated
quantities, and then immersed in acid which bites
the metal wherever it can reach it between the
grains. The printed effect is that of a fine irregular
network.
Skies show well and softly in aquatint, but they
are not so easy to produce either by etching or
PROOFS
mezzotint, as Turner realised. The grain produced
by rocker or roulette is not an easy one to utilise
for any sky except one heavily overcast with
thunder-clouds.
Although copper has been the most extensively
used of any metal for engraving in mezzotint, it is
too soft to bear the pressure of many printings
without deterioration. About thirty prints of the
finest quality can be drawn from such a plate ; after
that the prints begin to show a faintness in the
very dark places. The dark parts show wear first,
because there the plate is most delicate : the points
of the burrs are fine and close together, and of little
individual strength. Prints made from the slightly
worn state of the plate may easily be doctored with
lamp black or printing ink so as to appear all right,
but this will generally show if the print is held up
to the light. After the first thirty prints have been
drawn from an engraved copper plate, it is probable
that about a hundred more can be made which will
be good enough for all ordinary purposes. In the
case of a very elaborate plate it may be necessary to
make several proofs as the work progresses, and the
engraver must be careful not to be too free with
such proofs, because each one wears out the plate
to some degree. Some way should be thought of
to enable an engraver to get a proof that would
have a working value but which would not wear out
the plate, and I think it possible that such proofs
could be made with plaster of Paris. Waxed paper
will do for an etching, but I doubt if it would be of
much use for a mezzotint. When the plate shows
signs of deterioration, the device of re-touching can
be resorted to, enabling yet many more prints to be
15
MEZZOTINTS
made. It is difficult without comparison to say
whether a print is drawn from a plate that has been
re-touched a first or even a second time, but after
that it will show an apparent diversity of texture
or value of the dark parts as compared with the
rest. They will almost appear as if they had been
inked with a different ink.
In 1820 William Say engraved a small mezzo-
tint on hardened steel, but after this experimental
plate he does not seem to have tried it again.
Both T. G. Lupton and David Lucas, however,
followed his example with much success. Prints
from steel mezzotints have generally been printed
in black ink, and this is certainly not so sym-
pathetic for landscape work as brown, but there is
a quality in the grain of a mezzotint on steel which
makes it difficult to make a satisfactory print in
any colour that is not very dark. The graining on
steel or iron is always made very fine and shallow,
and this always inclines the resulting print to
hardness ; but I cannot see why a print drawn
from a steel plate should not appear of the same
quality as one from a copper plate, provided the
mezzotinting was done with identical tools to the
same depth.
The actual working of a steel plate is more
troublesome than that of a copper plate, but the
engraver reaps his reward in the far greater number
of prints he can get. A compromise has, however,
been extensively used of late years, as it has been
found possible by means of an electrotyping process
to coat an engraved copper plate with a film of
steel fine enough to make very little difference in
the depth of the engraved marks upon it. After
16
STEEL PLATING
many impressions have been taken from such a
steeled plate, and the thin steel shows signs of
wear, it can all be stripped off and the plate re-
steeled. It is obvious that, although this process
renders it easy to multiply prints almost indefinitely,
it nevertheless lessens the precious rarity which
must always be accounted one of the many charms
of a beautiful proof drawn from a sensitive copper
plate. The quality, moreover, of a print from a
steeled copper plate differs from one made before
the plate was subjected to the steeling process.
On the other hand, there seems no doubt that
from the commercial aspect superior virtue attaches
to the steeled plate, from which numerous impres-
sions can be cheaply produced and expensively sold
in accordance with the various checks ordained by
the Printsellers* Association. Any one of such prints
may only indeed be one of a very large number, as
any number of ' proofs ' may have been made.
The important question as to whether a mezzo-
tinted copper plate, steeled, can yield as fine a print
as it might have done before being subjected to this
process, is one about which there is much diversity of
opinion. I am told by good judges that the covering
of steel is so extremely thin that practically it makes
no difference, in a print, that can be detected by
unprofessional vision. I do not hold with this view
at all, as it is quite certain that the operation of
steeling an engraved copper plate undoubtedly does
make a considerable difference in the depth of any
lines or dots which may be engraved upon it, the
tendency of all such covering being to accumulate
particularly in hollow places. For this reason it is
possible by successive re-steeling to produce at last
B 17
MEZZOTINTS
a perfectly flat surface on an engraved copper plate.
So if a plate requires re-steeling, it is absolutely
necessary that all remains of the previous steeling
should be completely removed before it is subjected
to the new operation.
Modern mezzotints are intended to circulate
largely, therefore they are usually steeled from the
very first. From such a plate tens of thousands of
prints can be made, the steeling being done again
and again as necessary, the copper plate retaining
throughout its original form unaltered. No print
from a steeled plate can properly have an extra-
vagant value, because hundreds of impressions that
are practically identical may possibly exist. This
could never be said about a print from a copper
plate, and I cannot but regret that mezzotint
engravers do not rigidly leave steeled plates for the
exclusive benefit of line engravings, etchings, or
photogravures, for the preservation of which the
hardening process is eminently fitted.
Before a mezzotinted plate is quite finished,
proof prints are made from it for the purpose of
seeing more clearly the true effect on paper of the
work done. These prints are often made in reverse,
that is to say, from the wet proof pulled from the
plate. Another print is made by placing another
piece of damp paper over it, and passing them both
together under the printing-roller. The result is a
flat print handed in the same way as the plate, and
consequently easy to work from. Working proofs
are usually purposely over-inked so as to exaggerate
the darkness, the corrections being then more safely
worked gradually with the scraper. After a more
or less lengthened state of imperfection, a plate will
18
PROOFS
eventually reach a condition which is good enough,
in the opinion of its author, for all practical pur-
poses, and then there will be some more proofs
made, this time with a view to the proper inking of
the plates a most important point, as a printer can,
by skilled manipulation and working with a rag and
some whitening, ink the same plate so differently
that even a good judge of prints might say they re-
presented different states of the same engraving.
The printer will pull three or four proofs inked in
different ways, and submit them for approval or
comment, and when one of these is at last satisfac-
tory, it will be returned as an approved proof, and
from it the printer will regulate his future inkings,
keeping it always before him. No two prints, how-
ever, can be quite alike. In the case of copper there
is always a marked difference, as the plate so soon
begins to wear. Trial proofs and proofs of all kinds
of fine plates are much valued by collectors, although
many of them are dark and messy, having been
made for actual use, and probably knocked about in
the workshop. The fewer proofs made, the better
for the plate.
When the actual engraving of the plate has been
approved, the lettering is added, and here is found
another series of small differences dear to the
collector. The names of artist and engraver, and
sometimes the title of the picture, are at first only
scratched on the copper. This means one state.
Next, one of the inscriptions may be burnished, cut
and altered, and little sketches or designs added
along the margins. This is another state.
Eventually all the scratched letterings and other
marks are cleared off, and the title properly written
'9
MEZZOTINTS
by a professional engraver, the large capitals per-
haps left in outline only. This is a sign of an early
print, and is consequently highly esteemed. The
outline letters presently are lined, or perhaps all the
hitherto blank space at the bottom of the plate is
ruled over with lines. These indications point to
endeavours on the part of the engraver to strengthen
his weakening plate, and the value of a print on
which they occur is lessened in comparison to what
it was before their appearance.
I do not think the most pleasing prints from a
mezzotinted copper-plate are to be found in any of
the trial proofs, but rather among the first few pro-
perly lettered prints drawn from it. All the more
delicate excellences of the plate are, or should be,
still undimmed, and the printer is not yet tired of
his monotonous work. When a printer gets wearied
of a certain plate, he is likely unconsciously to slur
the printing from it, and moreover, all the quite early
impressions from any plate are sure to have been
pulled by the same man, who has studied the plate
well enough to have succeeded in producing the ap-
proved proof, of which he is justly proud, and the
peculiarities of which he is naturally anxious to repro-
duce as exactly as possible in the subsequent prints.
It will be understood that all these delightful
differences as to states are only found in natural
perfection in the case of prints made from copper
plates. If they occur at all in prints made from
steeled copper plates, they only exist of design, and
lose therefore their proper value as real indications
of the different periods of the life of a plate. When
they are made purposely they can only have a
purely commercial interest.
20
PAPERS
Prints from steel plates, or from copper steeled,
can be produced in such numbers that they need
never possess the rare virtues of dissimilarity so
strongly marked when the softer copper has been
used, but of course fine proofs taken from a copper
plate before it has been steeled are of full artistic
interest.
A fine proof from an old copper mezzotint may
be worth anything, and will increase in estimation ;
but a print from a modern steeled plate, however
brilliant it may appear, may be nevertheless only
one of a very considerable number that are prac-
tically identical, and such prints are unlikely to
increase, justly, in rarity or value.
The papers used for printing from mezzotint
plates are very various. Most kinds have at one
time or another found favour with engravers, but
as a rule they have preferred a thick, soft paper.
Etchers have generally liked a thin, fine paper,
as this presses more easily into the fine lines on an
etched plate ; but such a paper would be likely to be
cut up too much by the file-like roughness of a
mezzotint. Etchers also have favoured a tinted
paper for their prints, but mezzotinters have as a
rule preferred white paper, though coloured papers
have now and then been tried experimentally. Some
few mezzotints have been printed on vellum with
charming effect, but the use of this substance in any
quantity would wear out a copper-plate quicker than
paper. '
Numbers of old mezzotints have been printed on
a thick paper which has been imperfectly pulped,
the result being that it is full of small pimples.
These pimples easily get rubbed on their inked
21
MEZZOTINTS
surfaces, and they soon show as pale spots on the
print. If this disaster has already happened, the
only thing to do is to touch each pale spot care-
fully with lamp black or printing ink to the same
tone it had before it was injured. The print then
should be put under a sunk mount deep enough to
completely protect the surface and strong enough
to prevent bending.
When the artist is satisfied as well as possible
with the quality of the paper on which his prints are
to be made, it is cut up into a size slightly exceeding
that of the plate itself. These pieces of paper are
then wetted and laid in a heap upon each other and
allowed to soak awhile, so that the moisture may
penetrate the paper thoroughly and uniformly
throughout its entire substance. Great care must
be taken that no atom of grease reaches the paper
at this stage. If it does, the print made from the
piece that is greasy will probably be no good, as the
ink will not take properly over a greasy spot.
Many prints have to be thrown away because of
such mischances, which are often not found out
until a print is made. If vellum is being used it
must not be wetted, but will absorb sufficient
moisture by being left in a damp cupboard for some
few hours.
When the paper is considered to be properly
damped, it may be lightly brushed with a clean
nailbrush on the side which is to be printed on, sc
as to loosen up the fibres and render them more
able to absorb ink freely. The engraved plate, well
warmed, is then inked in accordance with the
approved proof.
The ink, prepared with burned linseed oil, is
22
PRINTING
rubbed on to the plate, well into every line, dot,
mark or roughness upon it, and then partly removed
by hand or rag, until the printer judges that the
proportion left on the plate is commensurate as
nearly as possible with that on the proof he is
working from.
The inked plate is now placed face upwards on
the travelling platform of the printing-press, and
the damped paper laid carefully and directly upon
it, straight and even. Over the paper are laid piece
after piece and fold after fold of cloth, felt, or some
other padding, until in the judgment of the printer
there is a sufficiently elastic thickness between the
plate and the roller to force the paper properly into
every irregularity on the surface of the metal. The
heavy roller is then steadily turned, slowly drawing
the plate with the paper under it, once forwards and
once backwards. When the paper is at last lifted
up, it should be found that it has picked up all the
ink from the plate, leaving the metal clean and
ready for the next inking. The print is then care-
fully put away in a dry place. It often happens
that old prints are found cut quite close to the plate-
mark. The meaning of this is that the margin has
been cut off because it was not flat. It sometimes
happens that the inked portion of a print dries in a
different degree to the clean margin, and this causes
unequal contraction, so that in numbers of cases a
disagreeable kink or drawing up of the paper in
ridges appears. There is no safe remedy for such
a kink, except to cut off the white edge entirely and
then soak the print in clean water ana let it dry, flat.
But few collectors will risk this operation, and so
we find numbers of fine and valuable prints badly
23
MEZZOTINTS
cockled about the corners. Uncut edges and broad
margins are very generally valued by collectors, but
I do not exactly know why, as they are neither
lovely in themselves nor do they add in any way to
the beauty of a mezzotint, or indeed to any other
kind of print.
I have hitherto only considered mezzotints
printed in the black or brown ink in which the
majority of prints have been made. Numbers have,
however, been also printed in coloured inks, and
these form a class by themselves one which has
until lately suffered much neglect, but which is
really well worthy the careful attention of collectors
and connoisseurs.
The idea of printing impressions from engraved
wood blocks in coloured inks is an old one. In-
stances of such printings occur in the fine red and
blue initial letters of the Mentz Psalter, printed in
1457, and in the polychrome coats of arms in Dame
Juliana Berners's Book of St. Albans, printed in
1486. Colour blocks of the same kind were used at
about the same date by Erhard Ratdolt to add
masses of colour in places to black outlines already
printed from other engraved blocks. In more recent
times such colour blocks have been successfully and
effectively used by Henry Shaw for his beautifully
illustrated works on antiquarian subjects, and
similar excellent work is being done at the present
day by the colour printer Edmund Evans. 1 For the
present, however, the first place as colour printers
from wood blocks must be allowed to the Japanese,
1 e.g. Cameos, by Cyril Davenport, F.S.A., 1900; and the Frontis-
piece to the Burlington Fine Arts Club Catalogue of European Enamels,
1897.
24
COLOUR PRINTING
who have brought the art to such perfection, and
their work in this direction is worthily receiving
much attention at the present time, as well as a
certain amount of appreciative imitation, among a
school of modern English art students. Colour
prints of this kind, as far as I know, have never been
made from metal blocks. Some of William Blake's
poems and designs were printed from such blocks
in shades of brown, but where other colour occurs
it has either been added by hand or by means of
stencil-plates.
As to engravings on metal, the fascination of
printing from them in colours was early realised,
and many printers played with the idea. The first
mezzotint engravings which I have been able to
find, printed in this way, were made by Johannes
Teyler, Professor of Mathematics in the Military
College at Nimeguen. Most of his plates are line
engravings, but some of them are rouletted, worked
in a kind of stipple, or mezzotinted. As far as can
be judged, however, there is no scraped work. The
so-called mezzotints are the rarest among Teyler's
prints, but they are also the best. One especially
successful print is a lady's portrait partly enclosed
within a garland of flowers. The coloured inks
have been carefully put on their assigned places on
the plates and then printed in one printing, and this
plate appears to be the first that was done in this
way. The management of the coloured inks is very
skilful, and the results are far more pleasing than
the better known prints made a little later by Le
Blon on a different principle. If Teyler had only
made a few more coloured prints from mezzotinted
plates, his name and fame would undoubtedly be
25
MEZZOTINTS
more widely appreciated than it is ; but unluckily,
like most amateurs, he only played with his coloured
inks and made very few prints with them. Some
of his views of towns and other subjects are large,
but unfortunately the few prints he has left can only
be considered as scraps. In the matter of ordinary
engraved prints printed in colour, his range is quite
that of a clever amateur draughtsman. Views and
marine subjects, figures, portraits, flower pieces,
birds and animals, all came easily to the hand of
this accomplished artist. It is curious how much
mezzotints have all along been indebted to amateur
artists. From the very beginning it owes its
inception to a discovery by a soldier, which was in
turn passed on to a few friends, and now we find that
from the beginning of colour printing from plates
engraved in this manner we are also indebted to an
amateur a learned mathematician.
There is no precise date which can be assigned
to Teyler's work, and here is a weak point in the
attribution to him of actually the first print in
colour from a mezzotinted plate ; but the probability
seems to be that they are certainly not earlier than
quite the end of the seventeenth century. None of
Teyler's prints are dated. Le Blon may have made
some of his coloured prints about the same time, but
I do not think he ever saw any of Teyler's, because
if he had done so he would immediately have realised
that, from an artistic point of view, his own principle
of using three plates, each for a different colour,
was an inferior one to that of using one plate for all
the colours. Several of Teyler's prints have been
slightly coloured in places by hand, but generally
they are left in their original coloured ink alone.
26
COLOUR PRINTS
Laborde mentions the existence of a colour print
made from a plate engraved, and dated, by Georg
Venizer in 1693, but the date appearing on a print
does not by any means prove that the print was
made at the same time. Prints have been con-
stantly made from dated plates at intervals of very
many years, and with regard to this particular print
there is unfortunately no further information to be
discovered about it. It may indeed have been
printed by Teyler, or even by Le Blon or one of his
followers.
Although possibly preceded by other engravers
in the idea of producing coloured impressions from
mezzotinted plates, the first artist to whose experi-
ments and work a definite date can be certainly
assigned, is a Frenchman, J. Christophe Le Blon.
Between 1721 and 1725 he wrote a book in English
called Coloritto, or the Harmony of Colouring and
Painting, describing his invention, and curiously
illustrated with some remarkably ugly examples
of it. There is no printed date to the book, but
it bears a dedication to ' Robert Walpole, Esq.,
Chancellor of the Exchequer,' and as this gentleman
held this office between 1721 and 1725, the date of
the production of the book is fixed between these
limits. The text is of little value. It is a theoretical
essay on colour, but the few illustrations are very
important, as they show Le Blon's style for certain,
and by their help we can corroborate the attribution
to his hand of many other important contemporary
prints in colour.
Le Blon's theory was that all gradations of
colour could be produced on a print by careful
superposition of red, yellow, and blue, and con-
27
MEZZOTINTS
sequently he made three plates at least for each of
his colour prints. Each of these plates carried ink
of one of the three colours, and each was printed in
turn on the same piece of paper, the theoretical
result being no doubt excellent, but the practical
result is often very unfortunate. Many of Le
Blon's plates are too large. Some of the best,
smaller ones, are printed on vellum, and others
which are on paper have been varnished. All the
plates prepared for the making of one print were
not mezzotinted, but at least one of them always
was. In many cases the others are only strongly
etched, wholly or in part, and in several instances the
original three plates have been assisted by another,
which would correspond to what we should now call
a key-plate, printed in neutral tint.
Le Blon's prints vary considerably in merit.
Some are very good for instance, an almost life-
sized head of Henri iv. of France is particularly
successful but as a rule they only bear witness to
the eminent patience and perseverance of the artist
in face of great difficulties, both as to the colour it-
self as well as the proper registering of the several
impressions.
Although the registering of Le Blon's colour
prints is generally faulty, the chief objection to
them is that they are much too large. He engraved
several subject pieces as well as portraits, some of
which measure more than two feet in height, and
they are moreover lightly engraved. His best
colour work was done on some small anatomical
plates, where he achieved good results, but the sub-
jects of these plates are such that they cannot be
put forward.
28
CHRISTOPHE LE BLON
Le Blon's invention failed him commercially,
and in 1727 it landed him in the bankruptcy court.
He was, nevertheless, the originator of the three-
colour processes which are successfully used in
different ways for modern work. Perhaps the
finest examples yet produced of colour prints made
on Le Blon s principle are to be found among the
illustrated books published in Paris by the ' Socidtd
des amis des Livres.' These are printed from four
metal plates, each specially engraved to carry a
particular colour dull red, green blue, pale yellow,
and a fully engraved key-plate in neutral tint. The
registering of these plates is marvellous, and the
result appears like a most delicately engraved
single plate inked in colour and made in one im-
pression. But of course the printing of the
several-colour plates is really only skilled labour,
and so it becomes commercially a most valuable
process, but a very expensive one, as there are
many failures.
But besides this high result, Le Blon's principle
is applied in a far less costly way to the ordinary
three-colour block process, photographic all through,
except just for the choosing of the tints of the
coloured inks, the application of them, and the
supervision of the registering of the different print-
ings. There is still room for improvement in the
carrying out of all these details. Many even of the
latest colour-plates made in this way are crude and
badly managed, but a good deal of this may be due
to cutting down prices and not getting them done
as well as they can be as, for instance, some of the
beautiful colour-plates in Mr. Cosmo Monkhouse's
recent book on Oriental china. Le Blon did not
29
MEZZOTINTS
work alone ; he had several assistants, some of
whom afterwards developed the art of colour print-
ing on their own account, rather unfairly to their
master, as they do not seem to have given him due
credit even for the preliminary instruction that they
had undoubtedly received from him.
Among other smaller improvements, that of
inking a single engraved plate with variously
coloured inks put on in their proper places, was
certainly followed by one of these assistants, who
esteemed it as an entirely new invention, describing
himself as ' Inventeur de la gravure en couleur,'
which is lettered on a print engraved by J. F.
Gautier D'Agoty. There were two D'Agotys, father
and son, and J. Robert, who were all assistants of
Le Blon, and who all did their best to improve his
system and work it to their own advantage. They,
however, practised it mainly on etchings rather than
on mezzotints. Of course any of these workmen
may have seen a colour print by Teyler, and guessed
how it was produced, but as a matter of fact I do
not think any of them did so.
On the whole, Le Blon's work is far better than
that of any of his immediate followers, and there is
no doubt that to his experiments we owe the subse-
quent development of the beautiful art of colour
printing from stippled plates which was so success-
fully practised in England during the eighteenth
century. We ought to owe this development to
J. Teyler, whose method was the right one from the
beginning, but his work was never so well known or
appreciated as Le Blon's. Le Blon's successors
only hit upon the system of using several coloured
inks on the one plate after much previous tribula-
30
PAINTED PRINTS
tion with the three separate plates which their
master considered necessary.
Few prints printed in coloured inks can be
allowed to remain untouched by hand. The ten-
dency of the coloured inkings is not only to overrun
the proper boundaries, but also to obscure the
definition of small but necessary lines, such as those
about the features, and these faults and shortcom-
ings usually need some small skilful corrections.
But there are many instances where prints have
been made only in a brownish ink, and then colour
has been boldly added by hand all over them, so
that they look like prints in coloured inks. Such
prints are frauds, and they are not only spoiled as
prints, but are also bad art, because they pretend to
be what they are not, and are often bought at a
high price by unwary collectors. In all colour
prints, the less handwork that can be seen the
better the print, always remembering that a colour
print should be a thing of beauty I mean to say,
that it is quite possible to have a true colour print
that is nevertheless ugly. Beauty is the first re-
quisite, and after that it should appear that the
beauty is produced in the proper way. A print
frankly painted by hand may be very charming, but
it should only be considered as a painting. The
difference between these two, coloured ink and hand
painting, is one which can be easily detected by a
careful examination of the lines, dots, or mezzotinted
spaces which retain the ink. If all of these, on, for
instance, a blue note, show as pure blue, and not as
black or brown under a wash of blue colour, and in
the case of other colours in a similar way, the print
is made in coloured inks; but if the actual ink-marks
3*
MEZZOTINTS
appear in themselves to be of the same monotone,
and are covered, as well as the spaces between
them, with a wash of colour, then the colour effect
is probably produced by hand.
If a monotint plate is really well coloured by
hand, it may be a very pleasing and possibly valu-
able asset, but it has not as a rule the same value
as if it were printed in coloured inks. Generally
such hand colouring is not very well done, but there
is no reason why it should not be. Sir Joshua
Reynolds coloured some mezzotints, after his own
paintings, in transparent colours. Moreover, there
is always a certain amount of suspicion of another
kind attaching to a coloured mezzotint, namely,
that the print is an inferior one and has been drawn
from a worn plate. The wear in a mezzotint first
shows as a faintness in the dark places, and this
shows much less if printed in colour than it does if
printed in black or dark ink.
In spite of this suspicion of deterioration, I still
believe that mezzotints well printed in colour have a
future of much honour before them, and that a time
is coming when they will be very highly esteemed
and much sought after by collectors. At present
such prints are looked upon with a pitying eye by
most connoisseurs.
Few artists have been so largely represented in
coloured mezzotints as George Morland. The par-
ticular kind of subject he preferred lends itself
favourably to a little colour. Most of these, how-
ever, owe too much to handwork. There are some
charming specimens of colour prints from engrav-
ings by MacArdell, Earlom, Ward, Dawe, and
many others, but I think it must be acknowledged
32
PLOOS VAN AMSTEL
that their time has not yet come. We still seek
after the usual rich sedate browns and blacks of
MacArdell, Valentine Green, or J. R. Smith, rather
than the blue skies and delicate complexions now
and then found on prints of seductive Bacchantes
or lovely Lady Hamiltons.
Of all the early experimenters in colour printing,
no one succeeded so well as Jacob Cornelisz Ploos
van Amstel, an eighteenth century amateur. His
subjects are both figure and landscape, and he
copied several works of various Dutch artists. His
process of engraving is remarkable in itself, and
some of its effects are produced by means of some
method nearly analogous to what is now known as
soft ground etching, a process supposed to have
been invented by Dietrich Mayer, a Swiss artist,
late in the seventeenth century.
Besides this, however, Ploos managed to get a
soft effect like that of a very delicate aquatint, but
of which the structural marks are very fine lines
instead of a network. With the help of this delicate
lining, which may possibly have been done with
some form of roulette, he was able to imitate a grey
water-colour sketch to perfection, even the sky.
But more than this, he also succeeded in making
colour-prints so like water-colour paintings that it is
difficult to believe that they are not painted by hand.
Some of the simpler colour-prints are clearly
made by means of separate engraved colour blocks,
probably of wood, and these have been separately
inked and then impressed in their proper places.
It is just possible that Ploos had a large wood-
block with the colour spaces mapped out upon it in
permanent lines, which he inkea as required and
c 33
MEZZOTINTS
then impressed on the key-print. Such a process
would account for most of his colour effects, and it
would be quick and easy. The chief difficulty would
be in the proper registering, but this can always be
managed if due care is taken.
The coloured inks used by Ploos were of the
kind that are properly used with wood, not greasy,
but mixed with water. Many of his effects, particu-
larly in the skies, are like those found on the Japanese
colour-prints made from wooden blocks, the ink used
with which is mixed with rice-paste and water.
In Japanese colour work all the blocks are of
wood, whereas in Ploos's prints the key-plate is
engraved on metal, so that it seems probable that
he is entitled to the honour of having been the first
artist to combine metal-work with wood-work for
the production of a colour print. This combination
is used to-day with marked success, and is capable
of producing a rich as well as a delicate effect. 1
The ink used for printing from engraved metal
plates has generally enough grease in it to form an
unfortunately favourable nidus for the growth of a
small fungus. Where the ink is thickest there the
fungus thrives most abundantly, and if the little
superficial white patches are left alone, their roots
will in time absorb some of the ink away from the
paper, and when the growth is removed a pale spot
is left in its place. The only thing to do in such a
case is to touch the pale spot carefully with lamp
black, sepia, or printing ink, mixed with black and
burnt sienna according to the colour of the original
ink. But this severe damage ought not to be
1 Anglo-Saxon Review, March 1901. 'St. Edward's Crown,' printed
by Edmund Evans.
34
SPOTS ON PRINTS
allowed to occur. The fungus-growths should be
carefully removed as soon as they begin to show,
and before they have had time to do any harm.
They can be picked off gently with a fine dry
handkerchief.
Another trouble about some old mezzotint prints
is the appearance of spots upon them resembling
iron mould. The cause of these spots is not clearly
understood, but it is supposed possible that the
water with which the paper pulp was originally
mixed held some oxide of iron in solution. But
damp alone will often cause marks of this reddish
colour, which is in that case only due to a small
red fungus which grows very perniciously in the
thickness of the paper. The best remedy for such
stains is a rather drastic one : it is to soak the whole
print in water. To do this effectually the print
should be laid face downwards on a piece of coarse
muslin stretched across a tub or basin, and boiling
water should be poured over the back. The water
in time will percolate through the paper and drive
out not only the reddish stain, but also effectively
clean the print from many other stains or dirt-marks
if they exist. In obstinate cases the print on its
muslin support, arranged so as to be quite immersed,
may be left to soak, still face downwards, entirely
in the water, and if, after some days' treatment,
there are still stains to be seen, they may perhaps
be bleached by exposure to sunlight, combined with
a careful and constant wetting in the places where
the stains are. But a local treatment like this will
not do unless the entire print is as clean as it can
be made, or else the red stain is likely only to be
replaced by a white spot.
35
MEZZOTINTS
Printing ink is fortunately very strong, and
exposure to sun or water will not injure it at all,
neither will they injure the paper ; but any applica-
tion of acid must be, as far as possible, avoided.
To bleach a print with acid is easier and quicker
than to do it by the means given above, but, when-
ever it is used, there is a great chance of ultimately
rotting the paper. In the case of an accidental ink-
spot, however, a drop or two of salts of lemon are
necessary, but the smallest possible quantity should
be used, and the print well washed at once and for
some time after its application.
If a print has been so much washed that it feels
soft like blotting-paper, it can be made firmer, with-
out hurting it, by making a thin size from strips of
fine vellum boiled down, well strained and kept
weak, in which the paper should be soaked for a
short time. If a print has only been wetted, it may
be dried under a light pressure between clean pads
of white blotting-paper, but if it has been sized it
must be hung up by two adjacent corners with
small clips, and dry by itself in that position. If
it crinkles when it is dry, it may then be pressed
slightly.
For portfolio specimens a piece of clear xylonite
is a useful protection, fixed on the inner edge of the
cut mount. It keeps out dust and preserves the
surface from an accidental touch, but adds a little
colour. If mezzotints are kept in portfolios they
should always be protected from superficial abrasion
or pressure by means of thick mounts, preferably
hinged at one side, so that the complete edge of the
print, if it has one, can be seen if required, and all
prints should be frequently examined and aired,
36
THE FRAMING OF PRINTS
and kept very dry. Mezzotints should never be
pasted down all over indeed the use of paste at all
is likely to prove injurious for many reasons, but
particularly because it harbours much damp. It is
better to fix the print down on a piece of strong
cardboard, very lightly, by the two top or side
corners, with small bars of adhesive stamp-paper :
then the back, which often has notes or water-marks
of interest upon it, can easily be seen. The flaps
of all portfolios should be lined with lint, rough
side outermost, to catch all dust, which in most
large towns is a dangerous enemy to all kinds of
prints. .
If a print is to be framed, it should be fastened
on cardboard in the same way as just described,
and surmounted by a thick mount of cardboard
reaching close to the plate-mark. Another gilt
mount should be put over this again, still under
the glass. Prints are often framed so as to show
their entire margins, but although this may be
allowable in portfolio specimens, I cannot admire
it in a framed example. In the interest of con-
noisseurs I would not advise that the edge should
ever be cut off, but it may properly be covered up.
For the same reason, as well as for the greater
facility of getting at a print for cleaning or airing
purposes, 1 should never have the back plate of the
frame fastened down, but preferably would have it
kept in place by four small thumb-screws, so as to
be easily removed. All framed mezzotints should
be easily accessible, not only because of the serious
possibility of fungus-growth, but also because they
diligently collect bits of dust and fibres on their
dark surfaces. These should be removed as soon
37
MEZZOTINTS
as possible with a soft camel's hair brush, or, if
possible, blown away. All touching of the dark
surfaces of mezzotints should be avoided as much
as possible, a cleaned mezzotint may seem all right
to its happy owner, but to a connoisseur its rare
charm is inevitably gone. Another very important
precaution to take in framing a mezzotint is that it
should be backed with a piece of tinfoil between it
and the wood, or even backed with a thin sheet of
tin alone. The wood which framers use to back
pictures or prints with often has knots in it, and
many strange brown patches on valuable prints
owe their appearance to the resinous exudation
from knots in the wood at the back. Dust also
should, as far as possible, be kept out from a framed
print, and the best way to secure this is to see that
all edges in near contact are carefully lined with
velvet, so that the dust-collecting pile surfaces of
two opposing pieces touch one another closely.
Such junctions, if well made, even after some years
will be found dust-stained only a short way in,
whereas, without the velvet, dust will creep in
through any wooden joint in a short time. The
glass also should be firmly fixed into the frame so
as to be dust-proof. It is not uncommon to see a
brownish shadow over one edge of a framed print,
entirely due to the infiltration of dust through a
badly fitting joint. It is true that this dust settles
first on the glass before it gets to the print, but if
not stopped it will presently invade the whole inner
space and ruin the print.
Framers pretend to keep dust out by pasting
paper over the wood joints at the back, but they
not only fail signally to do so, but probably do
38
THE CLEANING OF PRINTS
more harm than good, because they bottle up much
damp in an enclosed space by reason of the paste.
About the cleaning of mezzotints it is difficult
to say anything, because there is no doubt that
any cleaning at all is injurious. Unless a print
is already so badly spoiled that it cannot be made
worse, it should not be cleaned. A spoiled print
one, for instance, badly mildewed can be made to
look decent enough at a distance, with certain pale
places carefully filled in by hand, but such a print
could never find a place in any good collection. If
the hand-touching of such a print is well done with
a carefully chosen printing ink of the same coluor
as the original, it is extremely difficult to detect.
As far as delicacy of surface is concerned, a
mezzotint is by far the most easily damaged of all
forms of engraving, and when its pristine bloom is
once gone it cannot be restored. Line engravings,
etchings, and aquatints can all be cleaned without
suffering any apparent diminution in brilliancy,
but in the case of the rich soft surface of a mezzo-
tint, some of the ink will be rubbed off even if
it is lightly touched with a clean handkerchief.
Nothing should be allowed to touch the surface
of a fine mezzotint proof dust even should be
blown off, not rubbed off.
In one way only is it strong, and that is in the
colour of the ink with which it is printed, which
will not fade. In this particular it is true to say
that prints from engravings after oil paintings are
more permanent than the original pictures from
which they are taken. There is much more original
work in a mezzotint than is usually admitted.
In the case of a line engraving every care is taken
39
MEZZOTINTS
to represent the colour values of the original as
accurately as possible by lines, but a mezzotint
engraver does far more than this : he translates the
picture, as it were, into a new language. There is
some tendency to conceal the medium of a line
engraving. It only aims at a truthful rendering in
black and white of an original in colour; but the
mezzotint engraver has a further artistic asset in
his roughened plate, the consciousness of which is
always with him, and which he should endeavour
to appreciate and utilise at its full value. So it is
that in many instances mezzotints by one or other
of the great masters are really finer works of art
than the paintings they follow. What a mezzo-
tinter likes in his original he will dwell upon and
indue with a new charm ; what he does not like he
will minimise in importance or so modify as to
bring it within the scope of his own ideas. There
is much original work in all first-rate mezzotints.
Certain artists, notably Sir Joshua Reynolds
and his particular school, have in their pictures
studied the general composition and beauty of
design rather than the actual portraiture. It is
not likely that Sir Joshua's sitters were really
the beauties he has shown them, any more than
Sir Peter Lely's were; but these artists have so
skilfully and sympathetically arranged their masses
of light and shade that their pictures are remark-
ably well fitted for translation into mezzotint. So
we find that altogether the finest school of mezzo-
tinting flourished in England during the eighteenth
century, when not only were numbers of such
suitable originals available, but also a remarkable
school of engravers arose who interpreted them
40
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGRAVERS
magnificently. It is somewhat curious that the
English have been considered the chief producers
of mezzotints, as the art was begun, and at first
largely practised, abroad, particularly in the Nether-
lands ; but if our fame in this respect depended
only on the work done here during the eighteenth
century, it would still rest on a firm foundation.
The artistic possibilities of mezzotint engraving
are very great, and it is likely that the nighest
point in this direction up to the present has been
approached most nearly by one or other of the
greatest English engravers of the eighteenth
cefcturv. Although now and then fine work has
been clone at a late period in the matter of land-
scape, I cannot think that the highest development
of mezzotint is to be found here. I rather think
that, as a rule, the process of aquatinting, combined
with some etched work, is capable of producing
better results in this direction. For subject pieces,
with very few exceptions, the best results are
obtained really by means of strong etching finished
with mezzotint ; and I feel that the existence of
much accessory work either of the burin, the etch-
ing needle, or the dry-point, should, as a rule, take
a print out of the domain of mezzotint into that of
' mixed style.' Only few of the very finest mezzo-
tints are free from some burin work. So we are
driven back to the consideration of portraiture,
and here the best work is to be found. Among
our eighteenth century mezzotint engravers the
recognition of a paramount exponent is difficult
several of the less-known names have now and
then engraved extremely fine plates. For instance,
Kneller's portrait of the Earl of Tweeddale is of
MEZZOTINTS
exceptional beauty, Miss Elizabeth Judkins's por-
trait of Mrs. Abington is also an engraving of
the first rank, and one or two of John Murphy's
rare plates are extremely fine. But in an art like
mezzotinting, I think it is necessary for an engraver
to produce a considerable quantity of good work as
well as a few superlative plates before he can expect
to rank in the first flight. The first-rate engravers
who have also done enough work to entitle them
to a high place are John Smith, John Dean, John
Raphael Smith, Valentine Green, James Walker,
Richard Earlom, James MacArdell, and S. W.
Reynolds, and I should say that among these our
first mezzotint engraver is to be found. Numerous
others run these closely, but for one reason or
another I should place them in another category.
In modern work I do not yet recognise any serious
challenge to the supremacy of our earlier masters ;
they still maintain their lead. Our modern masters
are, in my opinion, much handicapped by mechani-
cal groundings, steeled surfaces, and tyrannical
printers.
Among portraits engraved in mezzotint are
several on a large scale, such as were done by
Blooteling or Thomas Frye and a few other
engravers of lesser note, but I think such large-
size engravings are very rarely satisfactory.
Neither are half-length figures everything that
could be wished, in spite of the existence of many
extremely fine examples, and also of the fact that
they form the most numerous class.
Altogether I feel that the most nearly perfect
mezzotints are to be found among the full-length
portraits of ladies as engraved from the works of
42
JOHN EVELYN
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough,
George Romney, or John Hoppner. There is a
sense of completeness about a beautiful full-length,
from which any portrait of a lesser degree must
fall short, however beautiful the face, bust, and
arms may be.
As Vandyck has left us a noble standard of
masculine beauty, so have our four great English
portrait-painters given us a standard of female
beauty which is superlative. It matters little that
the actual portrait has in all probability largely
given way to the picture this in its turn has, not
uncommonly, given way to the engraving. The
names of these artists are household words among
us, and for this widespread appreciation they are
largely indebted to the exquisite way in which their
work has been engraved in mezzotint. Some of the
best of the mezzotints done during the eighteenth
century by English engravers reveal beauties of
light and shadow which were only latent in the
original pictures, and which the process of mezzo-
tinting, with its pure tones, is alone capable of
exhibiting in true perfection.
The early literature concerning mezzotints is
more curious than useful.
In 1662 John Evelyn published a little tract
entitled Sculptura, in which he calls the art
1 Mezzo Tinto,' and says that it has been de-
scribed to him by Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert
was undoubtedly much interested in Evelyn's
book, and went so far as to engrave for it a
new plate, of the head only, of the Executioner,
copied from his large plate after Spagnoletto.
Evelyn was not so liberal-minded as the Prince,
43
MEZZOTINTS
for although he admits the latter showed him his
instruments and described his processes, still
Evelyn has by no means followed suit, as he
very carefully abstains from saying anything which
would betray the secret in the smallest degree. As
some excuse he says, ' I did not think it necessary
that an art so curious . . . was to be prostituted
at so cheap a rate as the more naked describing
of it here would too soon have exposed it to.' So
that, interesting as this little tract is, it does not
assist us in solving the question as to what
Prince Rupert's methods really were. Neverthe-
less, Evelyn's book will always be precious because
it is the first book illustrated with a mezzotint
print, and that a very excellent one.
Alexander Browne, a publisher of mezzotints,
wrote a treatise called Ars Pictoria in 1669. This
rare first edition is 'printed for the author, and
are to be sold by him at his Lodging, at the sign
of the Angel, the corner of James's Street and
Long Acre, and Richard Thompson, at the Sun in
Bedford Street, and Arthur Tooker at the Globe
in the Strand, near the new exchange.' A second
edition was published in 1675 by 'Arthur Tooker
and William Battersby at Thavies Inne Gate in
Holborn near St. Andrew's Church.' Browne
calls himself ' Practitioner in the Art of Limning,'
i.e. miniature painting, and it is also supposed that
he engraved in mezzotint. His book is very interest-
ing, as it contains the first description of the new
art. At the end, after an excellent treatise on
etching with aquafortis, Browne adds a note in
italics in which he says : ' The manner or way of
Mezo Tinto. First take a very well polished plate
44
ALEXANDER BROWNE
of copper and ruflfen it all over with your Engin
one way, then cross it over with the Engin again,
and if you find occasion, then cross it over the
third time, untill it be ruffened all over alike,
(that is to say) if it were to be printed, it would
print black all over; this done, take Charcole or
black Chalk to rub over the plate, and then draw
your design with white chalk upon the plate, then
take a sharp stift and trace out the outlines of the
design you drew with the white chalk, and where
you would have the light strike strongest, take a
burnisher, and burnish that part of the plate where
you would have the light strike as clean as it was
when it was first polisned ; where you would have
the fainter light you must not polish it so much,
and this way you may make it either fainter or
stronger, according to your fancy. As for the
manner or shape of the Engin, they are divers,
and if any ingenious person have a desire to have
any made the AUTHOR will give them farther direc-
tions.' Browne published several mezzotints, not
particularly good ones, but there is some doubt
whether he engraved them himself or not.
It is notable that the lightening of the roughened
plate is here directed to be produced by means of a
burnisher only, and there is no mention of the use
of a scraper. So we may conclude with some
certainty that the use of a scraper was at all events
not general in 1675.
The question then arises, when did the use of a
scraper first come into general use? This point
can only be determined, or guessed at, by a careful
examination of the pale places in the middle of dark
places on early prints. Generally speaking, the
45
MEZZOTINTS
effect of a scraper is to produce grey shades among
dark spaces, and that of a burnisher is to produce
white spots among grey spaces ; but of course in
working a plate both of these instruments can be
made to produce effects only limited in variety by
the technical powers of the engraver himself.
An interesting little tract was written by H. D.
Chelsum in 1786, and printed at Winchester. It
is called A History of the Art of Engraving in
Mezzo-Tinto from its origin to the Present Times,
including an account of the works of the earliest
artists.
There is a preliminary notice of the art and its
introduction by ' Colonel de Siegen,' and subse-
quent mention by John Evelyn in his Sculptura.
Prince Rupert's work is particularly dwelt upon,
and the story of his alleged discovery of mezzo-
tinting by the observation of marks eaten by rust
on a musket-barrel is given, and also the alleged
engraving by Sir Christopher Wren of a Moor's
head is mentioned and described as having been
really done by him.
Then follow lists of English and foreign mezzo-
tint engravers, with short biographical notices.
The earliest of these lists contain only German,
Dutch, or French names, then come English and
Dutch in about equal numbers, the foreign
element gradually dying out until at last English
names alone occur.
Ldon de Laborde published the classic, so far,
concerning mezzotint engraving, at Paris in 1839.
It is called Histoire de la gravure en maniere
Noire, and contains an introduction dealing at
length with the genesis of the art. The work of
46
L. DE LABORDE AND J. C. SMITH
Ludwig von Siegen is well and exhaustively dealt
with, and there is also a long descriptive catalogue
of mezzotints made before 1720 by Dutch, German,
English, French, Spanish, and Russian engravers.
To any student of these schools this catalogue is
invaluable. The illustrations, lithographs, are quite
useless.
In a final chapter Laborde learnedly endeavours
to show that the problem of successfully printing
in colours from engraved metal plates was solved
by the invention of mezzotinting. At the end of
this chapter he adds a curious and valuable list of
early mezzotints which have been printed in colour.
Collectors of mezzotint portraits owe a large
debt of gratitude to Mr. J. Chaloner Smith, who
has compiled a full, careful, and accurate catalogue
of British Mezzotint Portraits up to the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century. The catalogue is
arranged alphabetically under the names of the
engravers, and is supplemented with a valuable list of
painters, after each of which are given the names of
those engravers who have represented him. There
is also a list of personages whose portraits have been
engraved in mezzotint. The book is in four volumes,
and was published from 1878 to 1883. A learned
history of the art of engraving in mezzotint from its
commencement is given in the introduction, one
section of which deals with the very interesting
question of printing in colour; another gives a full
notice of all the more important collectors and
collections, and another has a full and explanatory
list of printsellers and publishers. There is also a
short but excellent notice of the few earliest known
specimens of the art of mezzotinting, and of their
47
MEZZOTINTS
engravers. The work is illustrated with a few good
photogravures, of which the most interesting is that
of a plate engraved by Isaac Beckett of a portrait of
the ' Earl of Devonshire ' after Kneller. In its first
state this plate shows a young man with a dark
wig, and in the next state the figure, although the
same in many ways, has been turned into a middle-
aged man with a fair wig, and lettered with a much
longer title as ' James, Duke of Ormond.' It is
valuable as showing how very completely a mezzo-
tinted plate can be altered by skilful manipulation
with rocker, scraper, and burnisher.
Mr. Chaloner Smith's book covers its own
ground completely, and no collector of mezzotints
of that period can do without its help. Now, how-
ever, a similar book is wanted in continuation, to
cover a later period, as there have been several first-
rate engravers in mezzotint who worked during the
last century, to say nothing of the quite modern
men.
There have been many Dutch, Flemish, and
French mezzotint engravers since the small and
distinguished band that worked in quite the early
days. Generally these foreign mezzotinters, especi-
ally the Dutch ones, only succeed in showing what
degraded objects it is possible to make by means of
mezzotint. Among the many I have examined I can
only say that the best is a chance group attributed
to David Teniers. Of the rest, perhaps the work
of Cornelius Dusart, Jan de Groot, Jan van der
Bruggen, or Albert van der Burch is best, but it is
all very bad.
Other continental mezzotinters are a trifle happier.
There was Alexis Girard, who made an excellent
48
FOREIGN MEZZOTINTERS
facsimile of Sir Christopher Wren's Head of a
Moor; John Jacobe, who engraved a fine plate of
Miss Meyer as Hebe, after Sir Joshua Reynolds.
I. V. Kininger of Vienna did also some good work,
and Georges Maile engraved some pictures of ladies
after Dubufe and Wilkie. J. P. Pichler made some
food plates after Murillo and H. Filger, and Bern-
ard Vogel did some fair portraits after Kupezky.
But in no case do even these picked specimens get
further than the merest mediocrity, and a study of
foreign work will only serve to justify the popular
belief that mezzotinting is an English art.
49
CHAPTER II
The pioneers of mezzotint engraving who worked about
the middle of the seventeenth century : Ludwig von
Siegen, Prince Rupert, T. C. von Fiirstenberg, Wallerant
Vaillant, The Van Somers, Abraham Blooteling, William
Sherwin, and Francis Place. The later mezzotint
engravers of the seventeenth century: E. Luttrell, Isaac
Becket, W. Faithorne, R. Williams, J. Vandervaart,
John Smith, and J. Verkolje.
IT is always of interest in considering any artistic
process to endeavour to trace its genesis as
well as its development. It is seldom that any
art is as perfect at its birth as it becomes at some
future period, and mezzotinting is no exception to
this rule. A rare instance of an art which sprang
into being fully perfected is that of the European
typographer, whose work was just as well done in
the case of the earliest examples of printing Indul-
gences, Gutenberg or Bamberg Bibles, or Mentz
Psalters as it ever has been at a later time.
By the middle of the seventeenth century
engravers both on wood and on metal had already
been for a long time skilled in the use of the burin
and the point, the former to cut incised lines on
metal plates, and the latter to impress small holes
on the same.
The first metal plates which were engraved on
50
EARLY ENGRAVINGS
their surfaces with ornamental designs were not so
treated with the object of having impressions or
prints made from them. They were engraved
simply for the purpose of ornamentation, and the
incised lines or pointille" spots were sometimes in-
tended to show only by reflected light, and some-
times were filled in with a coloured material or
perhaps with niello, an amalgam of silver, copper,
lead, and sulphur, melted into the lines of the
design by means of a low heat.
Large monumental brasses were engraved to
serve as lasting records, and the designs upon them
were always filled in with colour pastes, which have
now largely chipped out, enabling a rubbing or
'print' to be made by heelball, after the fashion of
one from a bookbinding tooled in gold. In this
case the engraved lines show as white upon a dark
ground.
From smaller engravings, such as the silver
plates prepared in France or Italy for the exquisite
nielli of the fourteenth, fifteenth, or sixteenth cen-
turies, it was customary for the artist to take
impressions as the work progressed, as such a pro-
ceeding enabled him more clearly to discern such
small inaccuracies and faults as were difficult to see
on the gleaming metal itself. In order to get a
proof handed in the same way as his work, it was
first necessary to make a cast from the engraved
plate, and then from the cast a counter-proof was
made in sulphur, and when ink was rubbed into the
lines on this sulphur, the original design showed
clearly in black on a delicate yellow ground. Such
sulphurs are always early proofs, as the casts had
to be made from the silver plates before the niello
MEZZOTINTS
was run in, as this fills up all the lines, making the
surface quite even all over.
At some period or other these counter-proofs
doubtless appealed to some appreciative artist as
having a separate beauty of their own apart from
their working value, and they were now and then
carefully made so as to show this beauty at its best ;
so we now possess the rare and delicate sulphur
proofs which are so much valued, made for the sake
of their own beauty from engraved plates intended
ultimately to be run in with niello. In many cases
these sulphur impressions were taken from plates
which have now disappeared, so they are of the
greatest interest and rarity.
The value of a sharp point for making dots on
metal is of ancient use. Such work is found both
in nielli and in the so-called pointille work on soft
metal much done during the fifteenth century, the
finest examples of which are those engraved pro-
bably by Pigouchet for the beautiful French Books
of Hours which he published. Whether this dotted
work shows white or black on the prints depends
entirely upon the manner of inking and printin
the plate from which the prints are made. In the
case of the nielli sulphurs the dots show black, ii
that of the Pigouchet blocks they show white.
The question of the burr raised on a sheet of
metal by the impression of a sharp small point is
one of some interest. If the point is small and hek
quite upright, the burr will only take the form of
rounded eminence surrounding the dot, and with
careful inking it will not affect the print ; but if the
point be held at all sideways, there will be a burr
which will have to be scraped off. In any case,
52
THE ROULETTE
these very small burrs would soon wear off with
printing.
It is difficult to say exactly when the roulette
was first invented. I think it is probably of much
older use than it is usually credited with, as the
principle involved in it is simple, obvious, and well
fitted for the easy ornamentation of anything, from
pastry to gold-tooling on bookbindings. The con-
sideration which is of the greatest interest to us
for the moment is to discover at what period the
roulette was first used to produce a print by itself,
unaided by the burin, the etching-needle, or the
dry-point.
It is tolerably certain that the artist who first
used the roulette alone for engraving a picture on
metal was Ludwie von Siegen, a native of Holland
and an officer in trie Hessian army, who worked at
engraving metal plates during the latter half of the
seventeenth century and a little before. This artist
was an amateur, as were his contemporaries Prince
Rupert and the Canon von Furstenberg, so that,
although none of these engravers hit upon the true
and complete process of mezzotinting, it is only fair
to acknowledge our indebtedness to them for the
start they gave to a new method of engraving on
metal, wnich was in time practised in its highest
perfection in England so remarkably indeed as
even to be known as la manibre Anglaise.
The work and history of Von Siegen is of itself
a subject which is so interesting that it would well
repay the study necessary for a monograph, but
until such a work appears, a very good account of
himself and his work will be found in Le\)n de
Laborde's book on mezzotint engraving. Von
53
MEZZOTINTS
Siegen worked out his method carefully and fully
before he ventured into publicity, and the first of
his prints to which he drew attention is a fine
example of skilled and finished workmanship. It
is a portrait of the Landgravine Amelia Elizabeth,
Regent of Hesse Cassel during the minority of her
son, from 1637 to 1650, and Von Siegen sent some
proofs of it to her son, the Landgrave, in 1642.
Laborde gives in his book a lithographic facsimile
of Von Siegen's letter which accompanied the
prints, and, freely translated, it runs in these
terms
' NOBLE SIR, Considering that devotion to
yourself, rather than the idea of any recompense,
has always impelled me to serve you, so I wish,
without considering my past services (numerous
enough in spite of the belittling of them by my
enemies) to yet further dedicate to you my zeal,
work, and time, as a token of which I enclose you
some proofs of my last piece.
1 1 have felt impelled to engrave this portrait
in honour of your mother, so that her numerous
friends may at last obtain a likeness of so cele-
brated and virtuous a princess.
' But as I have discovered an entirely new and
surprising invention, the like of which has never
yet been seen, I am at present only able to send
you a few proofs, because from the copper on which
the portrait is engraved only a few prints can be
made because of the delicacy of the work (differing
in this respect from ordinary plates, from whicr
very many prints can be drawn).
'Before sending examples anywhere else, I have
54
*^exsnd&toA**t*' .^- -**>*.
LUDWIG VON SIEGEN
considered it my duty to send you the enclosed not
only that, but also to dedicate the print to yourself,
as you will see written underneath it.
' I send you the print, then, for these reasons,
firstly, that as only son and reigning prince, this
portrait of your mother cannot but be welcome to
you ; and, secondly, because I could not resist the
pleasure of dedicating a work of so rare and novel a
kind to so great a lover of art as yourself.
'There is not any living engraver or artist that
could guess how this engraving has been executed.
As your Highness well Knows, only three methods
of engraving on metal are known at the present
time. These are (i) line engraving with the burin;
(2) biting with acid or scratching with the dry-point;
(3) a method little known, which is called pointilld
work, done with small needles, but so troublesome
to manage that it is little used. My method is
quite different from any of these, although appar-
ently it consists entirely of small points without a
line anywhere ; and even if hatched work seems to
exist in some places, I assure you it does not, but
that it is dotted throughout, a fact I do not
endeavour to conceal from your Highness, who is
after all well acquainted with all artistic processes.
I am, Sir, ... L. v. SIEGEN.
AMSTERDAM,
19-29 August 1642.'
In this letter it will be seen that Von Siegen lays
particular stress upon the slowness and trouble-
someness of engraving in the pointilld manner, and
then he goes on to say that by means of his new
process only dots are produced, and no lines at all.
55
MEZZOTINTS
The inference is that he discovered a new instrument,
or modified some existing one, so as to produce
a method of quickly and easily making dotted work
without using the usual slow and laborious method.
For this purpose he probably used small single line
roulettes with sharp points, something like spur
rowels set in a long handle, and he soon found that
such an instrument could be easily used on copper ;
that, moreover, it would quickly and effectively
produce groups and accretions of dots which
engravers had hitherto only been able to effect very
slowly, singly impressed dot by dot.
It is also observable that Von Siegen already
realised the fact that fine roulette or dotted work
soon showed signs of wearing out, and also that he
knew that soft copper with rouletted work upon it
would only allow a limited number of fine prints to
be taken.
Although Von Siegen in his letter purposely
undervalues pointille' work, as competing with his
new invention, he nevertheless did not hesitate
to use it, whenever he found it advisable, in com-
bination with his roulette. Pointilld work shows
in many instances in the elaborate lace collars and
other parts of dresses which are worn by many of
his lady sitters, the roulette itself only being used
when series of dots or shaded effects were required.
His pointilld work is very skilfully done : the point
has been held perpendicularly so as to produce no
burr that would hold ink. There are no visible
signs of any scraping off of burr either in this point
work or in the rouletted work.
A simple form of roulette is a small circular
metal disc set as a wheel in a long handle, and with
56
LUDWIG VON SIEGEN
teeth like those of a saw filed out at its edge. All
the prints from mezzotint plates engraved by Von
Siegen, Prince Rupert, and Fiirstenberg show that
they all worked with roulettes or rollers of different
sizes, very likely made by themselves to suit their
own fancy or requirement. Some have been so
contrived as to make simple lines of dots ; others
have made lines of shaped dots ; and others, rollers,
appear to have been channelled or striated across
with lines only especially some of the larger ones
used by Prince Rupert. Von Siegen was the most
skilful practitioner of any of his contemporaries
with the roulette. His mastery over the instru-
ment is clearly seen in all his engravings, as he
appears to have destroyed his experimental and un-
finished work. Roulettes can be made to run
curves easily, and Von Siegen has absolutely
revelled in tne curling locks worn by many of his
lady sitters. He has Tost no opportunity of show-
ing his skill with the little wheel. This is par-
ticularly noticeable in the careful and wonderful
way in which he has engraved the various orna-
ments and parts of dress in which curved or flowing
lines could be fitly introduced.
I think, then, that Von Siegen's invention was
only that of the use of small toothed roulettes to
make dotted lines, curves, and shadowed spaces on
metal, preferably copper, and a careful examination
of prints from his plates endorses this view. Here
ana there is a very slight mark engraved with a
burin, but practically his plates are all rouletted.
They are very light and charming, and where he
has used the roulette strongly and closely there he
gets to some extent the velvety effect so peculiar to
57
MEZZOTINTS
mezzotints. Von Siegen by no means roughened
his plates all over; he only rouletted them where
and how he wanted his darks or greys, and then he
carefully chose the roulette of the size and pattern
he required. It will be readily seen that by reason
of this manner of engraving there would be little or
no necessity for any subsequent scraping or bur-
nishing, except in the case of some mistake or slip,
so it appears tolerably certain that in these plates
there has been little or no scraping at all, and very
little burnishing. The use of a burnisher on metals
had been known for ages, and its power of flattening
out marks or slips on metal surfaces was perfectly
well known. All the early mezzotinters are likely
from the beginning to have had burnishers ready to
their hand, as they were well understood engraver's
tools, and so we come naturally to the second stage
of our mezzotint, that in which a burnisher was first
used to obliterate some of the messy or uncertain
edges accidentally left by the roulette, and hence by
easy transition to be actually used as an auxiliary
to render small light places easily among the
shadows, or to accentuate brilliant points of light
which had become by chance obscured, or which
had been found too difficult to leave untouched by
the roulette.
Von Siegen's most important work consists of
large portrait-heads. Besides that of the Land-
gravine Amelia Elizabeth, he made fine portraits of
Ferdinand in., Emperor of Germany, and his wife
the Queen of Bohemia; of William, Prince of
Orange, and of Mary, daughter of Charles I. of
England and Princess of Orange.
These prints vary from about twenty-one to
58
LUDWIG VON SIEGEN
sixteen inches in height. The work on all of them
is delicate but effective fine roulette work, dotted
work, and a little burnishing. Sometimes small
lines and shadows are added on the prints with
black chalk, and, still more curiously, in some places,
such as the high light in the eyes, the paper itself
appears to have been scraped away to a slight depth.
If the modelling on the faces were not done with
remarkable skill and delicacy it would be scratchy,
but it is managed with such consummate art that
it just escapes this pitfall. The general result is
pleasing, although, like much too fine work, in
some cases it verges upon hardness.
Sometimes the backgrounds are engraved all
over with lines crossed at right angles, showing
that the idea of mezzotinting Targe flat spaces had
not as yet developed, but that known processes
were still preferentially used to produce broad even
tones.
Besides the large portraits a few other mezzo-
tints, subject pieces, were engraved by Von Siegen.
One of these shows St. Bruno kneeling in a cave
with a strong light upon his white robe. The work
here is strong roulette work with a little accessory
engraving. The distant peep of landscape is
charmingly done, and shows Von Siegen's char-
acteristic delicacy, although the plate is considered
to be one of his early efforts.
Another print is known as the ' Sainte Famille
aux Lunettes,' because St. Joseph is holding a big
pair of spectacles in his hand. It is after Annibale
Carracci, and shows cautious and tentative work,
as befits its supposed early date. It is mainly
rouletted, with a few engraved lines and a too
59
MEZZOTINTS
liberal use of the burnisher. Some of Von Siegen's
plates are printed on a remarkably coarse-grained
paper, white and thick. The inking of the earlier
plates is rough and messy, but that of the portraits,
which were probably his later work, is excellent.
Le*on de Laborde, in his most valuable and
excellent work, Histoire de la gramire en maniere
Noire, Leipzig, 1839, considers that there are signs
of scraped work in Von Siegen's portrait of William,
Prince of Nassau, as well as in that of the Emperor
Ferdinand in., but I cannot from my own observa-
tion endorse this view at all.
The question whether a white space on a
mezzotint print has been produced by the action
of a scraper or that of a burnisher is a difficult one
to answer, but there are certain small distinctive
marks made by each of these instruments which
differ from each other. These marks do -not always
show, and when they do, they are due either to
defects in the instruments themselves or to the
homogeneity of the copper plate.
In attempting to judge whether a white place
has been made by scraper or burnisher, it must first
of all be understood that the inking and printing of
the plate has been normal. If this inking has been
in any way done so as to purposely obscure the
working, which is quite easy and commonly
done, then any such judgment would be of small
value.
We will then take, for example, a space roulette
or rocked, so that if inked it would print quit
black. If a burnisher be rubbed over part of this
black space, say in the shape of a small leaf, it will
Polish down the tops of the tiny burrs wherever it
60
BURNISHING AND SCRAPING
is pressed upon them, but will remove no metal.
If now the part is inked, the ink will find no grip
in the polished points, so will not stick there, and
the resulting print will show a series of absolutely
white points wherever the burnisher has touched.
If desired, the burnishing can be carried on so far
as to entirely flatten out both the burrs and the in-
dentations of the mezzotinted surface, producing a
new polished surface at the bottom of a depression.
This naturally will print entirely white, and on the
print would show as a little white mountain, in low
relief. In order to completely clear off all ink from
such a spot it is well to use a soft wooden point
with whitening on it.
Now to revert to the original mezzotinted space
and consider the effect of a sharp, hard steel scraper
upon it. If the leaf form be slightly gone over with
the scraper, the tops of the little projections will be
sawn off, some of the metal being actually removed,
leaving in each case a little striated point to which
some ink will adhere. If printed from, these points
will show as grey points wherever the scraper has
touched. If the scraping is continued until all the
rouletted or mezzotinted surface has been cut away,
a delicate grey patch will show on the print, and if
this, or part of it, be again burnished, pure white
will result, as before forming a little white mountain
on the print. The difference may then be stated in
general terms to be that the use of the scraper tends
to produce truly grey-toned spaces, whereas the
use of the burnisher tends to produce spaces dotted
with white dots. These at a distance will also
show as grey, but not in the same delicate way
that the scraped work does.
6l
MEZZOTINTS
Burnishers of hard steel are very liable to get
small points of rust upon them, and they also seem
to have an affinity for collecting morsels of dust or
other minute bodies upon their bright surfaces, or
mixed with the oil with which they are worked, the
result of any of which accidents is that, as well as
polishing the copper in the required place, they very
often add in a few scratches on their own account.
So we often find white spaces on mezzotints with
very fine longitudinal marks along them. When-
ever such hair-like lines show in any space, evidently
intended to be white, I consider they have been
produced by a defective burnisher. It is curious to
note that a point intended to be very white, such,
for instance, as the high light on the tip of the
nose, often shows fine black lines across it. The
meaning of this is simply that the point of the
burnisher has both scratched and polished the
copper, instead of only polishing it. This defect
can be commonly found on prints up to the begin-
ning of the eighteenth century, after which it shows
more rarely.
Scrapers, on the other hand, betray their use
by another kind of defect on the print. They are
liable to produce small ridges on the metal at right
angles to the line of their action. Whether they
take undue notice of small variations of density in
the copper itself, or whether their level action is
disturbed by some other cause, I do not know ; but
scrapers are certainly apt to produce small transverse
ridges somewhat resembling wave-marks in sand,
and whenever a trace of such ridges shows on a
print, that space has been scraped. A burnisher
used on such ridges will often flatten them com-
62
BURIN WORK
pletely out, but also sometimes it will leave them
quite evident.
Instances of the first of these appearances, that
due to the use of the burnisher, are common on all
the prints of Von Siegen, Prince. Rupert, Fiirsten-
berg, and William Sherwin, and all of these are
notably deficient in half-tones ; but on prints from
plates engraved by Abraham Blooteling I find for
the first time what I consider to be undoubted
signs of the use of a scraper.
I have noted that a white spot normally produced
in the middle of a dark mezzotinted space, should
show on the print as a small mountain in relief.
But, in many instances, both in early and in late
mezzotints, the opposite effect is noticeable in the
eyes of portraits. The pupil of the eye shows as a
deep black mark in relief, and the light spot on it
is in a depression. Whenever this effect is observed
the meaning of it is that this particular eye is not
really mezzotinted at all, it is engraved with the
burin ; and consequently, although the whole eye
may have been mezzotinted at first with the rest of
the plate, yet the small details, with definite out-
lines and the fineness of the necessary lines, have
been found too difficult to render with a roulette or
rocker, so the artist has polished the place all over
and then simply used his burin to engrave the pupil
and sometimes also the iris and the lines about,
leaving the white spot untouched. Of course the
result of this is that the black part is in sharp relief
on the print and the white spot is in a depression.
It is very interesting to observe the work on the
eyes of all portraits engraved in mezzotint, as it
will generally be found to have been realised that
63
MEZZOTINTS
this process alone has proved inadequate to pro-
duce the desired effect, and that some other kind
of work has been necessarily enlisted as an
auxiliary.
About 1654, at Brussels, Von Siegen first met
Prince Rupert, an artist of much culture, and to
him he imparted the secret of his new invention.
Although Von Siegen himself made much show
of secrecy, Prince Rupert does not seem to have
done so at all, as he certainly told John Evelyn
all about it, although he in his turn made it a
mystery ; then the Prince imparted the knowledge
to the Canon von Fiirstenberg, and eventually to
a professional engraver, Wallerant Vaillant, whom
he employed to assist him.
For a long time Prince Rupert was considered
to be the inventor of mezzotinting. This is partly
due to the fact that his high rank made the very
fine plates he engraved well known, and also that
there is an old story about him to this effect, which
has been widely credited.
H. D. Chelsum wrote a curious little tract about
mezzotinting, under the title of A History of the
Art of Engraving in Mezzo-Tinto from its Origin
to the Present Times, printed at Winchester in 1786,
and in this book the story is given. It is to the
effect that on one occasion Prince Rupert noticed a
sentinel trying to clean a fusil-barrel which had
been deeply bitten by rust, and on examining this
barrel the Prince found that the marks had run
together so as to form some sort of picture. From
his observation of this accidental marking and his
experiments afterwards to purposely produce some-
thing like it, Prince Rupert was supposed to have
64
PRINCE RUPERT
deduced the possibility of so roughening a metal
plate in certain lines as to enable a print to be
made from it.
Prince Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine,
Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Cumberland and Earl of
Holderness, was the third son of the Princess Eliza-
beth, eldest daughter of James i., and Frederick v.,
Elector Palatine of the Rhine, afterwards King of
Bohemia. He was born at Prague, lyth December
1619, and died in London in 1682, and is buried in
Henry vn.'s chapel at Westminster.
Both as soldier, sailor, artist, and man of science
Prince Rupert highly distinguished himself. He
took part in various wars abroad, as well as for the
Royalists in England against the Parliamentary
forces. Successful as a rule, and brilliant in tactics,
he was badly beaten at Marston Moor, and again
when he surrendered Bristol to the king's enemies,
and at last he was banished from England by the
Parliament of 1646. He then went to France, and
entered the service of that country for a short time,
but presently took to the sea independently and
harassed the enemies of his cousin Charles n. At
the battle of Solebay he commanded a squadron
as Admiral of the White, and, a few years after-
wards, was made Vice-Admiral of England, and
from 1673 to 1679 he was First Lord of the
Admiralty.
Prince Rupert had a laboratory and made several
scientific discoveries ; among these was a new gun-
powder, a revolver, ' Prince s-metal ' an amalgam
of copper and zinc and ' Prince Rupert's drops,'
molten glass dropped into cold water, forming bulbs
with long tails, which, on being cracked, all fall to
E 65
MEZZOTINTS
powder, and for a long time he was considered as
the inventor of mezzotinting. Although this is not
actually true, he was nevertheless the first artist tc
at all realise the importance of Von Siegen's dis-
covery, as will be readily seen on an examinatior
of the powerful and masterly plates he engraved ii
that same manner.
Prince Rupert's two most important prints are
both excellent. One of them is the ' Great Exe-
cutioner,' after Spagnoletto; the other is a print
called the ' Standard-bearer ' by J. Chaloner Smith,
and ' David ' by Laborde.
The ' Great Executioner ' is in every way re-
markable among mezzotints. It measures 24^ b)
17^ inches, and is known in three states.
A man, three-quarters length, is standing ii
profile, dressed in a ragged coat. On his head is
white bandage, and in his right hand he is hold-
ing the head of St. John the Baptist. In the
background behind him is a staff on which is
ribbon bearing the etched device, ' ECCE AGNUS
DEI LITT. P. MUNDI.' In his left hand he holds
a sword, on the blade of which are the letter
' R. p. F. 1658.' At the bottom is a frame-
work on which, in some of the states, is an etchec"
inscription.
The manner of working the head of this figure is
strong and yet delicate. It resembles Von Siegen's
work in its delicacy, but is far stronger and better
than anything Von Siegen ever did. The plate is
marred by the treatment of the background, which
has been roughened with a lined roulette of too
large size. This roulette has been worked in broad,
sweeping curves, and, as so often happens in such
66
X x^
ta.lg* (k8ou/t*yn*b/.
f
PRINCE RUPERT
cases, the edges of the curves show unduly, so that
the whole plate looks more or less as if it was
made up of a series of small rainbows. There is
an immense amount of other work upon this plate,
dotted, scratched, etched, and engraved, and, as
Laborde truly says, the effect produced cannot fail
to arouse our admiration and astonishment.
The other print of Prince Rupert's, which by its
great merit is worthy of special attention, is the
smaller 'Standard-bearer,' measuring u by 8
inches. It represents a young man in cuirass with
long hair and a cap, holding a standard in his right
hand and leaning on a shield with his left. On the
upper border of the shield is the inscription ' 1658
Rupt. P. FEC.' The picture is said to be after
Giorgione. The work is excellent throughout, and
some of the roughening of the surface of the copper
has been very skilfully done so as only to cast a
grey shadow on the paper. There is some etched
and some burnished work, but I cannot feel sure
that there is any scraped work ; I think not.
The remaining prints which are certainly by
Prince Rupert are smaller and of little importance.
There is a very scratchy Magdalen, said to be after
Merian, with an etched title ; two heads in large
hats, which may possibly be portraits of himself;
and a quite small head of Titian, which is attributed
to the Prince in the British Museum collection,
but which J. Chaloner Smith considers not to be
by him, as it has a frame, and it is supposed that
Prince Rupert never engraved a frame to any of his
mezzotints.
The head called the ' Small Executioner,' which
Prince Rupert good-naturedly made for John
6?
MEZZOTINTS
Evelyn's book Sculptura, is an excellent copy of
the head only of the ' Great Executioner.'
Besides, there are several small doubtful prints
which have been attributed to the warrior-artist, but
even if this is correct they are only early exercises
and of little artistic value. One head of a young
woman is finely rouletted in the manner of Von
Siegen, and others show experiments made with
roulettes or rollers of different sizes and patterns.
Some of them, like those which were used for the
' Great Executioner,' appear only to have been scored
across with parallel lines.
Some of the prints, in small light places, show
curious small scratchings on the surface of the
paper, the same peculiarity which appears on some
of Von Siegen's. It is just possible that this
proceeding may have suggested the scraping of the
burred copper surface to produce something of the
same effect.
As compared with Von Siegen's work, that of
Prince Rupert ranks higher, although he has only
used the same processes. Von Siegen was very
loyal to his fine roulettes, and did not seek much
further for help in working on the copper ; but
Prince Rupert seems to have used several kinds of
instruments, as in many of his plates new effects
appear, as if the copper surface had been subjected
to some file-like roughening which was more or
less under the control of the artist.
The early mezzotinters did not hesitate to
improve their prints by subsequent doctoring.
Not only are surface scratchings used to produce
light places, but also there are not uncommon
instances of deepening of colour by means of black
68
THE CANON VON FURSTENBERG
chalk, lamp black, or printing ink. I think it is
very likely that more of this kind of work than is
generally admitted exists on many ' brilliant ' prints,
even among those of comparatively recent origin.
Some of the mezzotints engraved by the Baron
von Fiirstenberg, a contemporary with Prince
Rupert, are very large. Many of the early mezzo-
tinters liked large plates. Filrstenberg's work is to
my mind never pleasing; the strong contrasts of
light and shade and the inferior technique alto-
gether render them of little artistic value. The
only peculiarity about his work which is worthy of
notice is the existence
of a curious aureole
in some of his prints,
with a sort of tail to it.
This peculiar aureole
also appears in one in-
stance on a plate cred-
ited to Jan Thomas, a
seventeenth century
Dutch mezzotinter of
little skill, but except in this instance I believe it
occurs only on Fiirstenberg's work. A mezzotinted
portrait of William, Archduke of Austria, is signed
'Theodorus Casparus a Fiirstenburgh Canomcus.
Pinxit et fecit 1656.'
There is some slight sign of scraping on some
of FUrstenberg's plates, but it is doubtful, as most
of his prints are so badly produced that any de-
duction of the kind from them is of uncertain
value. There appears to me to have been some
attempt in some of the plates at rouletting a larger
space than necessary, and then scraping or burnish-
69
AUREOLE USED BY VON FURSTENBERG.
MEZZOTINTS
ing it down as required, but there is little of such
work, the effect having been produced as much as
possible by simply rouletting the plate wherever the
dark places were wanted. The burnisher has been
freely and stupidly used, the result being at the
same time weak and hard. Nevertheless, in spite
of their inferiority, Von Fiirstenberg's mezzotints
have at all events immortalised their author as one
of the very early engravers in that manner, and he
is worthy of honour because he was one of the few
amateurs who by their weaknesses, as well as by
their strengths, contributed to render the art one of
a recognised style, and eventually to hold very high
rank among the processes of engraving on metal.
He is only known to fame because of the few
mezzotint prints he has left, and is credited with
having instructed some younger engravers in the
new process. The best known of these were J.
Friedrich von Eltz, J. T. Kremer, and Jodocus
Bickart, and J. Chaloner Smith thinks they may
have actually helped the Canon in his works.
Wallerant Vaillant was a Dutch portrait-painter.
He acted as assistant to Prince Rupert, who very
likely instructed him in the art of mezzotinting.
He was a good draughtsman, and perhaps his best
work is to be found among the numerous small
portrait-heads, mostly of Dutchmen. Vaillant's
plates are almost entirely deficient in half-tones. I
attribute this to the absence of scraping in any
quantity ; the lights are all burnished. The grain
is coarse and ugly, and the blacks are weak. Among
the portraits is one of Vaillant's patron, Prince
Rupert, and under it is lettered the words ' Prins
Robbert, vinder van de Swarte Prent Konst/ no
70
WALLERANT VAILLANT
doubt only a piece of flattery, as Vaillant must have
known cjuite well that Von Siegen showed the
Prince his new art. Some of the drapery on this
head is copied from that on a head of David,
engraved by Prince Rupert. There is also a head
of a negro, interesting in comparison with the far
better one said to have been engraved by Sir
Christopher Wren, of which this is a copy without
the metal collar. Besides the portraits Vaillant
engraved several miscellaneous subject pieces,
'Susanna and the Elders,' 'Judith,' ' Holy Families,'
singing men and others, all of which are well
drawn, but the mezzotinting of which is coarse,
dull, and weak. A few are printed in pale brown
ink, and they look worse than ever, as the dark
places are not strongly enough engraved to bear the
weakening in tint without undue loss of depth.
Among these smaller prints there is one of Prince
Rupert in armour, which Laborde thinks is pro-
bably the first, or one of the first, done by Vaillant.
It is very scratchy and bad, and although, as usual,
well drawn, it is not at all pleasing.
Vaillant's greatest claim to notice is indeed the
fact that by his open attribution to Prince Rupert
of the invention of the ' Swarte Konst,' as well as
by the great publicity given to his portraits of the
Prince, and his engravings partly copied from him,
he is largely responsible for the widely spread
belief that Prince Rupert invented mezzotinting.
There exists a curious early and unsigned
mezzotint of a Moor's head and bust, with a thick
metal collar, which is supposed to have been
engraved by Sir Christopher Wren. It is, how-
ever, very uncertain whether this is the fact. The
MEZZOTINTS
main authority for the attribution of this plate to
Sir Christopher appears to be a sentence in the
Parentalia of the family of Wren, published in
London in 1750. Here it is stated that Sir Chris-
topher ' was the first inventor of the art of graving
in Mezzo Tinto, which was afterwards prosecuted
and improved by his Royal Highness Prince
Rupert, in a method somewhat different, upon the
suggestion (as is said) of the learned and ingenious
John Evelyn, Esq. Of this art some original
essays are extant, viz. the head of a Moor, etc., by
the Inventor, etc.' The engraving of the Moor's
head in question is quite small, and evidently an
experimental plate, the drawing good, but the
technique of the mezzotinting very weak and un-
certain. It is slightly burnished in places, and
possibly a little scraped also. It would of itself
have attracted no notice, but because of, the various
references to it in notices of mezzotinting it has
some interest. Chelsum quotes the statement in
the Parentalia in his book on mezzotints, but
Evelyn, far from corroborating it, only mentions
Wren as a dexterous draughtsman.
Jan van Somer and Paul van Somer were
probably brothers, and there exist several mezzo-
tints signed ' Van Somer ' only, without any initial,
the authorship of which is doubtful between the
two.
The mezzotints of Jan van Somer are mostly
small, not well engraved, almost entirely deficient
in half-tones, and generally represent Dutch scenes
after Dutch artists. Some of the heads are well
drawn.
Paul, the younger of the two, was born
72
JAN AND PAUL VAN SOMER
Amsterdam, probably about 1649, and worked in
England during the latter half of the century. He
engraved several small plates, most of which are
deficient in half-tones, and are probably lightened
by means of the burnisher alone. Only one of his
plates is worthy of especial notice. It is a large
group of the Coke family, after Huysman. This
plate, which measures 25! by 19^ inches, is the
first attempt to represent a large group of this kind
in mezzotint, and it is remarkably successful. The
Dutch treatment of the subject by the painter is
suitably and feelingly rendered by the Dutch feeling
of the engraver.
There is some doubt as to which family of
Coke it represents, and it has been considered to
be that of Edward Coke of Holkham, the father of
the Earl of Leicester, but this has been disputed
because of the date. It is now considered more
likely that the group is that of the children of
Sir Edward Coke of Longford, in Derby. There
are three boys and two girls in a very ornamental
garden with a fountain and pet animals, the flying
angel probably representing a daughter who died
young.
Van Somer engraved principally after Sir A.
Vandyck and Sir P. Lely.
The process of mezzotinting starts by handi-
capping its votaries considerably, and the majority
of prints, portrait, landscape, genre or full-length,
go to prove this, as they are nearly all too dark.
The greatest jealousy, then, must be exercised only
to examine and consider the very finest works
possible, for mezzotinting, of a kind, is extremely
easy, and a maximum of effect with a minimum of
73
MEZZOTINTS
labour can be obtained by the use of this process.
In regard to the very early prints, I look upon them
chiefly as curiosities, and indeed they can hardly be
strictly considered as mezzotints at all. I think
Abraham Blooteling was the first artist who at all
realised the combined power of roulette or rocker
and scraper to produce tones only as distinct from
lines. He saw the possibility of the rich blacks,
delicately graduated greys, and pearly whites, and he
first used this power properly with supreme success.
It is curious and lucky that Blooteling worked
in England, as it enables us to include him in lists
of English engravers. Certainly Prince Rupert
was half English, and, as we have seen, for a long
time he was considered the inventor of the art.
As long ago as 1744, P. J. Mariette in his book
Recueil destampes qiii composoient le cabinet de
M. Boyer d'Agiiitles, says of two mezzotint prints
that they are gravds dans la maniere qu'on
nomine dAngleterre.
Although the early mezzotinters were not
English, their best work was done here, and the
chief patronage and encouragement to the art of
mezzotinting has always been afforded by our
nation rather than any other. There are certain
niceties of execution in the best work of Blooteling
which have given rise to the notion that he invented
and used the rounded chisel form of rocker rather
than the roulette form which had been hitherto
used. He may have done so. Anyway, there is no
doubt that his work is immeasurably in advance of
that of any of his contemporaries, both as to the
rocking of the plate and the subsequent scraping
and burnishing.
74
ABRAHAM BLOOTELING
For large plates the rocker held in the hand is
always difficult to manage, and all Blooteling's best
plates are very large. It is possible that he or Blois
perhaps the credit lies between them invented
some arrangement analogous to the pole attach-
ment which is now used for facilitating the rocking
of copper plates for mezzotint work. The chief
advantage of this is that a large rocker can be
easily worked. It is set at a sharp angle near one
end of a pole about three feet in length, the other
end of which is fitted with a rounded stud. The
rocker rests on the copper plate and the stud rests
in a smooth groove. The worker presses with his
hand on the pole over or near the rocker, and rocks
it evenly sideways, and each rock moves the whole
thing a hair's-breadth forward, by reason of the
angle at which the cutting edge is set, the stud
running easily in its groove.
Abraham Blooteling was born at Amsterdam in
1634. He was a skilled line engraver, an art he
probably learned from Cornelius Visscher, and also
worked most successfully in mezzotint. It is not
known how he learned mezzotinting, but it is sup-
posed, with much probability, that he may have
been taught by Fiirstenberg. He certainly knew
the family, as he engraved portraits of some of its
members.
Blooteling came to England in 1673, and pro-
bably stayed here some considerable time, as he
mezzotinted many portraits of English people.
Among these are the finest specimens of his work.
He engraved in this manner several plates after Lely
and Vandyck, as well as many after Dutch artists,
and others probably from his own drawings.
75
MEZZOTINTS
There is a list of Blooteling's engravings given
by M. E. Wessels, in which one hundred and
twenty-eight mezzotints are included, and another
list is given in J. Chaloner Smith's Catalogue of
British Mezzotint Portraits.
Charming though the small mezzotints by
Blooteling are good enough of themselves to rank
him as a master they yet give way before the
splendid nearly life-size heads for which he is most
distinguished. These are always within an oval
framework, as are many of the small ones, and in
their execution the highest skill of the mezzotinter
is apparent. Not only are they admirably drawn,
but the peculiar charm of the dark, grey, and white
tones which can be produced by this particular
process is fully evident in every case. Blooteling
is the first true master of mezzotint, and I think he
was the first to use the scraper to any important
extent. His grounds are well laid ; they were done
for him by an assistant named Blois, but there is
no doubt he closely superintended the working
and carefully chose the size and pattern of the
grain to be cut on the rocker. His grounds are
only better of the same kind than those used before
him, but his use of the scraper is practically a new
departure.
Among the large heads, that of James, Duke of
Monmouth, after Lely, is perhaps the finest as well
as the best known, but all are so fine that any
distinction between them is really unnecessary.
Of the others, there are especially beautiful prints
of Charles n., Charles, Earl of Derby, and Mary
Beatrice, Duchess of York. Some of these exist
in several states, the early ones without the
76
ABRAHAM BLOOTELING
finished oval framework in which most of them
are eventually enclosed.
Blooteling also engraved a considerable number
of small portraits, in which his great skill as a
mezzotinter shows quite as clearly. Among these
are some of exceptional merit the head of an old
man, Abraham Symonds, a modeller in wax, is a
fine instance; and among the portraits of ladies,
that of Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth, after Lely,
is perhaps the most charming, although there are
several others, of royal ladies, all of which are
excellent. In the matter of fancy subjects Bloote-
ling has not been so successful, or possibly only
not so careful, as the few he has left are by no
means good. His technique is always far in
advance of anything done by any one else near his
time, and in some of his small Dutch heads, or
subjects after Dutch masters, his mastery over the
processes of the art of mezzotinting shows very
clearly, and he was able to produce most brilliant
prints, rich in deep tones and delicate greys.
Blooteling was the first engraver in mezzotint
to take any important place as a finished exponent
in that manner. He copied the paintings of other
artists as a rule, and among his originals are to be
found pictures by Sir A. Vandyck, Sir P. Lely, and
Sir G. Kneller. Vandyck and Lely had been already
engraved by Paul van Somer, but his work has not
the importance of Blooteling's in any respect. The
work of these three great artists, Vandyck, Lely,
and Kneller, has been highly favoured by mezzotint
engravers ever since their own time indeed they
practically held the field until the later school
of English painters, represented by Sir Joshua
77
MEZZOTINTS
Reynolds, T. Gainsborough, G. Romney, and J.
Hoppner, came into existence. The strength of the
Dutch element, both as to original painters as
well as engravers in the early days of mezzotint,
is indeed one of the remarkable points which a
study of the subject elucidates.
Several engravers and assistants appear to have
worked with and for Blooteling ; some of them may
have been pupils. Gerrard Valck, who married
Blooteling's sister, was one of these. He published
some good mezzotints in England, after Lely.
It is probable that the production of Blooteling's
beautiful mezzotints did more to popularise the art
among engravers than any other incentive, and
most of the mezzotint engravers who worked at
his own time, as well as afterwards, appear to have
taken his work largely as a standard of excellence
and an example to be followed as nearly as
possible.
Anthony Vandyck was born at Antwerp in
1599. His early style of painting something re-
sembled that of Rubens, whose work was already
very highly esteemed. Vandyck remained for a
long time at Antwerp, and was employed about
1619 by Rubens to make working drawings of
his pictures for the use of engravers, and he
even helped Rubens with parts of some of his
pictures.
In 1620 Vandyck came to England and made
several fine portraits of members of the English
royal family, as well as of the aristocracy. He
afterwards lived at Genoa and other places on the
Continent, where he painted many fine subject
pictures as well as portraits, but his best work is
78
VANDYCK AND LELY
supposed to have been done at Antwerp, to which
place he returned about 1626.
In 1632 Vandyck came again to London at the
request of Charles I., who highly admired his work
and conferred upon him the honour of knighthood,
and while here he executed a splendid series of
portraits of the royal family. Vandyck arranged
his portraits himself, but left much of the accessory
work to assistants, always painting the faces and
hands and giving the finishing touches generally
with his own hand. He died at Blackfriars in
1641, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Vandyck's pictures and portraits have been
largely engraved in mezzotint, for which they are
very suitable. From Blooteling and Beckett to
Valentine Green, and particularly J. R. Smith,
almost all of the first rank of mezzotint engravers
have loved to copy his work, which is fortunately
abundant.
Sir Peter Lely was the son of a soldier in the
army of the States General, and was born in 1618
near Utrecht. He early showed a taste for art,
and was allowed to follow his inclination, taking
to portrait-painting from the beginning.
Lely came to England with the Prince of
Orange in 1641, and painted several portraits of
members of the royal family, to some extent basing
his style on that of Sir Anthony Vandyck, who had
just died. Lely is said to have painted a portrait
of Cromwell, but nevertheless at the Restoration he
was taken into favour by Charles n., and painted
numbers of Court beauties, many of the oest of
which are now at Hampton Court. Lely was the
supreme Court painter in England until the arrival
79
MEZZOTINTS
of Godfrey Kneller, who was a remarkably rapid
worker.
Lely's work has always enjoyed much favour
with mezzotint engravers, and the early engravers
Blooteling and Van Somer both copied his work.
Among the prints published by A. Browne and
R. Thompson, and engraved by various masters,
will be found the most numerous mezzotints after
Lely. He was knighted in 1679, and died the
next year.
William Sherwin was the son of a clergyman,
the rector of Wellington, in Hertfordshire, and was
always a great lover of art. He was well known
as a line engraver, and in a portrait of his father
he describes himself as being ' Engraver to the
King by Patent.' He also engraved several of the
plates in Sandford's History^ of the Coronation of
James II. Sherwin experimented largely with
mezzotints, being in all probability incited thereto
by the study of John Evelyn's book Sculptura>
published in 1662, but as this work does not
actually describe the process, it is supposed that
Sherwin experimented for himself with files.
Eventually, however, he made the acquaintance
of Prince Rupert, one of whose servants was
accused of having surreptitiously shown Sherwin
his master's engraving-tools, and the Prince is
said to have helped him in his studies, and even
given him a roulette.
Sherwin lends some colour to this story, as he
has not only dedicated two of his most important
mezzotints, those of Charles n. and his Queen, to I
Prince Rupert, but he also adds to the lettering on
that of the King the words ' Specimen hoc vestrae
80
W. SHERWIN
Celsitudinis gratia et favore sibi divulgatum ' con-
cerning the art itself as known to him.
Sherwin has the distinction of being the first
English engraver in mezzotint. He has luckily dated
the print of Charles n., just mentioned, ' 1609,' so
that until a mezzotint of English origin is found
bearing an earlier date, this one remains in posses-
sion. It is a disagreeable portrait. It is possible
that some of the plates engraved by Francis Place
were really earlier, but as none of his prints are
dated, the matter becomes one of conjecture only.
Sherwin may well have improved his practice of
mezzotinting by the study of Alexander Browne's
Ars Pictoria, which was published in the same
year as the portrait of Charles n. He married
Elizabeth Pride, great-niece and heiress of George
Monk, Duke of Albemarle, a connection which was
of much value to him, as it is probable that it
was through the Court influence of the Albemarles
that he obtained the introduction to Prince Rupert,
without which his work would probably not have
been as good as it is. The same interest also, no
doubt, helped him in his endeavours to obtain
permission to make portraits of so many of the
royal family, as well as other persons of high rank.
Sherwin can hardly be considered as a pro-
fessional mezzotinter; he rather comes under the
head of a distinguished amateur. He has not done
much work in this manner, and what there is is
all portraiture, and mostly taken from his own
drawings.
Sherwin's work is curiously varied in quality.
His two important plates of Charles n. and Queen
Catherine are done in an effective but scratchy
F 81
MEZZOTINTS
style, unlike most of the others, but they are
powerful portraits, and altogether well managed.
They are worked up in all sorts of ways, scratched
with points and files, apparently etched here and
there, and worked upon with a burin. On some of
the prints the letterings have been engraved on a
separate plate.
The portrait of George Monk, Duke of Albe-
marle, is powerful and strongly engraved ; the
manner of working is curious and varied, but the
general result is pleasing. That of Elizabeth,
Duchess of Albemarle, is charming, strong, and yet
delicate, and possesses many of the high qualities
afterwards found in the finest eighteenth century
work, but the drawing is weak. Altogether this is
one of the most pleasing lady's portraits that had
as yet been produced in mezzotint.
Some of Sherwin's prints appear to have been
' improved ' very carefully with lamp black or
printing ink applied by hand to supplement weak
places.
Sherwin's portraits, like those of Blooteling, are
generally within an oval outline, and enclosed in an
ornamental framework. Sometimes these borders
are charmingly engraved in mezzotint, as in the
case of the portrait of Adrian Beverland ; at other
times they are curiously etched with a marbled
effect, resembling a broad and coarse stipple, and
finished with ordinary etching. His mezzotints
are very scarce. Although J. Chaloner Smith gives
a longish list of works by him, it is not easy to
find them. He appears to have improved his style
remarkably in his later work, and he also realised
for the first time the singular suitability of a dark
82
ALEX. BROWNE AND FRANCIS PLACE
brown ink for prints made from plates engraved in
mezzotint, and he frequently had his prints made in
this colour.
Alexander Browne, the author of the tract Ars
Pictoria, published in 1669, which contains the
first printed account of the actual process of engrav-
ing in mezzotint, published many prints in that
manner. These mostly have the inscription ' Sold ^
by Alex. Browne at the blew balcony in little Queen
Street,' and he may have engraved some of them
himself, but it is not certain. The prints vary
much in style, and they certainly bear out the
theory that they are the work of several hands.
J. Chaloner Smith suggests several names of
mezzotint engravers who are likely to have done
work for Browne, but the attributions still remain
for most critics a matter of speculation.
Walpole says that Browne obtained a patent in
1683 to engrave a hundred mezzotints after Vandyck
and Lely, and it is most probable that he commis-
sioned the best engravers he could get to undertake
such part of this work as was ever executed.
Francis Place worked at mezzotints as nearly as /
possible at the same time as William Sherwin, and
it is still uncertain which of them really worked
first, but Sherwin, having dated his Charles n.
' 1669,' is entitled to rank as the earlier engraver.
Place has not dated any of his prints. Place, like
Sherwin, was a skilled engraver in many styles, and
he was a friend and possibly a pupil of the engraver
Wenceslaus Hollar. He was also a good artist in
oils as well as in crayons, and is generally supposed
to have picked up the process of mezzotinting for
himself by means of careful study of such mezzo-
83
MEZZOTINTS
tint prints as were available to him. He was a
native of Dimsdale, in Yorkshire, where he was
born in 1647, and began life as an attorney, but
being fortunately a man of sufficient property to
follow his own inclinations, he soon gave up the
law and devoted himself to art.
In later life Place amused himself at York by
making experiments in pottery, and produced a
grey ware with black streaks in it, specimens of
which are now much sought after.
Most of Place's mezzotints are small and un-
important. They show in many cases the work of
a line engraver trying what he can do with a roulette
instead of a burin; but through all the deficient
technique, the knowledge and power of an excellent
draughtsman shows very clearly. Several, however,
of the later engravings, often very charming and
rich in half-tones, although still small, show an
increasing mastery over the unfamiliar process.
Perhaps the most pleasing of all the portraits is
that of Philip Woolrych, after J. Greenhill. It is a
delightful head of a young man with fair hair or
wig, in armour. The treatment of the hair shows,
I think, traces of scraped work, but it is difficult to
say for certain. No doubt in all Place's mezzotints
the great part of the light work is produced by the
burnisher only. The plates have, I think, not been
rocked all over, but only as required, and then a
little scraped and burnished. Another small and
very charming portrait is that of Charles i. in the
beautiful robes of the Garter, after Vandyck, and a
rather larger print of .General John Lambert as a
young man is also very pleasing and well executed.
Ralph Thoresby mentions a small portrait of Henry
84
FRANCIS PLACE
Giles, the glass painter, of which he says that it
was 'wrought in mezzotinto when that art was
known to few others, by the celebrated Mr. Francis
Place,' but if such mention had not been made con-
cerning this print, it would not be entitled to any
notice, as its merit is small in every way. George
Lumley was a friend of Place, and engraved a few
excellent mezzotint portraits, now very scarce.
Place's work is altogether that of a born artist
and man of taste. The technique is sufficiently
good, although not approaching that of Blooteling ;
but the true artistic feeling with which many of the
portraits are engraved will always entitle Place to a
high rank among the earliest votaries of the art of
mezzotinting. Although Sherwin and Place have
only left a few fine examples of their highest skill
for us to admire, they succeeded in fixing a high
standard for those who came after them the pro-
fessionals who from this time onward took the art
more and more away from the amateur world
which had given it rise, and contributed in a high
degree to its progress. After Place it may be said
that the art was practically common property, and
there were no secrets left concerning the various
processes concerned. For a long time, however, I
expect that each engraver habitually prepared his
own ground the best way he could, and very likely
made his own tools. Although Blooteling had his
grounds prepared for him, he remained for long the
only engraver to have this done regularly, and I
think that much of the individuality of the various
engravers rests in their choice of the grain pro-
duced by the roulette or rocker they chose and
probably designed. Sherwin and Place were in-
85
MEZZOTINTS
deed truer artists than many of their professional
successors.
The earlier engravers in mezzotint were all
known to one another, and the art was passed on
among them, not practised by outsiders at all, but
kept for some time as a close secret among a small
company.
Prince Rupert not only brought the art to
England, but seems to have been quite ready to im-
part his knowledge of mezzotinting to any one that
cared to ask him for help and could gain access to
him. It remained much in the hands of amateurs,
and at first was probably looked upon as a mere
fancy by professional engravers generally. The
first two Englishmen to take it up were both
amateurs, William Sherwin and Francis Place.
Sherwin was an enthusiast, and experimented
freely with regard to the proper kind of instrument
to roughen the surface of the copper. While
Prince Rupert seems only to have used a simply
channelled roller for his grounding, Sherwin altered
the arrangement of the cuts upon the roller, making
them cross and re-cross each other, something in
the same kind of way in which the fine lines
may be seen mixed together upon a small round
jeweller's file a section of which will make a very
efficient roller for making a mezzotint ground, but
can never be under such control as a properly
made rocker. Rollers of all sizes used for laying
mezzotint ground are always apt to slip instead ol
revolving, and this makes them dangerous to use.
After Sherwin and Place had shown distinctly
that the new art was not a mere passing amuse-
ment, but that in proper hands it was actually
86
THE GROWTH OF MEZZOTINTING
capable of producing effects hitherto unattainable,
it quickly attracted the attention of the professional
line engravers, several of whom played with roller
and scraper with more or less success, while still
keeping seriously in touch with the burin. At last
John Smith gave his whole attention to the new
process, and as he was a most excellent draughtsman
as well as a very skilled engraver, he soon succeeded
in producing prints of a richness and beauty which
at once made it evident that mezzotinting, at its
best, must in future take a foremost place among
the various processes of engraving. Every kind of
engraving has its own beauties, and also has found,
at one time or another, its own most successful
interpreter. Collectors range widely in their quest
for fine prints of all kinds, but it is probable that in
time to come a very fine mezzotint will be more
prized than a print made in any other way what-
ever. One reason for this will at once appeal to all
connoisseurs. It is that a mezzotinted plate of
copper, on which soft metal all the earlier engrav-
ings were made, has a much shorter life than one
engraved in any other way, and also that the result-
ing print is itself far more delicate than one drawn
from an etched, aquatinted, or line-engraved plate,
and consequently only a few fine prints survive in
perfect condition.
Mezzotint engravers have in the main at all
times considered portraiture as the most fitting
field for their art. The finest mezzotints, from the
beginning, belong to this domain. Landscapes and
subject pieces have each found able interpreters,
and the works of Zoffany, West, Fuseli, Northcote,
Wheatley, Hogarth, and Morland, as well as
87
MEZZOTINTS
numbers of other masters, old and modern, have all
been admirably rendered in the maniere Anglaise,
but such plates are nearly always strongly etched
as well. Landscapes are rarer, but they have been
at all events attempted by some eminent engravers.
Earlom used some mezzotinting in his prints of the
Liber Veritatis, and so did Turner in the Liber
Studiorum, and in later times David Lucas and
Lupton have proved that much can be done in the
matter of landscape, with etching combined with
mezzotint. But I think none of these have been
able to show that landscape js the proper field for
this particular art.
Although the large majority of mezzotints are
engraved after the paintings of some artist other
than the engraver, there are nevertheless several
instances where the engravings have themselves
been practically originals. This is found to be the
case in Frye's large heads, as well as some engraved
by J. R. Smith, and some of the plates in the Liber
Studiorum are entirely original works by J. M. W,
Turner.
Most of the more important mezzotint engravers
have, some time or other during their career, en-
graved subject pieces as well as portraits. Mezzo-
tint engraving has always been practised most by
men, but, the work being light, there is no particular
reason why ladies should not have worked more at
it. There were, during the eighteenth century, a
few of the gentler sex who did such good work
that it seems a pity more of them did not follow
the example set by Jane Thompson, Caroline
Kirkley, Susan Reid, and Elizabeth Judkins, whose
portrait of Mrs. Abingdon is so excellent that it is
88
CHOICE OF SUBJECTS
unkindly said it must have been engraved by her
master, James Watson. But none of these ladies
engraved a sufficient quantity of work to entitle
them to much special notice.
It is probable that the inspiration for a really
fine mezzotint is more difficult to find than it is for
any other manner of engraving, and the reason for
this is chiefly that there is a possibility of so much
inherent charm in a mezzotint of itself, that it
amounts rather to a new rendering of an original
picture than to a mere copy from it as a line
engraving is. It is due to this rare quality of
inherent charm that in many cases a fine mezzotint
print is actually a finer conception than the picture
from which it is taken. So that, when once the
capabilities of the art were fully understood, as far
as its technical methods went, and engravers knew
what could and what could not be done with it,
they cast about for originals which would not only
lend themselves well to reproduction in black and
white, but would, in addition, be likely to inspire
them with new and special views as to chiaroscuro
in accordance with the peculiarly soft and beautiful
darks, delicate greys, and pure lights made possible
for the first time by the suggestive genius of Von
Sieeen.
We must, therefore, while not losing sight of
the merits of the actual engravers, never forget to
give due honour, in their proper place, to the few
great artists whose work has pre-eminently fulfilled
the two conditions of fitness and suggestiveness,
both of which qualities, as the skill of the engravers
became more general, were looked for with more
and more care and discrimination.
89
MEZZOTINTS
E. Luttrell was a native of Dublin, and was
born about 1650. He began life as a lawyer and
studied at New Inn in London. Soon, however,
turning his attention to art, especially portraits in
crayon, in which he excelled, he moreover invented
some way of rendering a similar effect on copper,
probably analogous to what is now called soft
ground-etching. He became fascinated with the art
of mezzotinting through seeing some of Blooteling's
prints, and he endeavoured to bribe Blois, the
workman who laid Blooteling's grounds, to impart
to him the secret of that process. John Lloyd,
Luttrell's publisher, was the go-between, and he
succeeded in obtaining the required information
from Blois, but when he got it he would not pass
it on to Luttrell but retained it himself, and very
traitorously instructed his friend, Isaac Beckett,
another engraver. This naturally incensed Luttrell,
who still remained dependent upon his own obser-
vations of the envied prints and his experiments
with tools of his own making, with a view to pro-
ducing the same effects. At last he made the
acquaintance of Jan van Somer, who explained the
process fully, and in course of time the quarrel
between Luttrell, Beckett, and Lloyd was made up
and they all worked together amicably. Luttrell's
prints bear witness to the statement that he experi-
mented much with various methods for roughening
the ground of his mezzotints. Walpole says that
he rolled them with a roughened roller, but what-
ever he did them with they are not as a rule very
successful. The grain used is too large, and in
many cases the whole print is weak and betrays an
excessive use of the scraper.
90
E. LUTTRELL AND J. LLOYD
Luttrell engraved chiefly after Sir A. Vandyck,
Sir P. Lely, Sir G. Kneller, and J. Greenhill, and
several of his plates are unsigned. His prints were
mostly published by John Lloyd, himself an en-
graver as well as a printseller, Isaac Beckett, and
I. Smith. Many of the engravers of this period
were also publishers of prints, and they often pub-
lished their own work as well as that of their
clients.
John Lloyd, a contemporary with Luttrell, and
also a mezzotint engraver and printseller, carried
on his business in Salisbury Street, Strand. He
obtained the secret of laying a mezzotint ground
from Blooteling's assistant, Blois, with the avowed
intention of passing it on to his friend Luttrell,
but to Luttrell's great annoyance Lloyd kept the
knowledge to himself. In time the quarrel was
patched up, and the two engravers worked together
in harmony, one as engraver and the other as
publisher.
There are only a very few mezzotints that can
be supposed to have been actually engraved by
Lloyd, and two of these are after Lely. The words
'Jo Lloyd Ex.' occur on all prints published by
him, without any engraver's name. There is much
probability that most of these prints were engraved
by Luttrell, peculiar work, resembling his known
style, occurs in several instances, especially in a
portrait of the ' Ambassador of Morocco,' probably
done during his apprenticeship period.
Isaac Beckett began life as a calico printer, and
made acquaintance with the engravers Luttrell and
Lloyd somewhere about 1670, and assisted Lloyd
in his work. Presently, however, he worked with
9'
MEZZOTINTS
Luttrell instead, and set up for himself as engraver
and publisher. Luttrell and Beckett engraved
several plates conjointly. Beckett took pupils him-
self, among them being John Smith, afterwards
one of our most famous mezzotinters, who is
credited, however, with having put his own name
on several of Beckett's plates, of which he obtained
possession after his death.
Beckett engraved several subject pieces, mostly
scriptural, and some landscapes, but like most of
his contemporaries, the majority of his works are
portraits. J. Chaloner Smith catalogues a hundred
and seven of them. He engraved chiefly after Sir
P. Lely, Sir G. Kneller, and W. Wissing, and
most of his plates were executed between 1681 and
1688. He is supposed to have engraved several
of the unsigned plates published by Alexander
Browne.
Beckett published most of his own prints 'at
the goldne Head in the old Baily,' and others were
issued by ' I. Smith at the Lyon & Crowne in
Russell Street, Covent Garden,' 'Alex. Browne at
ye blew ballcony in little Queen Street,' or ' E.
Cooper at ye 3 Pidgeons in Bedford Street.'
Many of Beckett's mezzotints are very pleasing ;
the modelling of the faces is often extremely clever.
The work is far the best which had been done up
to his time, excepting Blooteling's. Beckett found
out that white satin was excellently fitted to show
well in mezzotint, and several of his charming
ladies are dressed in it. The drawing in some
cases is weak, but it is generally fairly good. It is
not always easy to say for certain how far this sort
of error is due to faithful transcription of the
92
ISAAC BECKETT
original, but, as a rule, it is the engraver's fault
only.
Beckett's grounds are curiously laid. They ap-
pear like very fine cross-hatching, and may have been
made by a finely grooved roller of hard metal. The
darks appear flat, and the velvety effect, which so
often is of great value in later work, is non-existent.
The flat effect is not unpleasing ; it seems to give
a quietness and coolness to many of the prints
which is in a manner refreshing. The scraped
work is clever and effective in almost all cases, and
I should say very little burnishing has been used.
Several instances exist where dark places appear
to have been cleverly touched in with some black
pigment, giving the effect of a brilliant proof. It
is possible that the quiet flatness of the dark places
in Beckett's prints is not only due to the peculiar
manner of laying the ground, but is also attribut-
able to the quality of the ink, which is evidently
not of a greasy kind. There are several small
classical groups which are engraved in a careless
way. The best work is to be found among the
portraits. A delightful lady is ' Madam Turner,'
after Kneller. She was daughter of Algernon, sixth
son of William, Earl of Salisbury ; and among the
other portraits is a very fine head of Sir Peter Lely,
and a finely modelled head of an old man, the painter
Peter van der Meulen, after N. de Larguilliere.
Isaac Beckett was the first Englishman who
could be considered as a professional mezzotint
engraver. In many ways his work resembles that
of Blooteling, particularly in the skilful modelling
of his faces, but it is altogether on a much smaller
and less important scale.
93
MEZZOTINTS
William Faithorne was born in London in
1656, and was the son of a painter and engraver of
the same name. As far as is known, Faithorne
the younger engraved only in mezzotint. He
engraved several portraits of the English royal
family from paintings by M. Dahl and D. K.
Ehrenstrahl, and others of notable personages of
his time after J. Closterman, A. Dickson, and Sir
Godfrey Kneller.
Faithorne's mezzotints vary much in quality.
Most of them are small and of little value. Some
of the larger full-length figures are pleasing enough,
but the work throughout is of a weak and un-
decided character. Most of Faithorne's prints are
published by ' E. Cooper at ye 3 Pidgeons in Bed-
ford Street'; others are issued by 'W. Faithorne
neere the Kings Printing House in Blackfryars,'
' Robt. Sayer at the Golden Buck in Fleet Street,'
or 'W. Herbert at the Golden Globe on London
Bridge.'
R. Williams was of Welsh origin, and is
supposed to have been a pupil of Theodore Frere's
a Dutch artist. He engraved only in mezzotint
and it is said that John Smith worked on severa!
of Williams's unfinished plates and added his own
name as engraver. Of course, as a rule, if a print
is signed by an engraver, it is natural to believe that
he actually has engraved the plate, but there is no
doubt that in many cases it is not so. Nothing is
easier than to erase an engraved name from a plate
and add another instead of it.
Williams's mezzotints date from about 1680 to
the early years of the next century. He engraved
numbers of plates after various artists, principally
94
^*v
snif ( j
W. FAITHORNE AND R. WILLIAMS
W. Wissing, J. Closterman, Sir A. Vandyck, Sir P.
Lely, and Sir G. Kneller, and his prints were pub-
lished chiefly by himself, I. Smith, E. Cooper, or
by Beckett's successor, 'J. Savage at the Golden
Head in the Old Baily.'
Several of Williams's portraits are brilliant, but
this is often due to burin work, or it is even
possible that much work in black has been done by
nand on the prints. Williams has left a large
number of prints which vary much in quality.
Some of the portraits of men are excellent : one of
a young man, ' John Bannister,' in which the face
is admirably modelled, is particularly good. Like
many of Williams's portraits, it is enclosed rn an
oval within a rectangle. Another fine plate is a
portrait of Charles n. wearing the robes and insignia
)f the Order of the Garter.
The scraping and burnishing which shows in
the best of Williams's prints has been well and skil-
fully done. In the inking there is yet something
to be desired, and the blacks certainly have not the
value they attained generally at a little later period.
The darkest places were a great difficulty with most
of the early mezzotinters, and this was doubtless
due to the fact that they had not mastered the art of
so laying the ground in such places that it would
hold the necessary superabundance of ink.
The drawing in Williams's plates is always good,
and he was clever in producing greys ana whites.
He published some of his prints himself ' against
ye Koyall Bagnio in Long Acre.' Others were
issued chiefly by 'T. Mi Hard at the Dial and
3 Crowns in Fleet Street,' E. Cooper, D. Loggan,
or J. Savage, Beckett's successor.
95
MEZZOTINTS
The work of the Dutch painter William Wissing
was largely engraved by many of our early mezzo-
tinters, as well as by the Dutch engravers of his
own time and the period immediately succeeding it.
R. Williams was particularly fond of engraving
Wissing's pictures, and among those he did after
this master are .to be found his most successful
efforts.
Wissing worked for Sir Peter Lely about 1680,
and after Lely's death came much into Court
favour. He was a favourite painter of James n.,
and painted portraits of that king as well as many
members of his family, almost rivalling Sir Godfrey
Kneller at the time, although now he is by no
means to be compared on equal terms with that
great portrait-painter.
Wissing was particularly successful with chil-
dren's portraits. His own portrait was engraved
by J. Smith.
John Vandervaart was a native of Harlem, and
came to England in 1674. He painted with Wyck
and Wissing, and afterwards by himself. He has
not left many mezzotints, but those that remain are
of good quality. His prints were published by
E. Cooper, T. Donbar, or R. Tompson, and on the
second state of one of them, a portrait of Edward
Wetenhall, after a painting of his own, are the
words ' I. Beckett fecit,' so that there was probably
some friendship or trade connection between the two.
Vandervaart is said to have taught John Smith
the art of mezzotinting. His engravings, all por-
traits, are chiefly after Sir P. Lely, W. Wissing
his best-known plate being a portrait of Charles n. '
after this master Sir G. Kneller, and himself; and
96
J. VANDERVAART
Redgrave says that he ultimately became a picture
repairer and dealer.
Vandervaart's prints are scarce. Most of them
are after Lely, and they faithfully represent their
originals. The drawing is excellent, as might well
be expected from one who was himself a painter.
There is much rich value in the dark places, which
appear to have been particularly and specially
worked upon, and the modelling and grey tones are
everywhere well managed ; but in most of the
prints that I have been able to see, the inking
leaves much to be desired. If the actual plates
existed now, I think brilliant prints might perhaps
be obtained from some of them, but as so often
happens with the early mezzotinters, the proper ink
hardly ever seems to have been found, or, if found,
it has not been so skilfully used as it might have
been. The word ' Ex./ ' Exc.,' ' Excudit,' or
1 Excudebat ' may mean the inker and printer, but,
as a rule, it means the publisher only. If it could
be certainly shown that this word ever was used to
denote the printer, it would go to prove that this
most important person had received some acknow-
ledgment of his own importance. A good printer
can make a decent print from a bad plate, and a
bad printer would inevitably make a bad print even
from a perfect plate.
Some of Vandervaart's pictures were engraved in
mezzotint by Richard Lens, who also did some good
work of the same kind after Wissing and Kneller.
Most of Lens's engravings, however, are small
classical subjects badly executed in every way, or
else firework scenes, subjects particularly well suited
to the powers of mezzotint as he knew it.
G 97
MEZZOTINTS
John Smith was a pupil of Isaac Beckett, as
well as of Jan Vandervaart. He was born about
1655, and was the son of an engraver, so that he is
likely at an early age to have mastered the prelimi-
naries of the art. He engraved a very large number
of mezzotints, many hundreds of which have been
catalogued, and they are all now highly esteemed
by collectors, as indeed they were at the time they
were made. He is mentioned on his tomb at
St. Peter's, Northampton, as ' the most eminent
engraver in mezzotinto in his time.' He engraved
portraits after several artists W. Wissing, J.
Closterman, M. Dahl, T. Gibson, and others, but
more particularly after Sir Godfrey Kneller, with
whom he lived for a time, and who employed him
regularly to engrave his work. Kneller, moreover,
painted his portrait, which is now in the National
Gallery.
Not only did Smith excel in mezzotint por-
traits, but he also engraved several important
subject pieces after old masters, especially Titian,
Correggio, Paolo Veronese, and Parmigiano.
His earlier prints were published chiefly by
E. Cooper, but about 1700 he set up for himself
' at ye Lyon and Crown in Russell Street, Covent
Garden,' and issued not only his own works, but
also that of other engravers. His old coppers
eventually became the property of Messrs. Boydell,
at whose sale they were sold in 1818.
Smith is said to have defaced his plates after a ;
certain number of good impressions had been made
from them ; but this could hardly have been neces-
sary, as, unless a worn mezzotint is freely re-
touched a process which is usually easy to detect
98
JOHN SMITH
it makes such a bad print that it carries its own
condemnation with it.
His last dated print is a portrait of George 11.,
1 1727,' but he lived some time after this, and is
supposed to have made a considerable fortune, well
deserved, by his art.
John Smith's work is very voluminous. He
engraved two classes of subjects more particularly,
portraits and studies after old masters. The series
of portraits is a large one, and comprises portraits
of most of the more important personages of the
time from the King and Queen downwards. These
are mostly after Sir Godfrey Kneller, and they are
all fine specimens of mezzotint engraving.
Smith's drawing is always excellent, and the
modelling of the faces and hands is particularly
good. The technique is always of the highest
order. The scraped and burnished work is learnedly
graduated and utilised, and the treatment and
effect produced by the rich blacks is admirable,
even if the grounds may perhaps be a thought
too fine in some cases. John Smith not only
thoroughly understood the capabilities of mezzotint
engraving, but he also had a fine instinct for the
subjects and pictures which would most truly in-
spire him. Among the numerous prints of his
which still exist it is difficult to find one which can
be found fault with. It is supposed that in many
cases he worked on plates begun by other artists,
and then added his own name as actual engraver.
This may be, and it can only be said that he must
have taken very good plates to start with, and that
then he so learnedly touched them up that they
made prints good enough to sustain his own high
99
MEZZOTINTS
reputation. But such a proceeding is a dangerous
one, to say the least of it. He is supposed par-
ticularly to have treated engravings by Beckett,
Lens, and Williams in this manner.
Smith valued early impressions, and probably
studied the inking of mezzotinted plates very care-
fully, as in this particular his prints are in every
way remarkably well produced. The blacks have
more value in Smith's prints than they have in the
work of any of his contemporaries or predecessor
with the one exception of Blooteling.
Among the many fine portraits engraved
Smith it is difficult and almost invidious to select
any for particular merit, but, as far as I have been
able to decide among the portraits of men, I think
that of William Wycherley, the dramatist, is among
the most beautiful, and there is also a splendid
head of Sir Godfrey Kneller. Other very fine
heads of the Marquis of Annandale and James,
Earl of Seafield, are curiously enclosed in engraved
oval borders with heraldic ornamentation. There
is a very fine head of Charles i., after Vandyck,
giving an appearance of power more than is usual
in portraits of this king.
Among the portraits of ladies, there is a charm-
ing Madam D'Avenant, a delightful half-length of
Mrs. Arabella Hunt playing a lute, and a beautiful
picture of the Countess of Ranelagh, all after Sir
Godfrey Kneller.
There are several portrait groups after various
artists W. Wissing, Sir G. Kneller, N. de Lar-
guilliere, and J. Vandervaart, which vary in merit
themselves, but in all of which Smith's work shows
as beautiful and masterly.
100
(MM
JOHN SMITH
Smith did not confine his energies to portraiture
alone, as he engraved numbers of mezzotints after
various old masters with singular success. Among
these are some beautiful ' Holy Families,' after
Maratti or Schidone ; ' Venuses,' after Correggio or
Jordanus ; ' Magdalens,' after Titian, Loir, and
others, and several small classical subjects after
Lemens. The most important of these miscellaneous
engravings are the very fine series of nine plates
after Titian, illustrating the Loves of the Gods, the
original paintings of which are now at Blenheim.
These subjects h#ve given Smith a splendid field
for the display of his great skill in modelling the
human figure, and in every case he has succeeded
to perfection. It is doubtful if the value of the
scraper for modelling nude figures in mezzotint
work has ever been more successfully appreciated
than in these groups. Smith also engraved a very
fine plate after a hunting-scene by Wyck, indeed
whatever subject he took in hand he seems to have
been able to render feelingly, and with an almost
perfect knowledge of his medium.
Among the fine collection of Smith's work at
the British Museum are several instances where
trial proofs have been corrected in water-colours,
and side by side are the plates retouched with the
corrections carried out. These corrections are
almost invariably in white, towards the effect of
greater light, and the trial proofs are always over-
inked. An examination of these curious specimens is
of great value to any one interested in the technical
methods of engraving, and they also show very
clearly how great the power of alteration is. In
some cases whole pieces of drapery are bodily
101
MEZZOTINTS
added or removed. They also prove that the
greatest care was taken to get the exactly correct
tint of the smallest parts of the engraving, as for
every trial proof now existing the probability is
that very many have been lost or destroyed after
the corrections marked upon them had been carried
out. It is unfortunate that working proofs are
seldom preserved, except in the unlikely event of
such prints being made and kept for the express
purpose of illustrating particular points for the
instruction of students, or in the rare cases where
an engraver has preserved his trial proofs so as
to keep a complete collection of his work at all
stages. Whenever from any cause working proofs
have escaped destruction, they are always most
instructive, especially when they can be compared
with the finished prints.
Sir Godfrey Kneller was born at Liibeck in
1646, and originally intended for a military career,
but preferred painting, and was sent as pupil to
an artist at Amsterdam, where he probably had the
advantage of some instruction from Rembrandt in,
or about 1668.
In 1675 Kneller came to England, where his
portraits soon attracted attention, and it is said that
on one occasion, the king being about to sit for his
portrait to Sir Peter Lely, Kneller obtained per-
mission to draw him at the same time. Kneller,
who was an extremely rapid worker, made an
excellent portrait of Charles before Lely had made
much progress, and this brought the younger artist
into such quick repute that he was at once over-
whelmed with commissions. James u. continued
his patronage of Kneller after Charles's death, and
1 02
s / f
r' S
SIR GODFREY KNELLER
commissioned him to paint many royal portraits,
and he was knighted by William in. in 1691.
Kneller retained his Court position under Anne,
whose portrait he painted several times, and he
also enjoyed the high esteem of George i., who
made him a baronet in 1715. He amassed a large
fortune and invested much of his capital in landed
property.
Kneller was the most favoured of all portrait-
painters with regard to royal patronage. He
painted the portraits of ten reigning sovereigns,
and employed a large number of skilled assistants
to paint the less important parts and accessories of
his pictures. He could not have found time to do
it all himself. He always arranged his pictures
carefully down to the smallest detail, and probably
went over most of them everywhere with finishing
touches, always painting the faces and hands him-
self. He was one of the vainest men that ever
lived, and designed his own monument for West-
minster Abbey, where it now is.
It is probable that Kneller should be considered
as an artist who, under other circumstances, might
have become one of the most successful of mezzo-
tint engravers. There is a remarkably fine portrait
of John, Earl of Tweeddale, signed twice ' G.
Kneller,' once as the artist and once as the
engraver. Kneller was a friend of John Smith,
and it is likely enough that he engraved this plate
under Smith's direction, and it is an altogether
remarkable and fine piece of work. Compared
with Smith's own beautiful engravings it would
rank as one of his very best: the ground is in
places of great fineness, and is managed most
103
MEZZOTINTS
skilfully, and the modelling of the face itself is
powerful and masterly. The print is usually in-
cluded among Smith's work indeed it is so
catalogued by J. Chaloner Smith but it appears
to me that there are decided reasons for attributing
it to some other artist, moreover to one who was
remarkably proficient.
Laborde mentions this plate as having been
engraved by Kneller, and there is yet another, a
portrait of himself, which he is supposed to have
engraved, but this one is not noticed by Laborde.
The date 1690 is assigned to the portrait of Lord
Tweeddale.
The early mezzotint engravers, Blooteling,
Sherwin, and Van Somer, all highly valued Knel-
ler's work, and engraved several plates from his
pictures, and so did the later mezzotinters, especially
Faber, jun.
Faithorne, Williams, and Smith all engraved
important works after John Closterman, a native
of Osnaburg, in Hanover, born about the middle of
the seventeenth century.
Closterman worked at first in Paris under Jean
de Troy, and then came to England and worked
with John Riley. After travelling in Spain and
Italy and painting there, he returned and settled
in England. He painted a portrait of Queen
Anne in coronation robes, and an important group
of the Marlborough Family.
Michael Dahl was another foreign artist much
favoured by mezzotinters. His work was engraved
by Faithorne, John Smith, and R. Williams,
among the earlier engravers, and afterwards largely
by Faber, jun., and Simon. Dahl was a native
104
CLOSTERMAN ANDJ. VERKOLJE
of Stockholm, and settled in London in 1688,
and painted several portraits of the royal family
and aristocracy of England. He was considered
excellent so far as the actual portraiture of his
sitters was concerned, but beyond that his work
is mediocre.
John Verkolje, a native of Amsterdam, is
mentioned by Walpole as being one of the un-
named engravers in mezzotint who worked for
Alexander Browne. Although he worked mainly in
Holland, there are a few prints left by him after
Sir P. Lely, W. Wissing, C. Visscher, and Sir
G. Kneller, that appear to have been executed in
England, and Verkolje consequently finds a place
in J. Chaloner Smith's catalogue. Abroad he
engraved several excellent subject pieces, and his
son Nicolas followed his footsteps so far as mezzo-
tints are concerned, and engraved many plates in
this manner abroad.
Verkolje published several of his own prints,
many of which are after his own paintings animals
and classical subjects. His mezzotinting is gene-
rally of a fairly good kind, and although as a rule
the prints are weak, in some cases where the inking
has been better done, they are almost brilliant.
Although most of the prints of all kinds of subjects
are executed in pure mezzotint, there are instances
where small accessory work has been engraved
with the burin.
The portraits are mostly small, sometimes in
ovals. Among them is a good but weak por-
trait of Mary of Modena, after C. Visscher, and
a better engraved head of James n. Of the
portraits of ladies, that of the Duchess of Grafton,
105
MEZZOTINTS
after W. Wissing, is altogether the most satis-
factory.
The classical pieces are often carelessly drawn,
and they are not pleasing, neither are they well
engraved. Perhaps the best work that Verkolje
did is to be found among the small animal studies
from his own drawings or paintings.
Richard Tompson, who was one of the pub-
lishers of Alexander Browne's Ars Pictoria, like
Browne himself published several prints, but it is
doubtful also whether he engraved any of them.
Some of them only bear the words ' R. Tompson
excudit! Others have the names of their engravers
given in full.
J. Chaloner Smith thinks that some of Tomj
son's prints were engraved by Van Somer, Van-
dervaart, Valck, and Verkolje, among others, anc
it is also considered that Tompson may have
worked upon them all in order to make the style
more alike.
It seems possible that Tompson's series of
prints preceded that of Alexander Browne, as in
the case of several portraits engraved by him after
Lely, the prefix ' Sir ' does not exist. Lely was
knighted in 1679, so Tompson's engravings, except
that of William, Earl of Derby, after Lely, were
probably made before that date. On the other
hand, only two of Browne's prints, after Lely,
appear to have been made before this date, as the
title exists on all the others.
Tompson prints may all be considered to have
been produced between 1675 and 1679.
Pearce Tempest is supposed to have been an
engraver and a pupil of Wenceslaus Hollar. He
106
R. TOMPSON AND P. TEMPEST
published line engravings as well as mezzotints.
Like Tompson, he is supposed to have engraved
some of his published mezzotints himself; others
were probably done by Place. There are not many
mezzotints left bearing the words ' P. Tempest Ex.,'
and those that do exist vary much in quality and
style. They are after Sir A. Vandyck, Sheppard,
and others.
107
CHAPTER III
The mezzotint engravers of the eighteenth century : the
Fabers, P. Pelham, T. Frye, J. MacArdell, R. Houston,
R. Earlom, Valentine Green, E. Fisher, W. Dickinson,
J. Watson, J. Spilsbury, R. Dunkarton, John Dean, J. R.
Smith, J. Murphy, and C. Turner.
THE earlier half of the eighteenth century is
chiefly notable, from the mezzotint point of
view, for the remarkable work of J. Faber,
jun., who was the most prolific of any of our
English engravers. His plates are all valuable
records, and four hundred and nineteen of his
portraits alone are catalogued by J. Chaloner Smith,
and, besides these, he also engraved several subject
pieces. The rise of James MacArdell and Richard
Houston, two fellow-students whose work in mezzo-
tint ranks with the finest ever done, also took place
in the period under notice.
Besides these notable engravers there were also
a considerable number of minor men whose work,
as a rule, is inferior in every way, although now
and then a decent print is found. Most of these
lesser engravers only produced a small number of
works indeed they probably took up the art of
mezzotint engraving because it was easy and to
some extent popular and many of the portraits they
engraved have an esoteric value apart from their
108
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGRAVERS
own merit as prints, as in many instances they are
the only representations left of the originals.
Professional engravers of mezzotints have been
with us ever since the end of the seventeenth
century, and during the eighteenth century they
flourished in considerable numbers, indeed they
presently become so numerous, and so good, that
to do them full descriptive justice would involve a
very long study and a very long book.
The interesting series of large heads engraved
by Thomas Frye were done during the first
half of the eighteenth century, and although they
are not very good, they will always be much
thought of, as, when a complete set can be
brought together, it forms a very decorative series
for framing.
A few Dutch mezzotinters still remained at
work in England Van Bleeck, Van Haecken, and
others as if just to remind us that the art was in
its beginning largely fostered in the Netherlands,
and their work is indeed often much stronger and
better than the ordinary contemporary English
work.
The latter half of the eighteenth century was
remarkable especially for the number of English
mezzotint engravers who devoted themselves to
portraiture with such success that, aided by the
genius of a few of our own painters in this direction,
they have succeeded not only in excelling all en-
gravers of other countries in this particular walk of
art, but they have established a school of engraved
portraiture that already bids fair to become actually
the most highly valued of any kind by collectors
as well as by connoisseurs. The appreciation of
109
MEZZOTINTS
the finest English mezzotints is increasing every
day.
The names of the great English artists who have
inspired the mezzotint engravers of the eighteenth
century are so well known that they are indeed
household words, but the humble engraver may
yet become even a more important person than the
artist, for his prints in ink are more lasting than
the oils in which the original pictures are painted.
Sir Joshua Reynolds is the first of all English
portrait-painters, and it is due to the transcendent
merit of his work that we find the finest and most
successful mezzotints are made from it. But very
beautiful work has been also done after J. Hopp-
ner, R.A., Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A., G. Romney, and
T. Gainsborough, R.A., particularly, all artists who
loved to paint beautiful women ; while for subject
originals we are mainly indebted, among our native
artists, to G. Morland, W. Hogarth, or Benjamin
West, P.R.A. Among the mezzotint engravers of
the first rank of this century, who not only did
splendid work but also devoted themselves mainly
to it and produced a large quantity of work, the
names of Richard Earlom, John Dean, Valentine
Green, J. Walker, Jonathan Spilsbury, J. R. Smith,
W. Dickinson, C. Turner, and William Say should
be held in especial honour.
It is remarkable how many of our great engravers
have been natives of Ireland. E. Luttrell, Thomas
Beard, Thomas Frye, William Baillie, James Mac-
Ardell, one of our very first engravers; Richard
Houston, another engraver of high rank, who was
unfortunately handicapped by intemperance ; John
Murphy, an engraver who would have ranked among
no
METHODS OF WORK
the very best if he had only done a little more work ;
John Brooks, Edward Fisher, Charles Spooner, J.
Dixon, and Richard Purcell were all natives of the
Emerald Isle, and a noble company they make.
As to the technique of mezzotinting during the
eighteenth century, I find that there is a wide-
spread tendency to use the rocker or roulette as an
accessory only. Numbers of great engravers have
habitually etched their plates strongly before touch-
ing them with the roughening tool. This has been
done chiefly in the case of large subject pieces,
such, for instance, as those after Zoffany, Hogarth,
Morland, or West, but it also helps many of the
portraits. The meaning of this, no doubt, is that
the various engravers found the process of mezzo-
tinting by itself was inefficient to render fine
definite lines, such as are necessary for the proper
representation of a picture with several small figures
in it. To produce such lines by mezzotint alone
is so troublesome that it becomes practically pro-
hibitive ; at the same time, it is only fair to say that
it is possible, so that when etching is habitually
resorted to it is some proof of either want of skill
or want of time. Prints of this kind are, never-
theless, classed as mezzotints, but, in describing
them, I think that the existence of the etched work
should always be noted. At a much later date en-
gravings of this kind, with possibly some engraved
work as well, are properly described as being in
' mixed manner,' and they are often very effective.
Turner's Liber Studiomm is a good example of
etching used with supplementary mezzotint or
roulette work, and so are the large subject pieces
after Zoffany, West, and Hogarth, engraved by
in
MEZZOTINTS
Richard Earlom, as well as many of the larger
pieces by William Say, Samuel Cousins, and the
later engravers generally.
William Say did what many mezzotint engravers
might easily have done for the great benefit of
posterity : he kept prints of every plate he engraved
in its various stages and states. A most valuable
collection of these odds and ends of proofs was
presented to the British Museum by his son, J. K.
Say, and among these are several prints of the first
mezzotint engraved on steel. This curious experi-
ment is dated 1820; it is pure mezzotint, a small
portrait of Queen Charlotte, hard and unsatis-
factory, but of the greatest interest as being the
prototype of all the subsequent work on steel, as
well as incidentally of the copper plate covered
with a steel coating.
John Simon, a native of Normandy, was a line
engraver by profession. He came to England, as
a refugee, about the beginning of the eighteenth
century. Here he devoted himself to mezzotint
engraving, in the process of which he is said to
have made some new departures. One of the
peculiarities observable in the grounding of his
mezzotints is the existence of short lines crossing
each other at right angles. The effect of this
peculiar laying of the ground, which was probably
only done quite at the beginning, is never good.
For the rest, Simon's grounds are coarse, but
altogether his prints are strong and good. They
look best at such a distance as will merge the
right-angled lines into each other.
On Kneller's disagreement with John Smitl
Simon, to some extent, became his engraver, ii
112
SIMON AND JOHN FABER
spite of which supersession Smith afterwards pub-
lished some of Simon's prints.
Simon engraved portraits after Sir G. Kneller,
M. Dahl, T. Gibson, and P. Mercier particularly,
and subject pieces of much power after Maratti,
Peligrim, and Toorn Vliet. His prints were pub-
lished by himself ' against Cross Lane Long Acre,'
from ' the Golden Eagle in Villiers Street York
Buildings,' ' New Street Covent Garden,' or ' at
ye Seven Stars in King Street Covent Garden.'
Others were published by ' Phil. Overton at the
Golden Buck in Fleet Street London,' ' I. Tonson
in the Strand,' I. Smith, John Bowles, and E.
Cooper.
John Faber was a native of Holland, and began
lis art career in that country, where he particularly
>ractised drawing portraits on vellum and painting
n miniature, both of which studies are admirable
raining for mezzotint engraving. He came to
England late in the seventeenth century, and in
1707 had established himself as a mezzotint en-
graver 'att ye Golden Eagle near ye Fountain
Tavern, Strand.'
Faber's earlier work is small and cramped in
style ; his later work is better, but never of much
merit. His prints are scarce. If his son had not
>ecome one of our very important mezzotint en-
pavers, the elder Faber's niche in the temple of
ame would be a very small one.
In one particular, however, Faber's work is
worthy of much consideration : it is that almost
all his mezzotints are done after his own studies.
As a rule, mezzotint engravers have engraved after
he work of other artists, always imbuing it, how-
H 113
MEZZOTINTS
ever, with more or less of their own individualities,
and all the finest work is certainly of this kind.
The qualities required to produce a great engraver
are different from those required to produce a great
artist, and they are very rarely combined in the
same individual. It is certain that whenever a
mezzotint engraver has worked after his own paint-
ings, the result is never as good as when he has
worked after the work of another artist.
The most important of Faber's work, which is
often arranged in sets, is a series of portraits of the
Founders of the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge,
besides which there is a set of the twelve Caesars,
one of twelve heads of the Philosophers after
Rubens, and twenty-one portraits of the Reformers.
These last, all very ugly, were afterwards re-touched,
re-lettered, as being engraved by R. Houston, and
published in Richard Rolt's Lives of the Reformers
in 1759. It is likely enough that they are good
portraits, but the mezzotinting is of very poor
quality.
Faber published some of his prints 'att ye 2
Golden Balls near the Savoy in the Strand,' ' Near
the Savoy in the Strand a Picture Shop,' or 'at
the Picture shop near Essex Street ' ; but most of
them were issued by other publishers, particularly
' Tim. Jordan & Tho. Bakewell at ye Golden Lion
in Fleet Street.'
George White was the son of a line engraver,
and was himself a portrait-painter, engraver, and
etcher. About 1714 he took to mezzotint, and pro-
duced a considerable amount of work done in this
manner. His work is remarkable for the fact that
he was the first engraver who studied carefully
114
GEORGE WHITE
the possibilities of combining etched work with
mezzotinting. White has left prints showing his
experiments in this direction, and his principle
was to etch or engrave his subject until it
approached completion, and then to add tones all
over by means of the rocker or roulette. I do not
think he used a scraper at all, except, perhaps, to
erase mistakes.
White's mezzotints are all portraits, either after
his own work or that of Sir G. Kneller, Bart.,
J. Woolaston, T. Gibson, J. Richardson, R. Murray,
M. Dahl, or J. Vanderbank, and they were pub-
lished chiefly by ' S. Sympson in ye Strand near
Catherine Street.' They are all very strong and
effective ; the definite work underlying the mezzo-
tinting gives it a force and definition which at a
distance is pleasing enough, but if looked at
closely the result is hard and uncomfortable. The
moment such a plate loses its soft film of mezzo-
tint, the prints made from it are distinctly ugly,
as the strong lines underneath show in undue
strength.
The quality of the mezzotinting used by White
is fine and soft in appearance, almost too soft, but
still effective. Only early prints, or proofs from
his plates, should be studied. White's mezzotints
altogether are good, and his knowledge of the other
processes seems to have assisted him materially in
acquiring his mastery over this one. He preferred
to engrave portraits of men.
Many of White's portraits are after Thomas
Gibson, whose work was also engraved to a lesser
extent by Bockman, Faber junior, John Smith,
Simon, and others. Gibson was an admirable
"5
MEZZOTINTS
draughtsman, and is said to have assisted Sir
James Thornhill with many of his drawings. His
portraits are all very pleasing, and his professional
charges were considered to be much too low, so
much so that, because of it, he incurred the censure
and disapprobation of most of the other artists of
his time.
In 1730 Gibson disposed of the pictures then in
his possession and retired to Oxford, returning
eventually to London, where he died in 1751.
John Faber junior worked at first with his
father, on whose death he added the suffix 'junior'
to his signature. He was the most prolific of any
mezzotint engraver of his period, and was brought
to London by his father late in the seventeenth
century, and studied here in Vanderbank's
Academy. Faber may have acquired some of his
knowledge of mezzotint from John Smith, and,
like him, worked only in this manner of engraving.
On the second state of a portrait of Thomas, Duke
of Newcastle, after Kneller, the imprint reads
' Sold by I. Smith at ye Lyon & Crown in Russell
Street Covent Garden,' proving at least that the
two engravers were on friendly terms.
Faber's work illustrates an important school of
English portraiture which has been overshadowed
by a later school, and which consequently has never
received the meed of admiration and study which
it deserves. Between the time of Kneller and
Reynolds there were several painters of great merit
whose works are little known. Among these were
P. Mercier, T. Hudson, H. Hysing, A. Ramsay,
J. Highmore, C. Philips, B. Dandridge, R. Murray,
I. Whood, T. Gibson, and J. H. Mortimer, A.R.A.,
116
JOHN FABER JUNIOR
all of whom, with many others, have been admirably
engraved by Faber.
The particular work by which Faber has
especially immortalised himself are the forty-seven
mezzotints after Kneller's portrait of the Kit-Cat
Club, published in 1723 by Jacob Tonson, and
twice republished since.
The portraits themselves are now kept at
Bayfordbury, in Herts, the owner of which is a
descendant of Jacob Tonson, who was secretary to
the club about 1700. The members of the club used
to meet at an eating-house near Temple Bar, called
1 The Cat and the Fiddle,' kept by Christopher, or
Kit, Cat. The club was probably of political origin,
but it soon lost this character and became purely
social. It was probably started by Tonson at his
house at Barn Elms. He was a publisher, and his
portrait is included among the ' Kit-Cat ' series.
Sir Godfrey Kneller, a member of the club, was
induced by Tonson to paint all their portraits, but
the ceiling of the meeting-room at his house at
Barn Elms was very low, and would not admit of
full-length pictures, so they were all made thirty-six
by twenty-eight inches, a size which has been very
largely used ever since, and is known as a 'Kit-Cat.'
The work of John Faber junior is disappointing.
There is plenty of it, and the impression given by
most of his mezzotints is that the work has been
done as quickly as possible all means have been
taken to produce the maximum of effect in a
short time. Mezzotints lend themselves readily to
such treatment, but it is at the expense of the
soft, beautiful modelling which is, for instance, so
apparent in the best work of John Smith, and is
117
MEZZOTINTS
necessarily slow of execution. There is much hard-
ness in nearly all of Faber junior's work, and the
inking is rarely good. Here again is much evidence
of haste. With regard to the Kit-Cat portraits,
which are not by any means in Kneller's best style,
something may be said in favour of the engraver,
because he has had to follow, in many instances,
unlovely originals ; but the same excuse can hardly
be made in the case of the Hampton Court Beauties
after the same painter.
Faber's work improved somewhat in his later
engravings, but I think that it is noteworthy all
along rather for its quantity than its quality, and
for the fact that it represents so many artists.
Faber engraved several of his plates in full-length
at first, and then cut them down to three-quarters.
There are instances of this among the Hampton
Court Beauties, and also in the fine - portrait of
Mrs. Muilman, the author of An Apology for the
Conduct of Mrs. T. C. Phillies, published in 1748.
Her portrait was painted by Joseph Highmore,
whose work was most largely engraved by Faber
junior, but who was also represented by J. Smith,
and later by J. MacArdell. Highmore painted
several fine portraits of royal and other person-
ages, as well as subject pieces, but is perhaps
best known for his illustrations for Richardson's
Pamela, published in 1745.
Faber published most of his prints himself ' at
ye Golden Head in Bloomsbury Square,' or ' at the
Green Door in Craven Buildings Drury Lane.'
Others were published chiefly by ' Thos. Bowles
next ye Chapter House in St. Paul's Churc
Yard,' ' I no. Bowles & Son, at the Black Horse i
118
THOMAS HUDSON AND F. KYTE
Cornhill,' ' Robt. Sayer at the Golden Buck in
Fleet St.,' or 'Thos. Bakewell next the Horn
Tavern in Fleet St.'
Faber junior engraved mezzotints largely after
Thomas Hudson, a native of Devonshire, who was
born in 1701. His portraits are excellent, but
curiously enough he could only paint faces, so left
the rest of his pictures to be done by assistants,
probably the best of whom was Joseph van Haecken,
who was largely employed by several artists in this
way. Hudson lived in Great Queen Street, Lin-
coln's Inn Fields, and was for some time the
leading English portrait-painter. Reynolds was
apprenticed to him for a short time. He was a
pupil of Jonathan Richardson, the portrait-painter,
whose daughter he married, at last retiring to
Twickenham, where he built himself a house, and
died in 1779.
Hudson's works were much engraved in mezzo-
tint, particularly by MacArdell, Houston, Fisher,
and Ford. He was a collector of works of art, and
purchased several at the sale of his father-in-law's
works, and had the reputation of being an excellent
judge of prints.
Francis Kyte is supposed to have engraved his
set of small portraits of the ' Worthies of Britain '
in conjunction with Faber. They are small ovals,
four on each plate, after Kvte's own drawings. The
majority of Kyte's mezzotints are after portraits by
Sir G. Kneller. He was a skilful line engraver as
well as a mezzotinter, and in 1725 he engraved
a forgery of a bank note, for which exploit he
was pilloried. After this date he often used the
latinised form of his name, ' Milvus,' on his prints.
119
MEZZOTINTS
Most of Kyte's prints were published by E.
Cooper. Others bear the imprint of 'J. Bowles
over against Stock's market & at Mercers Hall
in Cheapside,' or 'Thos. Bakewell next ye Horn
Tavern in Fleet Street.' His prints are uncom-
mon, weak, and altogether feeble.
Peter Pelham has already had the advantage
of possessing a biographer, in the person of W.
H. Whitmore the American genealogist, who
wrote an account of him in the Proceedings of
the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1866, and
reprinted it in enlarged book-form in 1867. The
fact that Pelham was the first European artist to
settle in America is of great interest, the artist
generally credited with this priority being John
Smibert. Pelham, however, published a print of
the Rev. Cotton Mather in 1727, whereas Smibert
did not go to America until 1728.
The earliest date on any of Pelham's prints is
1720, which occurs on a portrait of Mrs. Centlivre,
and was published by the engraver ' against Cross
Lane in Long Acre,' the earliest dated print pub-
lished in America being that mentioned above of
the Rev. Cotton Mather, ' 1727,' taken from a
painting by Pelham himself made at Boston.
Pelham was connected by marriage with the
family of Copley, as he married in 1748 a wido\
lady, Mrs. Mary Copley, who by her first marriage
was the mother of John Singleton Copley, R.A.
One of Pelham's sons became an engraver ii
stipple and aquatint, but neither this one nor his
brother ever seems to have attempted mezzotint.
It seems probable that J. S. Copley receivec
some artistic training while he lived with his
1 20
PETER PELHAM AND JOHN SMIBERT
stepfather, and he certainly engraved one plate
in mezzotint, a portrait, after one of his own
paintings, of the Rev. William Welsteed of
Boston. This print is dated 1753.
Before Pelham quite settled as an engraver he
appears to have kept a school at Boston from
1734 to 1748, and while thus engaged he published
some mezzotints which brought his name into
repute, and enabled him eventually to give up
his educational career, and devote himself to art
alone.
Besides his own work and that of Smibert,
Pelham engraved chiefly after Sir G. Kneller,
Fermin, and H. Hysing. His prints were mostly
published by himself 'against Cross Lane in Long
Acre* or in Boston, and also by ' J. Buck at ye
Spectacles in Queen Street Boston,' or here by
E. Cooper, J. Bowles, or J. Smith. Pelham's
prints are rare in England, but they can be found
not uncommonly in America. They are strongly
and effectively engraved and admirably drawn,
and have a few engraved lines in certain places
where sharp definition is required.
John Smibert, who was doubtless of Dutch
extraction, was born at Edinburgh in 1684, and
began his career as a house-painter, eventually
coming to London and working as a coach-painter,
and in time as a copyist of old pictures. He was
undoubtedly a born artist, and struggled hard to
get a chance of doing better work than that which
naturally came to him. He was fortunately able
to get to Italy in 1717, where he copied old pictures
and painted portraits, and returning to England
after a few years he found himself sought after
121
MEZZOTINTS
as a portrait-painter, and succeeded very well in
that line.
Among his friends at this time was George
Berkeley, Dean of Deny, afterwards Bishop of
Cloyne, who went to America on a missionary
enterprise in 1728, accompanied by Smibert, who,
on the Bishop's return to England in 1731 decided
to remain behind, and settled himself at Boston
as an artist. He is generally considered as the
first painter who went from Europe to America,
but as we have just seen, he was preceded by
Peter Pelham, who was doubtless a friend of his,
as he engraved at least five mezzotints after his
pictures. It may be said that although Pelham
actually painted portraits in America at an earlier
date than Smibert, he was primarily an engraver,
while Smibert was a painter only, and from this
standpoint his position as the earliest painter
to go from this country to America remains un-
challenged.
G. Bockman was a native of Amsterdam who
came to England early in the eighteenth century
and practised here as a portrait-painter and mezzo-
tint engraver. One of his most important prints
is a figure of St. Dunstan in a mitre, with crozier
and tongs, after one of his own pictures. The
rest of his work, which is always weak, careless,
and commonplace, consists of portraits chiefly after
T. Gibson, Sir A. Vandyck, J. B. Vanloo, J.
Worsdale, and M. Dahl. His engravings are for-
tunately scarce.
Peter van Bleeck is said to have come to
England in 1723. He engraved mezzotints after
his own pictures. His prints are mostly portraits
122
VAN BLEECK AND VAN HAECKEN
after Sir A. Vandyck or Sir P. Lely, besides
himself, and they are generally issued without a
publisher's name. He also engraved some subject
pieces.
Van Bleeck's work is often very clever ; his
grounds are admirably laid with a fine delicate grain,
and his management of both the scraper and the
burnisher is excellent. He was the best of the
Dutch mezzotint engravers of his period, and his
work has the rare merit of being pure mezzotint
unassisted by any extraneous process.
Redgrave says that Thomas Beard was a native
of Ireland, but this seems to be uncertain. All
that is known is that he published the first mezzo-
tints issued in that country. It seems likely that
he began and ended his work in London during
the early part of the eighteenth century, but in
the meantime worked in Ireland. His mezzo-
tints are all portraits, and are after M. Ashton,
Sir G. Kneller, M. Dahl, and T. Carlton. They
comprise two or three Irish prelates and officials.
Beard's work is clever in the use of the scraper,
but in most cases the inking and printing of his
plates are very inferior. The grain he uses is coarse
and unsympathetic.
Alexander van Haecken came to England
from the Netherlands about 1720, and engraved
several mezzotints in London. These are mostly
after Sir G. Kneller, J. Richardson, C. Lucy,
A. Ramsay, T. Hudson, and I. Whood, and were
published by himself 'at the Golden Head in
Little Russel Street the north side of St. George's
Church Bloomsbury/ by ' T. Jefferys in the
Strand,' ' John Bowles & Son, at ye Black
123
MEZZOTINTS
Horse in Cornhill,' and without a publisher's
name.
His work is sometimes strong and effective
and shows skilful use of the scraper, but it is not
in any way above the usual level of small pro-
fessional work.
Thomas Frye was a remarkable man, and
many-sided as an artist. Not only did he paint
several portraits in oil of great personages of his
time among them one of Frederick, Prince of
Wales but he was also a miniaturist of note, a
mezzotint engraver, and a worker and inventor of
methods of making china. He set up a manu-
factory of china at Bow, with clay brought from
South Carolina, and called it ' New Canton,' but
injured his health by too close attention to his
furnaces. As a mezzotinter Frye is best known
for a remarkable series of large portrait heads
engraved by him after his own drawings. The
subjects of these heads are mostly known, but
several are still unidentified. A complete set of the
eighteen plates is very rare, but the late Lady
Charlotte Schreiber had one and kept them arranged
along the staircase walls of her house.
Frye was born near Dublin in 1710, and Pether
the engraver was one of his pupils. He was a
friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and until he started
his china factory about 1 744 he engraved much ii
mezzotint, taking it up again on the failure of the
china business, about 1759. From Frye's china
factory the larger works at Chelsea and Worcester
are supposed to have originated.
Most of the large heads engraved by Frye have
much flatness about them. The scale is too large,
124
THOMAS FRYE
but they are nevertheless very interesting speci-
mens of the application of mezzotint work to large
portraiture. It is only natural to compare them
with Blooteling's large portraits, but to do so is
very disastrous to the later engraver. The men's
heads are perhaps better done, as a rule, than those
of women, partly because there is more ruggedness
about them ; but nevertheless the most pleasing
and the best altogether is the portrait of Charlotte
Sophia, Queen of George in. This shows a
charming head of a young woman in evening dress
and much jewellery, likely enough to be taken
from life at the theatre, as is reputed. It is dated
May 24, 1762, and must therefore have been pub-
lished after Frye's death, as he died in April of the
same year.
His prints vary much in quality of inking,
some of them being very good and almost brilliant,
but the majority are weak.
Frye found considerable difficulty in persuading
people to sit to him for their portraits, and he fre-
quented the theatres in order to obtain surreptitious
sketches of notable persons. It is said that he
obtained his portraits of George in. and his queen
in this way, and that his notice being observed, the
king and queen sat quite still, so that the artist
might finish his work more easily. The fashion-
able ladies he wished to draw were not always so
amenable as their majesties, alleging as a reason
that they did not know in whose company their
portraits might eventually appear.
Frye's pupil, Pether, is supposed to have
worked upon some of his plates, and finished them
after Frye's death.
125
MEZZOTINTS
Frye published most of his prints himself, ' at
the Golden Head and Red Lamp near the corner of
Greville St. in Hatton Garden.'
William W. Ryland was chiefly known as an
engraver in the line and stipple manners, in which
he engraved numbers of excellent plates, but he
also worked to some extent in mezzotint, always
with great skill and success.
He was a Londoner, born in 1732, the son of a
Welsh engraver, and by the sale of his prints he
made so large an income that it tempted him into
extravagant ways, and he became a bankrupt in
1771. In 1783 he was arrested for forging bills of
exchange on the East India Company, and, on
being convicted, was hanged at Tyburn, the only
instance, I believe, in which a mezzotint engraver
has ever suffered the extreme penalty of the law.
Dissipation has unfortunately been the bane of
numbers of artists and engravers, and the pillory,
as well as the bankruptcy courts and prisons, have
known them frequently, and we must not forget that
poor Ryland was after all only guilty of forgery.
Andrew Miller was one of the engravers who
worked with Brooks in Dublin, but he worked in
London first He was of Scottish descent, but
born in London. His earliest English dated print
is marked 1737, the earliest Irish one 'Dublin,
1743.' He also remained in Dublin when Brooks
came here with his other students. The peculiarity
about Miller's engravings is that he reproduced the
line engravings of other artists Houbraken and
Vertue among them in the mezzotint manner. In
an advertisement of his work in 1745, he says these
engravings are 'the first attempt of the kind in
126
-&b*t4<
RYLAND, MILLER AND BAILLIE
mezzotinto.' It is said that he was a pupil of John
Faber junior.
Miller engraved after Sir Godfrey Kneller, D.
Stevens, F. Bindon, and several others, and most
of his prints were published in Dublin, but some in
London, where he doubtless had an agency. The
Dublin imprint is 'on Hog Hill near the Round
Church,' the London ones either ' at ye Coffin ye
upper end of Wytch Street near ye new church in
ye Strand,' or ' in Change Court near Exeter
Change in the Strand.' Miller also published
prints through Michael Ford either 'at Vandyck's
Head on Cork Hill,' or ' in Ann's Street near
Darwin SV and others he issued through or in
conjunction with ' J. Orpin and P. Smith in Crane
Lane, Dublin.'
Miller's prints are very scarce. Besides the
portraits, which are most numerous, he engraved
subject pieces after Veronese, Courtin, and Rosalba.
I believe his work can best be studied in
Dublin ; his style is not in any way remarkable
or distinctive.
William Baillie was a native of Kilbride, in
Ireland, and was born in 1723. He was a commis-
sioner of stamps by profession. He had strong
artistic feeling, and was a skilled exponent of most
of the processes of engraving. He particularly
studied etching, but has also left a few mezzo-
tint portraits after G. Netscher, J. Wyck, and N.
Hone, R.A.
Baillie's work is slight, and calls for little com-
ment. It is a little assisted with engraved lines
here and there, and is altogether to be classed as
the work of a clever amateur.
127
MEZZOTINTS
Charles Spooner was a native of Wexford, and
was taught engraving in Dublin. Most of his
works are in mezzotint, some of them being pub-
lished in Dublin, and all are now very rare. Some
time about 1752 Spooner came to England, and
practised mezzotinting in London until towards the
close of the century. He was a great friend of
James MacArdell. He was an excellent copyist,
and his engravings are of fairly good quality.
Spooner engraved several subject pieces after
Francois Boucher, P. Mercier, D. Teniers, and
others; and several portraits, chiefly after Sir J.
Reynolds, P.R.A., T. Worlidge, T. Frye, F. Cotes,
R.A., and W. Hogarth. His prints were published
chiefly by ' Carington Bowles next the Chapter
House in St. Paul's Churchyard London'; 'Robert
Sayer near Sergeant's Inn Fleet Street,' and other
addresses ; and ' Joh. Bowles & Son at the Black
Horse in Cornhill.'
The date of the birth of James MacArdell seems
to be uncertain, but he began work in London
before 1750, although his most important engrav-
ings, those after Sir Joshua Reynolds, were done
subsequently.
Redgrave gives 1710 as the date of MacArdell's
birth in Dublin, but J. Chaloner Smith says it
should be 1729. He was one of a band of subse-
quently distinguished engravers who were pupils of
John Brooks, among whom were Andrew Miller,
R. Houston, G. Spooner, R. Purcell, and M. Ford.
Brooks, although a very successful teacher in
mezzotint, was chiefly known as the inventor of
an enamel for china, which was not a success,
and seems to have more or less ruined every one
128
J. MACARDELL
interested in it. He also was an excellent en-
graver in mezzotint, and his works were, and are,
highly esteemed ; but it is likely that the best of
them, although bearing Brooks s signature, were
really engraved by one or other of his talented
pupils.
Brooks came to London with his pupils about
1747, and MacArdell very soon began work on his
own account, and by 1750 he was acknowledged to
be in the first rank of English mezzotint engravers,
a position he holds now as securely as ever. He
died at an early age in 1765. MacArdell's prints
are remarkable for their brilliancy, for the rich
darks and finely graduated half-tones, as well as
the rare and skilfully used lights. It is probable
that much of this beautiful effect is due to very
skilled and careful inking, and it is likely that Mac-
Ardell took great care over this most important item,
even if he did not do it himself. Numbers of his
prints are made in inks of varying shades of brown
and black. Sir Joshua Reynolds much admired
MacArdell's rendering of his work, and is stated to
have said that he would be immortalised by Mac-
Ardell's engravings, a prediction which is likely
enough to become true, as Reynolds's paintings are
notoriously getting into a worse and worse state
every year, whereas MacArdell's mezzotints, care-
fully kept, are practically imperishable. Reynolds
himself published an engraving by MacArdell after
his own delightful portrait of 'Lady Charlotte Fitz-
william.' MacArdell scraped mezzotints after
Rubens, Vandyck, Rembrandt, and Murillo, as well
as after the more recent masters W. Hogarth,
T. Hudson, J. Zoffany, R.A., and F. Cotes, R.A.
i 129
MEZZOTINTS
Many of his engravings are after drawings of his
own, and a fine portrait he made of himself was
engraved by Earlom. In 1886 a special exhibition
of MacArdell's mezzotints was held at the Burling-
ton Arts Club, and at the Exhibition of Mezzotints
held there in 1902, one or two splendid specimens
of his work were again shown. If MacArdell had
not died at an unfortunately early age, he would
have been in all probability' our greatest mezzotint
engraver.
Although the mezzotints after Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds were most numerously made by subsequent
engravers, MacArdell's name is, and always will
be, very closely associated with that of the great
portraitist, because of Sir Joshua's avowed admira-
tion for his work.
Among so many gallant men and so many
beautiful women as have been depicted by Sir
Joshua Reynolds and engraved by MacArdell, the
choice of one to give as a specimen is indeed a
difficulty. I believe Sir Joshua himself particu-
larly admired the portrait of Mrs. Bonfoy, but
the charming little Lady Charlotte Fitzwilliam
runs it very close indeed. This is the print Sir
Joshua published. Among the graceful Lelys,
I think that of Mrs. Middleton may be taken as
one of the finest examples. Both among the
prints after Sir Joshua and those after Vandyck
are several fine portraits of men of which among
the Vandycks the finest is that of the Lords John
and Bernard Stuart. The ' Duchess of Ancaster,'
after T. Hudson, is also a celebrated and splendid
print.
On many of MacArdell's mezzotints are signs
130
SIR J. REYNOLDS
of etching, and in most instances there has been
some engraving done on the plate with a burin.
There exist pure blacks with definite edges, such
as are not produced by mezzotinting alone. An
examination of the engraved plate would of course
show exactly how the effect was produced, but I
do not suppose that any of MacArdell's plates
now exist. The earlier mezzotinters found that
eyes were apt to look filmy, and were difficult to
render with sufficient distinction in mezzotint
alone, and they have been helped in various ways
in most instances where they look very brilliant.
A very white point is wanted in the middle of
a small very black space, and this is almost im-
possible to produce with mezzotint alone. In
many of MacArdell's prints the brilliancy of the
eyes is remarkable. The re-touching to any great
extent of a mezzotinted plate by burin or etching-
needle is supposed to have been introduced by
George White early in the century. If well done
the effect is no doubt good, and is effective in
early prints, but late impressions show the
engraved marks too distinctly, and they then look
like prints from a re-touched plate.
Sir Joshua Reynolds was the son of the Rev.
Samuel Reynolds, master of the grammar school
at Plympton Earl, in Devonshire. He was born
in 1723. As a schoolboy Joshua Reynolds showed
a great taste for drawing, and in 1740 he was
apprenticed to Thomas Hudson in London, and
stayed with him about four years. Reynolds then
lived at Plymouth for some time, painting numbers
of portraits, and in 1749 he went a voyage with
the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe. He also visited
MEZZOTINTS
Italy, and made many friends in Rome and a large
collection of sketches.
Reynolds came back to London in 1752, and
after some changes settled in Great Newport
Street, where he painted a great number of por-
traits, and in 1760 moved to No. 47 Leicester
Square, where he remained for the rest of his
life. He exhibited several pictures at the various
exhibitions held in London in the sixties, and on
the establishment of the Royal Academy in 1768
he was made President. He was knighted in the
same year, and always took the greatest interest
in the Academy from the first. In 1773 he
received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the
University of Oxford, and in the same year he
was elected Mayor of Plympton.
There was a certain amount of rivalry in at
between Reynolds, Gainsborough, arid Romney,
but on Gainsborough's death Reynolds gave hii
a very high eulogy. He called Romney ' the
man in Cavendish Square,' and never liked him.
Although Reynolds never enjoyed the same
extent of royal patronage as was vouchsafed to |
several other great artists in England, in spite of it
his success was complete, and he painted portraits j
of the King and Queen, at his own request, as
well as several other members of the royal family.
His actual portraits are very numerous, and his
fancy portraits and pictures almost equal them in
numbers. Sir Joshua's paintings are singularly
well fitted for reproduction in mezzotint, and he
has been particularly fortunate in the engravers
who have chiefly engraved his work.
Sir Joshua's paintings have in many cases
132
X*'
SIR J. REYNOLDS
been painted with some soft medium which does
not last well, and they are unfortunately likely
to get worse and worse. It was said of one of his
portraits that an eye had slipped down on to the
cheek of the lady represented, and that Sir Joshua
put the eye back by turning the canvas upside
down, when the errant member fell slowly back
into its proper place. The story shows that the
softness of the medium used was well known
long ago. It is fortunate that we possess so many
fine mezzotints of Sir Joshua's work.
John Ruskin ranks Reynolds as one of the
seven supreme colourists, the others being Titian,
Giorgione, Correggio, Tintoretto, Veronese, and
Turner. He also calls him ' the prince of por-
trait-painters.'
Sir Joshua was very deaf, an ailment he is
supposed to have contracted by reason of a
neglected cold, originally caught in the Vatican
while making a copy of a Raphael.
He died in 1792, and was succeeded in the
Presidency of the Royal Academy by Benjamin
West.
Angelica Kauffmann was the daughter of a
Swiss portrait-painter domiciled in England for
many years. She was brought up in an atmo-
sphere of art, and early showed a great apti-
tude and skill with crayon and brush. She was
also an accomplished musician and a versatile
linguist.
Miss Kauffmann came to England from Venice
in 1765 with Lady Went worth, wife of the English
Ambassador, and with good introductions, as well as
her own talents, she soon became well and favourably
133
MEZZOTINTS
known here. In company with Mary Moser, Miss
Kauffmann was one of the foundation members of
the Royal Academy in 1768-9, and contributed
regularly to the subsequent exhibitions.
Her classical designs have been very largely
engraved, chiefly in the stipple manner, but her
works have by no means been neglected by
mezzotint engravers, many of whom have been
tempted by her graceful pictures. Her work has
been most successfully engraved by James Mac-
Ardell and J. R. Smith.
Richard Houston was a fellow-pupil of Mac-
Ardell with Brooks, and was a student of much
promise, never fully redeemed, because, unlike Mac-
Ardell, Houston was a man of dissipated habits,
and was for a long time imprisoned in Fleet
Prison. He has, however, left a great .quantity of
work, much of it of a very high quality. Some
of the best portraits are after Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Houston was born in Dublin about 1722, and
came to London about 1750, and began his work
on mezzotints at once. He engraved after many
artists Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. ; W. Hoare,
R.A. ; J. Zoffany, R.A. ; J. Russell and P. Mercier
particularly and in many cases he engraved sets
of portraits, statesmen, divines, and series of
subject pieces 'The Ages,' 'The Elements,'
'Times of the Day.' He also engraved landscapes
in mezzotint after Chatelin, strongly etched and
then rouletted, and several groups and single
heads after Rembrandt.
Rolt's Lives of the Reformers, published in
London in 1759, is illustrated with portraits
'elegantly done in mezzotinto by Mr. Houston/
134
~-*If/!'~s
RICHARD HOUSTON
but these were really engraved by John Faber,
and have been re-lettered.
Houston's work is in many cases very skilled.
The modelling and the masterly use of the scraper
that appear, particularly in some of the larger
Rembrandt heads, have never been excelled.
Houston was unquestionably a master of the
mezzotinting tools, and he produced effects with
them of a higher artistic level than that of any
of his predecessors. He was the first mezzo-
tinter who realised that a scraper could be used
to give the effect of a brush.
The plates vary much in quality. Whether it
could be shown that there was any regular develop-
ment of Houston's work, or whether the varying
value of his plates was only due to his kaleido-
scopic fortunes would, I think, be difficult to
determine. The irregular life he led would be
likely to affect his work, in accordance with his
state of health at the time.
Among the many charming fancy plates by
Houston, I have thought that ' Night ' is one of
the best. It belongs to a set after P. Mercier.
A few of Houston's prints are in brown ink, but
the majority are in black. Among his Rembrandt
engravings is a particularly fine group of 'The
Syndics ' a large plate measuring 20! x iyf inches.
Some also of nis plates after Zoffony are very
delightful. Among those after Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds is one of the beautiful head of Kitty Fisher,
engraved more successfully, however, by Edward
Fisher at a later date.
Houston published many of his plates himself
'near Drumond's Charing Cross.' Others were
135
MEZZOTINTS
issued by 'John Bowles at the Black Horse in
Cornhill,' ' Carington Bowles in St. Paul's Church-
yard,' and ' Robt. Sayer No. 53 (or opposite
Fetter Lane) in Fleet Street.'
Thomas Burford, who was a member of the
Incorporated Society of Artists, engraved a few
scarce portraits in mezzotint about the middle of
the eighteenth century. His engravings are some-
times taken directly from life, and sometimes after
other artists, and he also engraved a few subject
and landscape pieces. The best of his work is to
be found in a series of twelve fanciful three-quarter
length figures symbolising the months of the year,
published in 1745, and all taken from the same
model. The prints are poor, and the drawing
uncertain.
Burford published most of his prints himself
'at the Golden Eagle in Villers Street York
Buildings.' Others were issued by ' Richard Budd
stationer in Symonds Inn Chancery Lane,' or
' Hen. Overton at the White Horse without New-
gate.'
Richard Earlom was one of the most versatile
of our mezzotint engravers, and he succeeded
admirably with all of his different subjects. His
flower pieces are unequalled, and he engraved
several exquisite plates of this kind after the
Dutch painters Van Huysum and Van Os. He
was equally successful with large subject pieces,
such as Zoffany's ' Royal Academy, 1 the ' Cock-
Match,' and the 'Tiger Hunting'; Hogarth's
' Marriage la Mode ' ; or Wright's ' Blacksmith's
Shop ' nothing came amiss to his genius. He
moreover engraved a very large and important
136
RICHARD EARLOM
series of portraits particularly after Sir A. Vandyck,
Sir P. Lely, Velasquez, Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A.,
and Sir W. Beechey, R.A.
Earlom was the son of the vestry clerk of the
parish of St. Sepulchre, and was born in 1743.
He was at one time a pupil of Cipriani, but is
supposed to have taught himself the art of mezzo-
tinting. Besides his subject pieces, flowers, and
portraits, Earlom published, in 1777, a series of
small prints, partly etched and partly rouletted or
mezzotinted, after sepia sketches which had been
made by Claude Lorrain to serve as an illustrated
index to his own paintings. This collection of
drawings was called the Liber Veritatis, and
Earlom's engravings from them very probably
suggested the Liber Studiorum to J. M. W.
Turner in the next century.
The demand for the prints of the Liber Veritatis
was considerable, and Boydell, the publisher, caused
Earlom to re-touch the plates several times. Before
the discovery of the possibility of steeling a copper
plate, thereby indefinitely prolonging its life, re-
touching was the only remedy for a worn plate
short of entirely re-engraving it.
Earlom's mezzotints to some extent follow the
lead of the engravings by George White, inasmuch
as they are regularly etched before the mezzotinting
is put upon them. Like the very early mezzotinters,
as well as some of the quite modern ones, the
mezzotinting is added where and how it is wanted,
and not in an even tone all over, so there is no need
for scraping or burnishing except to a very small
extent. The grounding of Earlom's plates is
very fine in grain, sometimes almost too fine, and
137
MEZZOTINTS
the inking and production of his plates generally
leave nothing to be desired. He was the earliest
mezzotint engraver of the first rank to engrave
subject pieces to any great extent. His prints were
published chiefly by ' J. S. Copley, George Street,
Hanover Square,' ' Robt. Sayer, No. 53 in Fleet
Street,' or 'John Boydell & Co., 90 Cheapside.'
Benjamin West was the most copied in mezzo-
tint of any of our historical painters. His work was
engraved chiefly by Valentine Green, R. Earlom,
J. R. Smith, and J. Watson.
West was born in Pennsylvania in 1738, and
received his first instruction in art at the hands of
a Cherokee Indian. At the age of eighteen he
established himself at Philadelphia as a portrait-
painter, and after working in America for some
little time he went to Italy, where he painted several
pictures and laid the foundation of his reputation.
In 1763 West came to England, and was one
of the original members of the Royal Academy,
exhibiting his ' Regulus ' at the first exhibition in
1769. He held the appointments of 'Historical
Painter to the King,' and was also surveyor of the
king's pictures.
At the exhibitions of the Royal Academy West
exhibited numbers of historical, classical, and sacred
works for many years, and in 1792, on the death of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, he was elected President, a
post he retained until his death in 1820.
Johann Zoffany was a native of Ratisbon, and
was born in 1733. He was the son of an architect,
and early showed a taste for art, which his father
encouraged, sending him to Italy for the purpose
of studying his subject there.
138
&
8
si
J. ZOFFANY
He came to England in 1758, and encountered
much difficulty in making his way, for some time
only finding a living by painting the faces of
Dutch clocks for Stephen Rimbault, of Great
St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials. According to
Redgrave, a chance portrait of David Garrick,
noticed by Lord Bute, may be said to have begun
Zoffany's more fortunate period, and from this time
his work came into much favour and was highly
esteemed. On the other hand, Bryan thinks the
portrait which brought Zoffany into repute was
one of the Earl of Barrymore.
He was nominated a member of the Royal
Academy in 1769, and after refusing to accompany
Sir Joseph Banks in his voyage round the worla,
he again visited Italy, and painted there many
important pictures, among which was one of the
' Interior of the Portrait Gallery at Florence,'
which is now at Buckingham Palace. In Italy
he was received with much honour, and made a
member of the Academies of Bologna, Tuscany,
and Parma, and he was also made a Baron of the
Austrian Empire by the Empress Maria Theresa.
In 1779 he returned to England, and shortly
afterwards visited India. While there he painted
his celebrated picture of Colonel Mordaunt's
'Cock-Match,' as well as the 'Tiger Hunt' and
the ' Embassy of Hyder Beck to Calcutta,' and
other well-known pictures of Indian subjects, which
have been engraved with great skill and feeling
by Earlom.
His paintings are always interesting ; they are
full of life and character. His colour began by
being grey and weak, but improved as he grew
139
MEZZOTINTS
older. He excelled in drawing, and was most
happy in the grouping of his large pictures, in all
of which are a number of excellent portraits.
Zoffany's visit to India made him a rich man,
but it appears to have injured his health, as he
died a few years after his return, in 1810.
Valentine Green held several posts which testify
to the estimation in which he was held. He was a
member of the Incorporated Society of Artists,
associate engraver to the Royal Academy, and
mezzotint engraver to George in., and at the time
of his death, in 1813, he had been keeper of the
Royal Institution since its foundation in 1805. He
was also mezzotint engraver to Charles Theodore,
Elector- Palatine of the Rhine.
Green was a native of Worcestershire, the place
of his birth, in 1739 or thereabouts, being variously
given as either Hales-Owen near Birmingham, or
Salford near Evesham. He began life as a lawyer,
but presently was sent as a pupil to a line engraver
at Worcester. In 1776 he exhibited engravings
in London, and settled in Newman Street, Oxford
Street.
Green was a very miscellaneous engraver. He
made several fine plates for the Elector of Bavaria
of the pictures in the Diisseldorf Gallery ; he also
made a series of large prints from Benjamin
West's pictures illustrating classical history, and
others after Vandyck, Rubens, and Jan Steen, all
very fine.
Among his portraits, those after Sir Joshua
Reynolds are altogether the finest ; and of other
artists, he engraved after P. Falconet, L. F. Abbott,
T. Gainsborough, G. Willison, E. F. Calze,
140
VALENTINE GREEN
J. Zoffany, R.A., Sir P. Lely, F. Cotes, N. Dance,
and many more.
Green's prints, of which there is a great
number, were largely published by himself, either
from 'No. 51 Upper Titchfield Street,' 'No. 29
Newman Street, Oxford Street, London,' or ' Salis-
bury Street, Strand.' Some were issued by his
son Rupert from ' No. 13 Berners Street London,'
or ' No. 14 Percy Street, Bedford Square, London.'
Besides these family publications are many others
issued by different persons, the majority being
either by 'John Boydell in Cheapside,' ' Ryland &
Brymer at the Kings arms, Cornhill,' ' Robt. Sayer
No. 53 Fleet Street,' ' G. Willison, Greek Street
Soho,' or 'Walter Shropshire, No. 158 New Bond
Street.'
His work is usually strengthened with a little
engraving here and there. The graining of his
plates is more pointilld than lined in character,
and sometimes the graining is so fine that it
appears too soft. The modelling of the faces is
everywhere excellent, and the treatment of the hair
is remarkably good. He engraved a splendid col-
lection of full-length ladies' figures after Reynolds,
as well as other subjects, and some graceful plates
after Angelica Kauffmann, R.A., and R. Cosway,
R.A. The quality of the inking of Green's prints
varies considerably : the colours range from black
to dark brown, and some impressions are brilliant
while others are not. Among the portraits is a
very fine head of himself, after L. F. Abbott, and
among his numerous other works are several small
bust portraits within ovals.
Valentine Green had several pupils, many of
141
MEZZOTINTS
whom distinguished themselves afterwards, par-
ticularly John Dean, perhaps the most delicate
workman who ever engraved in mezzotint.
Richard Purcell was a pupil of John Brooks
and Andrew Miller. He published several of his
rare mezzotints in .Dublin, of which city he was
a native. About 1755 he came to London and
worked for Robert Sayer, ' Map and Printseller at
the Golden Buck near Serjeant's Inn, Fleet Street,'
for whom it is also probable that he engraved
several prints without signing his name.
Purcell was a man of irregular life, and his un-
doubted genius therefore never had fair play. On
several of his prints he used the alias of ' Corbutt,'
' C.,' or ' P.' He engraved several portraits, chiefly
after Sir A. Vandyck, Sir P. Lely, G. Zoust, Sir J.
Reynolds, P.R.A., T. Gainsborough, R.A., and A.
Ramsay, and subject pieces after Ostade, Schalcken,
F. Boucher, and others. His drawing is weak,
and the graining of most of his plates is inferior,
resembling a sandpaper grain, and there is rather
too much engraved or etched work in most cases.
Some of his plates are, however, very good.
Most of Purcell's prints were published by Robert
Sayer ; others were issued by ' Thos. Silcock Print
and Fan Seller in Nicolas Street opposite the
Tholsel,' ' Michael Hanbury Engraver, Georges
Lane Dublin ' ; ' J. Fuller at the Bible Blowbladder
Street,' ' William Wilkinson in Chequer Lane
Dublin,' and several others.
The most important print publisher of the
eighteenth century was John Boydell, a gentle-
man of great artistic taste, himself a painter and
engraver, in which art he was a pupil of W. H.
142
IMW
JOHN BOYDELL
Toms, and a member of the Incorporated Society
of Artists about 1750. He began as a publisher by
issuing small books of views drawn and engraved
by himself. At last Boydell's publishing business
became important enough to enable him to com-
mission artists to paint pictures for the express
purpose of having them engraved. Unfortunately
the French Revolution so affected his business that
he became bankrupt in 1804. He was a generous
patron of art in every way.
Boydell's work as an engraver is not remark-
able. His son engraved a few mezzotints, but
these also are only of an ordinary kind ; but as a
publisher he gave much assistance to numbers of
mezzotint engravers who would otherwise probably
have had to take to some other means of liveli-
hood.
Boydell was sheriff in 1785, and Lord Mayor
of London in 1790. His most important under-
taking was the ' Shakespeare Gallery,' a series of
illustrations of scenes from Shakespeare's plays,
painted and engraved by the best artists procur-
able. Although at the time this project was very
highly thought of, it never seems to have been the
success its originators and contributors expected it
to be.
Joseph P. L. Marchi was an Italian artist who
was brought to England by Sir Joshua Reynolds
as his assistant, in 1752.
As well as helping Reynolds, Marchi also en-
graved largely in mezzotint on his own account.
He engraved after his own work as well as that of
Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; J. Berridge, J. Zoffany,
R.A., and others. All Marchi's plates show very
MEZZOTINTS
fine workmanship ; some of them are excellent in
every way, the effect is powerful and yet delicate.
His prints were published by himself 'at St.
Martin's Lane near Long Acre,' by ' W. Dickinson
Henrietta Street Covent Garden,' 'Jno. Wesson
in Lichfield Street St. Anne's Soho,' John Bowles,
and others.
Edward Fisher, a native of Ireland, began
life as a hatter, but soon took to engraving as
a profession, for which he was eminently fitted by
nature. His plates after Reynolds are particularly
good, and all his mezzotints are marked by broad
effects and delicate finish as well. He was a most
painstaking engraver, and many of his plates are
altogether excellent.
Several of Fisher's plates were altered in
various ways after his death, the lettering erased,
and prints made from such plates sold as 'proofs
before letters.' If a print is not in itself brilliant,
a purchaser should never give a proof price even
if the space for the lettering is blank. Fisher
engraved chiefly after Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ;
B.Wilson, Sir N. Dance-Holland, R.A. ; J. Zoffany,
R.A. ; B. West, P.R.A., and T. Hudson.
He published some of MacArdell's prints, so
was no doubt a friend of his, and may have studied
with him. He also published several of his own
prints ' at the Golden Head South side of Leicester
Square,' ' No. 1 1 Ludgate Street,' or ' at Mr.
Deering's Floor Cloth Warehouse in Newport
Street, Long Acre.' Other publishers of Fisher's
prints were ' M. Chamberlin in Stewart Street,
Old Artillery Ground, Spittalfields ' ; ' E. Bakewell
& H. Parker, Printsellers in Cornhill opposite
144
FISHER AND W. PETHER
Birchin Lane, London ' ; 'John Bowles at No. 13
in Cornhill ' ; ' Robt. Sayer, No. 53 Fleet Street,'
and others.
Fisher's prints show a few engraved lines in
places, and they vary a little in quality. The men's
portraits are strong and boldly modelled; the ladies'
portraits are more delicately treated. Fisher was
particularly careful about the colour of his inks.
Some of them are almost a pure brown, others a
black brown, and others nearly black. The inking
of all the plates is most excellent.
Sir Joshua Reynolds is reported to have said of
Fisher that he was ' injudiciously exact,' inasmuch
as he took the greatest pains to ensure that even
the unimportant parts of his plates should be as
well and carefully finished as the important parts.
The result has quite justified the procedure, as
Fisher's prints are finished to perfection and are
delightful to examine inch by inch, as well as
being strong and masterly in the general effect.
William Pether was a native of Carlisle ; a
portrait-painter in oils and in miniature, and a
pupil of Thomas Frye, as he says on one of his
mezzotints after a portrait by that artist, 'W.
Pether olim Discipulus ejus sculpsit, 1761.' He
was a member of the Royal Academy in 1778.
He engraved several fine subject pieces after
Joseph Wright, and among these perhaps his finest
work is to be found. His engravings after Rem-
brandt are also very good. Besides these, he
worked after his own paintings and those of J. B.
; Greuze, Sir P. P. Rubens, J. F. Nollekens, Sir
N. Dance-Holland, R.A., Giorgione, and others.
His prints were published by himself in ' Gt.
K H5
MEZZOTINTS
Russel Str. Bloomsbury,' or ' Great Newport Street,
Leicester Fields ' ; ' Robt. Sayer Map & Print
seller No. 53 Fleet Street ' ; ' T. Brydon, at his
looking Glass & Print Warehouse, Charing Cross
London ' ; John Boydell and others.
Pether's mezzotints show good work, with
very fine grain and skilful modelling, curiously
strengthened, in some cases, with pointiHe" work
added by hand, as well as small engraved lines
where necessary. The scraping is always very
cleverly done and effective.
Philip Dawe worked as an engraver under W.
Hogarth about 1760. He was also a painter, and
exhibited at the first Royal Academy Exhibition
in 1769.
He engraved several mezzotint portraits after
Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; T. Gainsborough, R.A. ;
G. Romney, T. Hudson, R. Cosway, R.A., and
others; and some after Henry Morland the portrait-
painter, who himself scraped a few mezzotints.
Dawe had studied under Henry Morland.
His prints are large and coarse, but good in
contrasts of light and shade. They are pure mezzo-
tint, unassisted by any other work.
George Dawe, R.A., the portrait-painter, was
the son of Philip, and is said to have engraved
mezzotints at the age of fourteen. He only en-
graved a few plates, but these are good and strong.
He was particularly successful in his prints after
Sir H. Raeburn, R.A., whose powerful pictures
lend themselves especially well to Dawe's broad,
strong manner.
Charles Townley was a miniature painter,
well as an engraver in stipple and in mezzotii
146
!
W. DICKINSON
He was a son of James Townley, Headmaster of
Merchant Taylors' School, and was born in 1746.
Townley studied painting in Italy and at
Berlin, where he engraved several portraits. He
was a member of the Royal Academy of Painting
at Florence. His mezzotint work is not good, his
textures are woolly, and there is an utter want of
finish without any compensating power.
Townley engraved mezzotints after his own
drawings and the work of Sir P. Lely, G.
Romney, J. Hoppner, R.A. ; J. Opie, R.A. ; R.
Cosway, R.A., and others; and his prints were
published by himself at ' No. 7 New Bond Street,'
'No. 75 near the Adelphi, Strand,' 'Arlington
Street Piccadilly,' '38 Greek Street Soho,' 'No.
15 Duke Street Piccadilly,' or ' No. 19 Panton
Square Haymarket.' Others were issued chiefly
by 'W. Richardson, York House 31 Strand,' or
1 John Boydell in Cheapside.'
William Dickinson engraved both in mezzo-
tint and stipple. For his work he was awarded
a premium by the Society of Arts in 1767. He
engraved several caricatures. His mezzotints are
clear and brilliant, and his use of the scraper is
particularly skilful, showing well the brush-marks
of the original. He ultimately became a print-
seller. Dickinson's most successful mezzotints
are those after Sir Joshua Reynolds or Romney,
many of which are printed in a rich brown ink.
One of Jane, Duchess of Gordon, is especially
good. He also published several quite small
prints that are clear and bright.
Dickinson engraved a large number of mezzo-
tints chiefly after G. Morland, B. West, P. R.A. ;
H7
MEZZOTINTS
H. W. Bunbury, Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; G.
Romney, T. Gainsborough, R.A. ; R. E. Pine,
and the Rev. M. W. Peters, R.A. His prints were
mostly published by himself either from ' No.
1 80 near Norfolk Street Strand,' ' Litchfield Street,
Soho,' or ' Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.' After
1778 he published several in connection with
Thomas Watson from ' No. 158 New Bond Street.'
Other prints were issued by ' Carington Bowles
No. 69 in St. Paul's Church Yard,' 'W. Rich-
ardson York House No. 31 Strand,' Messrs.
Colnaghi and Co., Cockspur Street, and others.
James Watson was a native of Ireland, and
is said to have studied under his eminent com-
patriot James MacArdell. Watson engraved a
large number of portraits in mezzotint, particu-
larly after Sir A. Vandyck, Sir P. -P. Rubens,
Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A., and T. Gainsborough,
R.A., always with conspicuous taste and skill.
Some of these portraits are engraved on a large
scale, among which is a particularly charming
one of Madame de Pompadour.
Watson's work is delightful ; his graining is
exactly suited to his subjects, and many of his
prints are printed in a rich brown ink. His style
is remarkable for its delicacy and the perfection
of the workmanship, which has very little sup-
plementary engraved work. It is said that rather
than make much correction or alteration on a
plate, Watson preferred to engrave it entirely
anew.
Besides his many portraits, Watson engraved
a few subject pieces after Franz Hals, G.
Schalcken, G. Metzu, and other Dutch painters.
148
J. AND T. WATSON
Watson's prints were published by himself at
1 Queen Anne Street near Titchfield Street Oxford
Road'; 'James Bretherton No. 134 New Bond
Street ' ; Robert Sayer, Carington Bowles, Boydell,
and others. His daughter Caroline, after his
death, became a well-known engraver in the stipple
manner.
Thomas Watson engraved both in stipple and
in mezzotint, but his work is not particularly good
in either manner. His portraits in mezzotint are
perhaps his best work, and in these there is a
certain power, but the grain used is coarse and
too large. He engraved chiefly after Sir P. Lely,
Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; Sir N. Dance-Holland,
R.A.; B. West, P.R.A. ; F. Kobell, and G.
Willison, both portraits and subject pieces.
T. Watson's prints were mostly published by
himself either at ' No. 142 New Bond Street,'
' No. 33 Strand London,' ' at the Fleece in Wind-
mill Street Golden Square,' or in conjunction
with W. Dickinson at ' Henrietta Street Covent
Garden.'
Jonathan Spilsbury was a painter in oils as
well as a miniaturist. He also engraved several
fine mezzotints, some of which are of great excel-
lence. He engraved particularly after Sir A.
Vandyck, Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; Angelica
Kauttmann, R.A. ; B. Killingbeck, W. Hoare, R.A.,
or Miss K. Read, and sometimes after his own
drawings. His work is always delightful.
The majority of his prints were published by
his brother John from ' Russell Court Covent
Garden.' Others were issued by ' B. Killingbeck
at Mrs. Tottons Mount Street, Berkley Square
149
MEZZOTINTS
London,' ' Robt. Sayer & Co., Fleet Street Lon-
don,' 'Carington Bowles No. 69 St. Paul's
Church Yard/ J. Boydell, and others.
Spilsbury also engraved some subject pieces
after his daughter, Maria Spilsbury, Sir P. P.
Rubens, G. Metzu, and others. His beautiful
engraving of Miss Esther Jacobs, after Sir J.
Reynolds, received the highest premium granted
by the Society of Arts in the year 1761.
His work is delicate and beautiful, and is a
little touched with the burin here and there.
William Humphrey was an engraver who also
worked in stipple and etching. In 1765 he was
awarded a premium by the Society of Arts for a
mezzotint after Rembrandt.
His portraits are engraved chiefly after his own
work or that of Sir G. Kneller, J. Hoppner, R.A. ;
R. Cosway, R.A. ; R. E. Pine, or R. Dunkarton.
Humphrey eventually became a printseller,
and had an extensive connection as an art dealer
with the Continent. He is supposed to have
published a number of J. R. Smith's plates after
they had become worn.
He published most of his prints himself at
' Gerrard Street Soho.' Others were issued by
'Robt. Sayer No. 53 in Fleet Street,' or ' E.
Eynon behind the Royal Exchange.'
John Finlayson often worked on large mezzotint
plates. Some of these vary from about fourteen
to twenty-one inches in height, and have cor-
responding breadth. They are well and strongly
engraved, but the grain used for most of them is
too fine often the case with large mezzotints
On the other hand, the smaller engravings sho\
150
, 'Aw --&}&tv?tde<K> o&LJrn&'iMm/.
FINLAYSON AND DIXON
a coarse grain and are also coarsely finished. His
work on the whole is strong and good.
Finlayson's portraits bear dates ranging be-
tween 1765 and 1773. They are chiefly after Sir
J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; J. Zoffany, R.A. ; C. Jans-
sen, or N. Hone, R.A. Most of the prints were
published by Finlayson himself either at ' No. 8
Orange Street Leicester Fields,' or ' at the Golden
Lamp Berwick Street Soho.'
John Dixon was a native of Dublin, and studied
at the Dublin Academy under the tuition of Robert
West, beginning his career as an engraver on
silver plate. He came to London about 1765, and
shortly afterwards became a member of the Incor-
porated Society of Artists. His best-known mezzo-
tint is a portrait of David Garrick as Richard m.,
after Sir N. Dance-Holland, R.A.
Dixon's work is fine, yet strong, soft, and rich.
There is much engraving with it. His prints are
sometimes printed in rich brown ink, and generally
they are deficient in half-tones.
Latterly Dixon came into a fortune by right of
his wife, but still continued his work on mezzotints
as a labour of love. His portraits are chiefly after
his own work or that of Sir G. Kneller, Sir J.
Reynolds, P.R.A. ; T. Gainsborough, R.A. ; Sir N.
Dance-Holland, R.A. ; R. Cosway, R.A. ; or T.
Hudson. His subject pieces are mostly after
Rembrandt or Franz Hals.
Dixon's prints were published by himself at
' Broad Street opposite Poland Street near Carnaby
Market ' ; ' Ryland & Bryer at the King's Arms
in Cornhill ' ; ' John Bowles at No. 13 in Cornhill
London,' and others.
MEZZOTINTS
Richard Brookshaw is chiefly known by his
fine mezzotint portraits of members of the French
royal family Marie Antoinette and the Dauphin
particularly. These two, and many others, were
engraved in Paris, and published there about 1773,
but some of them were also published in London.
Brookshaw engraved as well several plates of
small size after popular engravers, MacArdell and
others. His portraits are mostly after Sir J.
Reynolds, P.R.A. ; R. E. Pine, F. Cotes, R.A.,
and A. Ramsay; and his subject pieces after Sir
A. Vandyck, Van Ostade, or F. Kobell.
Brookshaw's work is of high quality, but
marred, I think, by the peculiar right-angled grain
he used for his grounds. This ground is some-
times strongly marked, but in other cases it is
fine and not very apparent. On some of his
mezzotints, on the other hand, he used what may
almost be called an 'amorphous' grounding, re-
sembling the modern kind known as a ' sandpaper
grain,' that is to say, one which shows no structural
marks, but is altogether irregular and coarse. A
photogravure has the same formless grain, but in
this case it is very fine indeed.
The French engravings are the best of Brook-
shaw's work, and they vary much in merit, and
there is always a good deal of supplementary line
engraving with them all.
Brookshaw's prints were published in London
by 'Ryland and Bryer at the King's Arms in
Cornhill,' ' Robt. Sayer No. 53 Fleet Street,' 'John
Bowles No. 13 in Cornhill,' and others.
Isaac Jehner was a painter and engraver, and
settled at Exeter about 1780. He was born in
152
BROOKSHAW AND JEHNER
Westminster, the son of a German, and in conse-
quence of an accident in early childhood, he was
deformed for life. He was a Freemason, and on
one of his prints, a portrait of Richard Bartlett,
he signs himself ' Servant and Brother in the year
of Masonry 5789.' He worked for a time as an
assistant to William Pether.
Jehner's mezzotints are remarkable for their ex-
tremely fine finish. They are few and rare. The
best-known of them is probably ' The Girl with a
Muff,' after Reynolds. A series, ' The Seasons,'
after Breughel, well shows the delicacy of Jehner's
execution ; and the same quality is found in most
of his work, but with it is observable a certain
weakness.
He engraved chiefly after his own work or that
of Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; R. Cosway, R.A. ; T.
Parkinson, W. Parry, A.R.A., or W. Whitby ; and
his prints were published by himself at ' No. 43
Fleet Street,' or ' Bear Street Leicester Fields,' or
else by ' J. Lockington, Shug Lane Piccadilly.'
Elizabeth Judkins was a pupil of James Watson,
the mezzotint engraver. She engraved very suc-
cessfully after Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; Miss K.
Read and F. Cotes, R.A. Her prints were pub-
lished by 'James Watson, No. 45 little Queen
Ann Street,' or by ' Robt. Sayer, No. 53 Fleet
Street.'
Miss Judkins was the best of a small band of
lady engravers in mezzotint, all of whom were
fairly successful, but none of them engraved many
plates. Her engraving of Mrs. Abmgton, after
Sir Joshua, is a very fine piece of work indeed.
It is so good that J. Chaloner Smith, referring to
153
MEZZOTINTS
Watson, her teacher, says, ' it is difficult to suppose
that it was not produced by his experienced hand.'
Her work, as judged by the very few prints
she has left, is very skilled, soft, and pure mezzo-
tint. It is curious that an art like mezzotinting,
which is in all ways quite suited to the powers
of feminine fingers, should not have been more
followed by ladies.
Caroline Kirkley was another lady engraver in
mezzotint, but she only engraved one plate, as far
as is known a portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
after a painting by himself.
Robert Dunkarton engraved several small por-
traits for book illustrations. Most of these were
prepared for Clarendon's History of the Rebellion,
Burnet's History of his own Time, or Woodburn's
Portraits of Illustrious Characters. He also did
some of the mezzotinting for J. M. W. Turner's
Liber Studiorum. He was for a time a pupil of
W. Pether.
Dunkarton's work varies considerably in merit.
Some of it is particularly good, but most of his
plates are hard and deficient in half-tones. He
engraved a considerable number of excellent mezzo-
tint portraits of the usual size, between 1770 and
1811. Being a portrait-painter as well as an en-
graver, Dunkarton engraved several portraits after
his own work, as well as that, principally, of Sir
J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; G. Romney, J. S. Copley,
R.A. ; Sir W. Beechey, R.A. ; the Rev. M. W.
Peters, R.A., and A. W. Devis. Besides these, he
engraved a few large subject pieces after Guercino
and A. de Gelder.
Dunkarton's prints were chiefly published by
154
DUNKARTON AND J. WALKER
himself at 'No. 452 opposite Villiers Street Strand,'
or by ' J. S. Copley, George Street, Hanover
Square ' ; ' Colnaghi & Co. No. 23 Cockspur
Street London,' or John Boydell.
James Walker engraved after G. Romney with
conspicuous ability and success. He is noted as
having been engraver to the Empress Catherine
of Russia, and to ' his Imperial Majesty Alexander
the First.' He was also a member of the Imperial
Academy of Art, St. Petersburg, and engraved and
published several of his plates in Russia.
He was the most distinguished of the fortunate
pupils of Valentine Green, and probably worked
with him somewhere about 1770, and shortly
after this time he went to Russia, returning in
1802. The ship in which his plates were being
sent back to England foundered off Yarmouth,
and they were lost.
Besides Romney, Walker engraved mezzotints
after several other artists, but in no case has he
favoured any of them more than once. Among
these are Titian, Rembrandt, R. Cosway, R.A. ;
J.^Northcote, R.A., and F. Wheatley, R.A. The
prints are published by ' James Walker, St. Peters-
burg'; 'J. Walker, No. 49 Upper Mary-le-Bone
Street, near Titchfield Street'; 'No. 51 Great
Portland Street ' ; or ' No. 50 Frith Street, Soho ' ;
'William Faden, Charing Cross'; J. Boydell and
others. He engraved also a few fine subject pieces
after Snyders, Northcote, and other artists.
Walter's work is very good, and there is plenty
of it.
John Jones engraved in mezzotint and stipple.
His works were issued between 1774 and 1791.
155
MEZZOTINTS
Some of them are very good and strong, but, as
a rule, wanting in finish. Jones was appointed
engraver to the Prince of Wales in 1790, and was
also engraver to the Duke of York. Many of his
prints are in brown ink; the grain used in the
mezzotinting is coarse, and the work upon the
plates has probably been very quickly done. The
portrait of Mrs. Davenport, after G. Romney, is
one of the most pleasing of his plates.
His son George was a well-known battle
painter, and was elected a member of the Royal
Academy in 1824.
Jones engraved a large number of portraits,
chiefly after Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; G. Romney,
T. Gainsborough, R.A. ; Sir H. Raeburn, R.A. ;
H. Singleton and J. Hoppner, R.A. His prints
are issued mainly by himself from ' No. 75 Great
Portland Street,' or ' No. 63 Great Portland Street
Marylebone,' but others were published chiefly by
'Ann Bryer, No. 5 Poland Street Soho ' ; 'W.
Richardson No. 68 High Holborn,' or Messrs.
Boydell.
George Romney, a native of Lancashire, was
the son of a cabinet-maker, a yeoman farmer, in
whose workshop the boy learned carpentry, carving,
and inlay work, and especially became proficient
in the difficult art of making violins, encouraged
thereto by his ardent love of music. He early
showed great talent with the pencil, and was ap-
prenticed to an itinerant portrait-painter, Edward
Steele, in 1755. After some travelling about,
Romney set up at Kendal as a portrait-painter
and succeeded fairly well, painting many of the
local gentry. Not feeling, however, that his talents
156
JONES AND DEAN
could find proper appreciation in the provinces,
Romney moved to London in 1762, where he
remained for a time and then travelled abroad ;
and on his return in 1775, he established himself
at No. 32 Cavendish Square, and became the most
fashionable portrait-painter of the day, rivalling
successfully even Sir Joshua Reynolds. Between
these two artists there was little sympathy.
Romney painted Lady Hamilton not only as
herself, but in numerous other characters, and his
paintings of her are all very beautiful. He painted
several of the pictures for Boydell's Shakespeare.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Romney painted
all his pictures entirely with his own hand, but
trained several pupils. His work was engraved in
mezzotint chiefly by J. Jones, J. R. Smith, J.
Walker, W. Dickinson, and John Dean.
John Dean was a pupil of Valentine Green.
His prints were iss"^ between 1776 and 1789.
He published most of them himself either from
'No. 12 Bentinck Street,' '27 Berwick Street,' or
' Church Street,' all in Soho. A few others were
published by ' J. Easton, Salisbury,' and 'J. Walker,
No. 13, Parliament Street.' He engraved both
portraits and subject pieces. The portraits are
mostly after Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; T. Gains-
borough, R.A. ; J. Hoppner, R.A. ; G. Romney
and J. Russell, R.A., or R. Livesay, and some of
the subject pieces are after G. Morland.
Dean is considered to have been especially
successful in his mezzotints after Romney. In this
he shares his reputation with J. Walker, who was
also one of Green's pupils, and engraved more of
Romney's pictures than Dean.
157
MEZZOTINTS
Dean's mezzotints are always charming. They
are extremely delicately handled, but at the same
time are full of life and brilliancy. They are all pure
mezzotint, unaided by any other kind of supple-
mentary work. He engraved several delightful
child subjects after Sir Joshua Reynolds, and
others after George Morland. The hiking is some-
times in brown ink, and several of the engravings
after Sir Joshua are printed in coloured inks. It is
not now possible to be sure whether these were
made at Dean's time or afterwards.
The grain used by Dean is a fine one, and
shows broken lines laid at right-angles to each
other, a style of grounding that is rarely success-
ful. The grounds have never been strongly laid,
although the small rouletted work in some places
is strong enough. The scraped work .is always
excellent, and there is very little burnishing indeed.
Dean's prints are now very rare, and good impres-
sions will increase much in value : they were not
abundant at any time.
John Raphael Smith belonged to a family of
artists. He was a younger son of Thomas Smith
the landscape-painter, known as ' Smith of Derby.'
His brother and sister were both artists, one
painting in miniature and the other in ordinary
water-colours, and his own son and daughter also
followed the profession of art. J. R. Smith began
life as a linen-draper at his native town, Derby,
where he was born in 1752. Thence he came to
London in 1767, and, while still working as a
draper, he added to his income by painting minia-
tures. Soon, however, he found in himself a
greater aptitude for engraving on metal, for which
158
J. R. SMITH
his miniature training had already to a great extent
prepared him, and he worked very successfully and
profitably both in stipple and in point. From these
styles he presently proceeded to engrave in mezzo-
tint, and for this he quickly discovered that he
possessed special qualifications, and in 1778 he
was fully acknowledged as one of the foremost
engravers in that manner. Like many others,
Smith found his highest inspiration in the work
of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and he has left us a
splendid collection of mezzotints of the very
highest excellence in every way after this master.
Smith was ' Engraver to his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales,' and he was also a publisher and
dealer in prints.
He was a friend of George Morland the artist,
and, like him, was a man of pleasure and irregular
life, the pernicious effects of which show in his
later drawings, but never in his mezzotints, as he
left off engraving before the results of his in-
temperance had adversely affected his artistic
powers. In this later period he made numbers of
portraits in chalks, many of which were exhibited
at the Royal Academy Exhibitions from 1779 to
1790. He is said to have been able to finish one
of these chalk portraits, several of which are in
whole-length, in an hour, so, like his friend Mor-
land, Smith must have been an exceptionally
rapid worker.
Smith engraved portraits largely after his own
work, and also after Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ;
T. Gainsborough, R.A. ; Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A. ;
G. Romney, J. Hoppner, R.A. ; R. Cos way, R.A. ;
J. Downman, A. R.A. ; Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.,
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MEZZOTINTS
and a host of others. He also engraved several fine
subject pieces, chiefly after G. Morland, H. Fuseli,
R.A. ; Joseph Wright and B. West, P.R.A.
Smith published the greater number of his
prints himself, either at 'No. 31 King Street
Covent Garden,' ' No. 83 opposite the Pantheon
Oxford Street, London,' or ' No. 10 Bateman's
Buildings Soho.' Others were published by ' Wm.
Humphrey at the shell Warehouse opposite Cecil
Court, St. Martin's Lane,' and many more.
Smith used a strong and broad grain in nearly
all his mezzotints. There is no fine, soft grain
anywhere, but he has fully succeeded in giving
softness where he required it by means of his very
skilful use of the scraper. Having the strong
grain, he has also been able easily to produce
dark spaces of great depth and richness, wherever
he wanted them, and the tones between the two
are charmingly graduated. He was fond of brown
ink, and generally used it, and the inking of his
plates is always admirable. His grounds are
always most carefully and beautifully laid, and he
uses his scraper just as easily as if it were a brush,
to do which successfully enough, yet not too
much requires the greatest skill.
Altogether the best of Smith's engravings were
after the work of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Several of
them are strong and brilliant portraits of men, and
among the number of beautiful portraits of ladies after
this artist may be particularly mentioned the charm-
ing child portrait of Lady Catherine Pelham-Clinton,
and the now most valuable of all mezzotints, that of
Mrs. Carnac. The two well-known and beautiful
mezzotints of Lady Hamilton, one as a 'Bacchante/
1 60
1
, -&&w'
J. R. SMITH
after Sir J. Reynolds, and the other as ' Nature,'
after Romney, were both engraved by Smith. Both
of these were often printed in colour.
Among the subject pieces is a particularly fine
engraving of the ' Slave-Trader,' after George Mor-
land, ana several remarkable plates after H. Fuseli,
R.A. Smith engraved a set of large female heads
after his own drawings : they are something in the
style of Frye, and about the same size. These
heads are not particularly good, but they are far
better than some quite small plates that he also
engraved after his own work. In some of the
quite small prints the work is by no means satis-
factory. They may have been early attempts, and
are considerably touched up with a burin, a pro-
ceeding which Smith very rarely took advantage
of in his best work.
Romney has been particularly fortunate in
Smith's rendering of his pure and delicate work.
A few of Smith's mezzotints were printed in colour,
but whether this was done in his time it is difficult
to say. Most of these are largely touched up by
hand.
Smith taught several pupils, some of whom
afterwards attained celebrity, notably John Young,
W. Ward, and S. W. Reynolds. Among them also
was Jane Thompson, one of the few lady mezzo-
tinters of the eighteenth century.
Sir Thomas Lawrence was the son of a presby-
terian minister at Bristol, a man of varied tastes
and low habits, who finally became an innkeeper.
Young Lawrence showed a great facility for art at
a very early age, and amused his father's customers
by taking their portraits. The Lawrences lived at
L 161
MEZZOTINTS
Devizes for a while and then settled at Bath, where
Thomas materially augmented the family income
by the aid of his pencil. He worked at first in
pencil and in crayon, and made excellent and
beautiful portraits. At the age of twelve Lawrence
set up a studio for himself, and in 1784 he obtained
a premium from the Society of Arts for some copies
from the antique.
At the age of seventeen Lawrence began painting
in oils, and in 1787 he came to London, settling his
family in Duke Street, St. James's, and having a
studio in Jermyn Street, whence he presently
moved to 24 Old Bond Street. He was a friend
of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who thought most highly
of him, and, indeed, his handsome person and
personal charm rendered him welcome wherever
he went. He painted portraits of the king and
other members of the royal family, and of
numbers of the English aristocracy, and his
pictures were regularly exhibited at the Royal
Academy.
In 1791 Lawrence was elected a supplemental
associate of the Royal Academy, and next year
he was made ' Portrait-painter in Ordinary to
the King.' In February 1794 he was elected a
Royal Academician, and in 1815 he received the
honour of knighthood from the Prince-Regent.
In 1820 he was elected President of the Royal
Academy, in succession to Benjamin West, and
George iv., on his accession, re-enacted his ap-
pointment as ' Portrait-painter in Ordinary to the
King.'
Not only did Lawrence paint very many por-
traits, but also numbers of subject pictures, ii
162
JOHN MURPHY
some of which he was accused of plagiarising
Fuseli. Honours and decorations were showered
upon him by foreign countries as well as at home,
and he enjoyed great wealth and distinction,
but in spite of a\\, he was a bad manager and
continually in debt.
Lawrence was a great collector of pictures,
drawings, and art treasures generally. He died
in 1830. His work has been largely engraved in
mezzotint, chiefly by J. R. Smith, J. and W.
Ward, G. Grozer, W. Dickinson, and J. Young,
and in later times by Samuel Cousins.
John Murphy was a native of Ireland, and
engraved both in stipple and in mezzotint. His
works are rare, and his mezzotints are remark-
able for the great skill with which they are
engraved, and the brilliancy and power of the
prints made from them. If Murphy had only
engraved more largely, he would certainly have
been considered one of our finest mezzotinters,
as the quality of his work is always high.
Murphy engraved fine subject pieces after the
old masters as well as B. West, P.R.A. ; J.
Northcote, R.A. ; G. Stubbs, A.R.A., and T.
Stothard, R.A. ; and portraits chiefly after Sir J.
Reynolds, P.R.A. ; G. Romney, J. Hoppner, R.A.;
R. Cosway, R.A., and others. His prints were
published by himself at ' No. 26 Upper Berkeley
Street, Edgeware Road ' ; ' No. 4 Air Street
Piccadilly,' or ' No. 18 Warwick Street Golden
Square,' or else by ' Edw. Foxhall, Old Caven-
dish Street ' ; ' W. Dickinson, No. 158 Bond Street,'
John Boydell and others.
William Doughty has left a few very fine
103
MEZZOTINTS
mezzotint engravings after Sir Joshua Reynolds,
to whom he was for a time a pupil. Doughty
was intended for a portrait-painter, but never
succeeded well enough to justify his continuing
in this profession, although Sir Joshua seems to
have thought highly of his powers. As a mezzo-
tinter Doughty was very successful, but his work
is scarce and there is very little of it. Some of his
grounds are very curiously laid, and resemble sand-
paper grain. In other cases his graining is large,
effective, and well managed. He used sometimes
a rich brown ink.
Doughty's prints were published by himself at
' 4 Little Tichfield Street Cavendish Square,' or by
1 Thos. Watson, No. 33 Strand.'
During the last twenty years of the eighteenth
century Joseph Grozer engraved several mezzo-
tints of much merit. He was also an engraver
in stipple. His portraits are after Sir J. Reynolds,
P.R.A. ; Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A. ; G. Romney,
J. Downman, A.R.A., and others, and he also
engraved some subject pieces after G. Morland.
His earliest dated print bears the date 1784.
Grozer's mezzotint work is very good. The
grounding is like a series of dots a sort of close
pointilld. It is strong and brilliant, and several of
the prints are in a rich brown ink. Sometimes his
mezzotints are found admirably printed in colour,
especially those published by Dauloux.
Grozer published several of his prints himself
at ' No. 8 Castle Street Leicester Fields,' and
others were issued by 'W. Dickinson, Engraver,
No. 158 Bond Street,' 'William Austin, Drawing
Master, Engraver and Print Merchant, No. 195
164
G. DUPONT
Piccadilly near St. James's Church, 1 or 'No. 41
St. James's Street,' ' H. Dauloux, No. 50 Leicester
Square,' and others.
Gainsborough Dupont was a portrait-painter,
and also engraved mezzotints. He was a nephew
of Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., much of whose
later work he finished, and his engravings after
Gainsborough's work are of high merit strong,
brilliant, and masterly. He has left only a few
rare specimens of his mezzotints. They are all
after Gainsborough, and are published by the
engraver at ' No. 07 Pall Mall London,' ' R. Sayer,
Grafton Street Fitzroy Square,' or ' B. Beale
Evans in the Poultry, London.'
Dupont exhibited for the first time at the
Royal Academy in 1790.
Although Sir Joshua Reynolds had several
rivals, no one of them so nearly approached him
in skill as Thomas Gainsborough, because, although
a notable landscape-painter, ne was also a por-
trait-painter of nearly, if not quite, as much genius
as the President himself. Gainsborough's portraits
have always been very highly esteemed and upheld
by mezzotint engravers.
Gainsborough was the son of a wool-merchant
of Sudbury, in Suffolk, and at an early age showed
much talent for drawing. In his fifteenth year,
in 1742, he was sent to London to a silversmith,
where he learned engraving on metal, and he also
etched and made a few aquatints. He studied for
three years under the care of Frank Hayman, an
artist, after which he returned to Sudbury.
He lived for a time at Ipswich, and painted
several portraits as well as landscapes of great
165
MEZZOTINTS
merit, and in 1760 he removed to Bath, where he
immediately rose into great repute. He was
elected one of the original members of the Royal
Academy in 1768, but seems to have had so many
disagreements with the President, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, that his contributions to the exhibi-
tions were never so numerous as they should have
been.
His pictures are never signed. In 1774 Gains-
borough settled in Schomberg House, Pall Mall,
where he lived during the most successful period
of his life. Here he painted the celebrated portrait
of the Duchess of Devonshire in a large hat, as
well as the ' Blue Boy,' now at Grosvenor House,
painted specially to annoy Sir Joshua Reynolds,
who had said that the masses of light in a picture
should always be of a ' warm, mellow colour.'
Before his death in 1788 Gainsborough became
reconciled to Sir Joshua, who afterwards delivered
a eulogy of his work to the students of the Royal
Academy.
He was chiefly engraved in mezzotint by
Gainsborough Dupont, J. R. Smith, Valentine
Green, and J. Watson.
Charles Howard Hodges studied art in Holland
about the end of the eighteenth century, and settled
there as a portrait-painter in crayons and an
engraver in mezzotint. He enjoyed much con-
sideration in the Netherlands, and was one 01
the Commissioners sent by that country to recover
the pictures taken away by Napoleon. At Am-
sterdam Hodges acted as art agent for England
in company with W. Humphrey, a dealer in prints
and a fellow-engraver in mezzotints.
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C. H. HODGES
Hodges is supposed to have been a pupil of
J. R. Smith, who published some of his mezzo-
tints, and he appears to have profited well by his
master's able instruction, as his work is always
remarkably good ; indeed one of his engravings,
after a drawing of his own a portrait of the
Grand Pensioner Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
is well known for its exceptionally beautiful work-
manship and marvellous finish.
Hodges used a broad, rich grain for his grounds,
and it is always admirably managed ; the modelling
in the faces is masterly and powerful, and most
of the prints have supplementary roulette work
upon them, and the definite places and outlines
are often marked with close dotted lines.
Hodges engraved chiefly after his own work
and that of Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; G. Romney,
J. Hoppner, R.A. ; Sir W. Beechey, R.A. ; G.
Stuart, R. Smirke, R.A., or J. Rising; and his
prints were published mostly by himself 'at No.
90 Carey Street,' 'W. Dickinson No. 24 Old
Bond Street,' 'J. R. Smith No. 83 Oxford Street,'
1 1. Rising No. 35 Leicester Square,' ' G. Cowen
at T. Macklin's Poets Gallery Fleet Street,' or
Messrs. Boydell.
Charles A. E. Turner, born at Old Woodstock,
in Oxfordshire, in 1774, was an engraver in several
styles, and always with marked success. He
worked admirably in stipple ; he was an adept
with the etching-needle and a clever aquatinter,
as well as a master in mezzotint.
Turner entered the Academy schools in 1795,
and was for a time employed by Messrs. Boydell.
His mezzotints, done at a later period, comprise
167
MEZZOTINTS
many very important plates. To him we owe the
splendid group of the Marlborough family, after
Reynolds ; ' The Beggars,' after W. Owen, R.A. ;
and J. M. W. Turner's ' Shipwreck,' a magnificent
plate. He also engraved other large plates after
John Martin, W. Owen, R.A. ; T. Stothard, R.A.,
and several after the old masters ; landscapes after
Claude; fine animal pieces after Franz Snyders,
Bewick, C. H. Schwanfelder, Beringer, Elmere,
and many more. He also engraved numbers of
portrait engravings, chiefly after J. Hoppner, R.A. ;
Sir T. Lawrence, P. R.A. ; Sir C. L. Eastlake,
P. R.A. ; Sir H. Raeburn, R.A. ; A. Ramsay, and
others. Among his miscellaneous mezzotints are
a few large heads about the same size as those
engraved by T. Frye, and these are the least
pleasing of his work; there are also numbers of
quite small plates, Cupids and portraits, all de-
lightfully engraved. Most of the plates have
been strongly etched before the mezzotinting was
begun, but this preliminary work was not always
done entirely by Turner himself, as he was often
assisted by an etcher of the name of John Bull.
Turner mezzotinted the first twenty plates, as
well as a few of the latter ones, of the Liber Stu-
diormn for his illustrious namesake and relative,
J. M. W. Turner, under whose will he was one of
the trustees. In 1812 he was appointed ' Engraver
in Ordinary to the King,' in 1828 elected an
associate of the Royal Academy ; he died in 1857.
Many of Turner's prints are in a rich brown
ink, and some were printed in colour, but when
this was done it is impossible to say.
John Young was a pupil of J. R. Smith, and
168
1
JOHN YOUNG
in 1789 was appointed 'Mezzotint engraver to
the Prince of Wales,' and in 1813 he became
' Keeper to the British Institution ' in succession
to Valentine Green.
One of Young's most popular engravings is
called 'The Set-to,' after T. H. Mortimer, A.R.A.,
and represents the commencement of a fight
between Broughton and George Stevenson. It is
well drawn and well modelled, but is a disagreeable
subject. He also engraved large subject pieces
after J. Zoffanv, R.A. ; G. Morland and B. West,
P.R.A., as well as portraits after Sir T. Lawrence,
P.R.A. ; G. Romney, J. Hoppner, R.A. ; W. Owen,
and several more. In 1815 Young published a
remarkable set of thirty portraits of the Emperors
of Turkey printed in colours, the first plates to
be regularly issued in this way. They are very
rare, and I have not been able to see any examples
of them.
Young's work is pure mezzotint, with a little
additional definition given by means of a fine
roulette. In many cases the grain of the mezzotint-
ing is large and left rather dark, and the modelling
of the faces and figures is good and strong.
Young's prints were published by himself from
several addresses: 'No. 14, or No. 65, Charlotte
Street Fitzroy Square,' ' No. 7, Cockspur Street
Great Hay Market,' 'No. 58 Upper Charlotte
Street Fitzroy Square,' ' New Store Street Bedford
Square,' or ' No. 28 Newman Street.' A few
others were published chiefly by ' P. Garot, Print-
seller, South Hanover Street,' ' Thos. I. King
No. 9 New Store Street Bedford Square,' or
'T. Simpson St. Paul's Church Yard.'
169
MEZZOTINTS
John Hoppner has been much favoured by
mezzotint engravers, his work being well adapted
for reproduction in that medium. He was the son
of German parents, and a chorister in the Chapel
Royal in 1768 or thereabouts. George in. helped
him with funds to pursue his artistic studies. In
1775 he was a student in the Royal Academy
schools, where he gained several premiums for
drawing and painting. In 1785 he painted por-
traits of the royal princesses, Sophia, Amelia, and
Mary, and in 1789 he was appointed 'Portrait-
Painter to the Prince of Wales.' In 1795 he was
elected an Academician. Sir Thomas Lawrence
and Hoppner at this time divided honours, but
Hoppner's death, in 1810, left Lawrence undisputed
place as our first portrait-painter.
Hoppner's portraits are remarkable for the
beauty of the landscape backgrounds, he having
begun his artistic career by painting landscapes, and
always liked them. His pictures are not likely to
last well because, like Sir Joshua Reynolds, he
used mediums which soon lose their virtue.
He was chiefly engraved in mezzotint by J.
Young, J. Ward, W. Ward, and J. R. Smith. '
170
CHAPTER IV
Mezzotint engraving in the nineteenth century. The
work of S. W. Reynolds, J. M. W. Turner. W. Say,
G. Clint, T. G. Lupton, W. and J. Ward, D. Lucas,
Samuel Cousins, C. W. Campbell, Frank Short, John
D. Miller, Gerald P. Robinson, Miss E. Gulland, R. S.
Clouston, and Norman Hirst.
DURING the nineteenth century a good
deal of mezzotint work was done in
England, and a few names stand out as
being of much renown. Of the earlier engravers
William Say is the most remarkable, because he
was the first to make a mezzotint upon a steel
plate, which he did in 1820, and thereby fore-
shadowed the pernicious steeling of copper plates.
Late in the preceding century, and in the
earlier part of the nineteenth, S. W. Reynolds, a
mezzotinter of immense energy and great skill,
engraved numbers of fine portraits, many of which
are from his own studies. Then also, early in
the century, J. M. W. Turner produced his Liber
Studiorum, which will always be a very important
example of landscape work executed in mezzotint,
although really there is quite as much work of
other Kinds as these remarkable plates. Land-
scape-painting was much studied in England
during the nineteenth century, and it was almost
171
MEZZOTINTS
inevitable that engravers in mezzotint should also
try their skill in this direction.
T. G. Lupton and David Lucas both did their
best to popularise landscape in mezzotint, and
both of them worked on steel. Of the two, I
think Lupton succeeded the better, but this may
be partly because he used a lighter ink. Lucas
nearly always used a very black ink, and the
general impression given by his landscapes is that
they are much too dark.
In recent times Mr. Frank Short has engraved
some plates, from sketches by J. M. W. Turner,
in the manner of the Liber Studiorum, and these
are quite beautiful, and as good in every way
as any of the original plates.
Samuel Cousins brings us up to present
times, and in his technical mannerisms, as well
as his general method of treating his subjects,
he has a large following among present-day
engravers. His style is clear and brilliant, and
his engravings will be deservedly popular for a
long time to come. Cousins is no unworthy guide.
His work is sincere and delightful, but it is very
largely assisted with auxiliary work from the
etching-needle and the burin. Delicacy and fine
finish are characteristic of all his mezzotints, and
if it may be permitted to find fault with one so
near to us, I should say that most of the plates
are over elaborated and finished to the verge of
weakness. His tendency to small work may
perhaps be due to some extent to the fact that he
worked for some time as a miniaturist.
Modern mezzotint work in England varies
much in quality. Some is good and some is bad,
172
ROYALTIES
but conditions generally are not now so favourable
for mezzotints as they were in the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries.
Altogether I feel that the art of the mezzo-
tint engraver is passing through a very critical
period, from which it may emerge triumphant
by reason of the great excellence of some of its
exponents, or, on the other hand, it may be finally
overcome before long by its many adversaries.
Not only is there a distinct paucity of high-
class engravers, but there is also a want of a
properly appreciative public, as well as a most
formidable and direct competitor in the ' photo-
gravure.'
What with the initial payment to the original
artist for the right of reproduction of a certain
picture, the fee to the engraver and printer and
other incidental charges, a publisher needs to be
a man of much courage, as well as the possessor
of a deep purse, before he can undertake the
publishing of an important plate. I cannot help
thinking that the payments to the artist and the
engraver would be more satisfactory in all ways
if they were more largely arranged on the principle
of royalties on actual sales. A publisher would
then be readier to venture on the engraving and
publishing of a picture which might quite pos-
sibly catch the public taste and be very successful.
It seems to me that the principle of payment of
capital sums for a doubtful return tends to check the
publication of numbers of engravings which might
do credit and be profitable to every one concerned.
As to the second point, the possibility of pro-
ducing prints, closely resembling mezzotints, by
173
MEZZOTINTS
means of a photographic process directly from
original paintings, is now to be seriously reckoned
with.
By means of the ' photogravure ' process a copy
can be made from an original painting at a compara-
tively small cost, and such prints compete directly
and very formidably with mezzotints on their own
ground. The best prints made by this process
are very like mezzotints, and are frequently so
considered. An instance occurred quite lately
where a remarkably good 'photogravure,' made
directly from a painting, was described in the
daily press as a ' mezzotint engraved on steel."
Photogravures, like mezzotints, are usually
printed in monotone, but they can also be equally
well printed in coloured inks if it is considered
desirable. The inks, however, which are normally
used for printing photogravures, are of a thicker
sort than those used for mezzotints, and it may
be to some extent due to the use of this denser
ink that such prints are often disappointing in the
more delicate half-tones.
The possibility of ' photogravure ' rests upon
the discovery that a film of gelatine can be so
prepared that by the action of light it is rendered
more or less insoluble. In this way, such a film
fixed upon a copper plate, and subjected to the
action of actinic light reaching it through an
ordinary positive, becomes hardened in some
places, while remaining soluble, or partly so, in
others, and it can be soaked off in exact accordance
with the solubility or non-solubility remaining
in it.
The plate, covered with its modified film, is
174
PHOTOGRAVURE
then treated with acid in the same way as an
etched plate would be, and wherever the acid can
reach the copper it bites it away, in proportion as
it is protected or not, and the result is an etched
plate of more or less imperfection.
Although the burr which is characteristic of
a mezzotinted plate is entirely wanting in an
etched plate, nevertheless in very dark places a
certain roughness exists, which when filled with
a thick ink will give an impression having con-
siderable depth, but if unassisted by some further
working the velvety richness of a dark mezzotinted
space is never approached. The process is still
being improved upon, and I do not think it has
by any means reached its final stage. There is
yet room for improvement in orthochromatic
plates, and there is also room for more system
in the re-touching, on mezzotinting principles, of
the copper plate after it has been etched.
Prints made from an untouched plate etched
by the photogravure process are too flat in tone,
and usually too dark ; but another process is here
utilised which can remedy both these defects to
any desired extent. A skilled mezzotint engraver
works carefully on the lines laid down for him by
the acid on the metal, with a picture, drawing, or
print before him to work from, and he goes over
the etched plate, inch by inch, with roulette or
rocker, scraper and burnisher, exactly as if he were
working on an unfinished mezzotint plate. It is
obvious that the final excellence of such a plate is
commensurate with the ability of the finisher.
Here is a new field for mezzotint engravers
who have not sufficient genius to stand alone, and
MEZZOTINTS
I should think that there is likely to be a large
demand for skilled work of this kind in the near
future, as photogravures are gaining in popularity
every day. As large editions are obviously wanted,
photogravure plates are always steeled as soon as
they are finished. There can be no objection to
the process in this case, as there is no claim to
rarity, neither is there any preference for a limited
issue.
Wood engraving, as a popular means of cheap
illustration, has been killed by the invention of
the half-tone block, made directly from drawings or
paintings ; but the half-tone block, in its turn, has
to some extent recompensed the wood-engravers,
inasmuch as, in consequence of various short-
comings, the prints are deficient in light and other
small particulars. The deposed wood-engraver
has ultimately to be called in, and by skilful en-
graving on the soft metal block, upon which is
the design produced by photography, he can so
improve and brighten it that in numbers of cases
the resulting effect is very happy. So highly is
this art considered, that in many instances the
engraver's name is very properly added in the
lettering of the print.
So equally it will come about that in time an
ordinary mezzotint engraver will find only a very-
small market for his original work, but he may
find a constant and remunerative occupation in
rocking, rouletting, scraping, and burnishing the
photogravured plates, which, without his masterly
touch, would have to remain in their natural
flat imperfection.
From an art standpoint I much deprecate the
176
STEEL-PLATING
covering up of a mezzotinted copper-plate with a film
of steel so as to enable an indefinite number of
prints to be made from it ; indeed it seems to me
that the adoption of this process by mezzotint
engravers, or their publishers, is in every way
disastrous.
I do not think that either the half-tone block or
the photogravure plate will supersede the handi-
work of a genius on wood or copper. Neither Mr.
Timothy Cole, Mr. Frank Short, nor Mr. John
Miller need fear them ; but I do think they will
do away with the rank and file in both arts, so
that the genuine art-lover may, after all, be the
gainer, as a good photogravure is a better thing
than a bad mezzotint.
One certain effect of all these wonderful modern
art processes, primarily working by the automatic
action of light, will be to enhance still further the
estimation in which ourselves and our successors
will hold the beautiful old works done on wood or
copper, slowly and lovingly by hand, before photo-
graphy was thought of.
Engravers of all kinds should, as a general
rule, interpret the work of contemporary painters.
There are plenty of our modern artists whose
works are admirably adapted for reproduction in
mezzotint. Among these may be counted particu-
larly Mr. G. F. Watts, Lord Leighton, and Sir
E. Burne-Jones, and each of these has already
found his special engraver. Mr. Frank Short
thoroughly understands and renders the mysterious
power of Mr. G. F. Watts ; Mr. John Miller is in
absolute sympathy with the delicate and beautiful
work of the late President of the Royal Academy ;
M 177
MEZZOTINTS
and Mr. C. W. Campbell, too soon taken away,
was able to reproduce Sir E. Burne-Jones's aesthetic
imaginings in a more masterly way than any of
his contemporaries. His work is rare as well as
beautiful.
If our present-day mezzotint engravers continue
to work in the same manner as their predecessors,
they are not likely to advance the art. It has
already reached its highest point in the work of
James MacArdell, Valentine Green, and J. R. Smith.
But if our very skilled engravers can hit upon a
new style of their own, I feel that we may well
see the dawn of a period of renewed activity, and
signs of this are not entirely wanting. It is in the
development of this new style in which the true
future of mezzotint engraving lies.
Samuel William Reynolds, the son ,of a planter
in the West Indies, was taught mezzotint engrav-
ing by J. R. Smith. He was a student at the
schools of the Royal Academy, and his earliest
dated mezzotint, an excellent plate, is' marked
1797.
S. W. Reynolds was probably a relation of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, and he engraved a series of
three hundred and fifty-seven small mezzotints
after all the works of that artist that he could find.
Pleasing though some of these are, I feel that
in spite of the great skill with which they are
engraved they are too small ; the mezzotinting
process is not suitable for very small work.
Reynolds lived for a time in Paris, where his
work was much admired, and many of his paint-
ings, rare here, are still to be met with on tht
Continent. Between 1810 and 1812 he exhibitec
178
S. W. REYNOLDS
engravings in mezzotint at the Paris Salon. Many
of these were after French artists, especially
Gericault, Horace Vernet, and Ltfon Cogniet.
Reynolds was drawing-master to the royal
princesses and ' Engraver to the King,' and refused
the honour of knighthood which was offered to
him. He was a skilful artist, both in oils and
water-colours, and engraved some mezzotints after
his own work one of the best and most interest-
ing of which is a beautiful portrait of George in.,
in old age, with a beard, published by the engraver
in 1820. He had several pupils, among the most
successful of whom were Samuel Cousins and John
and David Lucas.
Besides those after his great namesake, Rey-
nolds engraved several other portraits, chiefly
after Rubens, J. Hoppner, R.A. ; Sir N. Dance-
Holland, R.A. ; F. N. Stephanoff, W. Owen, R.A.,
and R. P. Bonington ; and he was also one of
the engravers who worked in mezzotint upon the
etchings made by J. M. W. Turner for his Liber
Studiorum.
The subject pieces engraved by Reynolds, which,
like his portraits, are strongly etched as well, are
mostly after G. Morland or J. Northcote, R.A.,
and they are always very pleasing.
Reynolds's son, bearing the same names, was a
portrait-painter of some repute, and also engraved
in mezzotint, and his two daughters were both
miniaturists.
J. M. W. Turner was the son of a barber who
lived in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. As a boy
Turner showed a great liking for colouring prints,
and these, as well as small original drawings,
179
MEZZOTINTS
were regularly sold to his father's customers
for a few pence each. At an early age the boy
was placed so that he could follow his artistic
inclination, and he worked successively in the
studios of Thomas Malton, Edward Dayes, W.
Porden, and Thomas Hardwick. For a short
time he studied with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and
also with Dr. Thomas Monro, where he met
Thomas Girtin, afterwards his friend, and one
whose smaller work in many ways nearly ap-
proached his own.
Turner exhibited a drawing at the Royal
Academy in 1790, when he was fifteen years of
age, and he contributed largely to most of the
exhibitions held during his time. In 1802 he
was elected a Royal Academician.
In 1807 he began the publication of -a series of
engravings mostly from small sketches in sepia,
made on a somewhat similar plan to that of the
Liber Veritatis of Claude Lorrain.
It is very probable that if Turner had not so
much admired the paintings of Claude Lorrain,
we should never have had any mezzotints from
his hand. Claude painted a great number of
pictures, and he made a charming index of them
by means of small sketches in sepia. These
sketches, called collectively Liber l^eritatis, were
engraved in a mixed manner, not particularly well,
by R. Earlom, and printed in pale brown ink.
No doubt Turner not only admired the original
sketches, but also the idea of having them re-
produced as prints. But the Liber Studiorum
was not intended to serve as an index; each of
the sketches is a valuable original study.
1 80
J. M. W. TURNER
The plates were published at irregular intervals
between 1807 and 1819. The first outlines of the
designs were mostly etched on the copper by
Turner, and eleven plates were entirely engraved
by him, but in most cases the supplementary
aquatint or mezzotint was added by another hand.
The engravers who added this work were F. C.
Lewis, Charles Turner, W. Say, R. Dunkarton,
G. Clint, J. C. Easling, T. Hodgetts, W. Annis,
H. Dawe, T. Lupton, and S. W. Reynolds, and
Turner quarrelled with most of them.
It was originally intended that the series
should consist of one hundred plates, but of these
only seventy-one were published. The subjects
of the drawings were arranged in six divisions,
and letters engraved at the top of each plate show
to which division it belongs, e.g.
A = Architectural.
P= Pastoral.
H = Historical.
M = Marine.
M or M*= Mountainous.
E.P = Elegant Pastoral.
The prints are printed in brown ink of vary-
ing shades ; the original drawings are in sepia.
From a manuscript note on one of the proofs it
seems that Turner wanted all the prints to appear
of the same colour, as he says ' the ink will not
on all the plates produce the same effect, therefore
two or more colours must be used, so that all
the prints may appear the same tint.' But in spite
of this instruction the plates are by no means
alike in tone.
181
MEZZOTINTS
The most interesting of the plates are those
engraved entirely by Turner, and these, especially
in the landscapes, show the work of a mezzotinter
who knows exactly what effect he wishes to
produce, but is unfamiliar with the instruments
by which he has to get it. The result is that
by much scraping and scratching Turner has
succeeded wonderfully in some cases, but he has
always been much handicapped by his medium.
In the matter of the preliminary etched outlines,
proofs of many of which have been fortunately
preserved, his supreme art is charmingly evident.
They are as near perfection as anything of the
kind that has ever been done. If he had so
chosen, he might doubtless have made himself a
master of the process of mezzotinting, but he never
cared enough about it to do so. The- plates of
the Liber Studiormn quickly wore out as to their
mezzotint, and they were in consequence largely
re-touched, mostly by Turner himself. The know-
ledge of the various changes which he made on
them is of paramount importance to a collector
of these delightful little prints. They have yet
another charm, which is that the engravings were
issued very irregularly. They were made up in
sets, proofs and ordinary prints being issued
together in the most confusing way. It is sup-
posed that Turner purposely mixed them, so that
to get a complete set of proofs it may be necessary
to purchase many entire sets, and then pick out
the first states one by one from the mass of later
impressions. To do this successfully involves a
great amount of knowledge concerning the details
of the various states, so as to be able to recognise
182
,
W. SAY
the first proofs when they occur, and there is no
guide so complete or useful in this regard as
Mr. W. G. Rawlinson's Turner s Liber Studiorum,
published in 1878. It is in fact indispensable
for a true Liber collector.
Apart from his art Turner does not seem to
have been a particularly estimable character. He
was extremely miserly, uneducated, dirty, and
quarrelsome. He made a large fortune, and much
of it came to the nation at his death.
Some of Turner's sketches, which were pro-
bably intended to complete the Liber Studiontm,
but were not engraved at the time, have lately
been admirably reproduced by Mr. Frank Short
in an identical manner with that followed in the
original series, partly etched and partly mezzo-
tinted.
William Say was a pupil of James Ward,
R.A., in 1788, at which time Ward was still an
engraver. . At an early age Say showed remarkable
aptitude for mezzotint engraving, and in 1807 he
was appointed ' Mezzotint engraver to the Duke
of Gloucester.' He was a very prolific engraver,
and produced many hundreds of plates, the
majority of which are large. Many brilliant
subject pieces are after Murillo, James Ward,
R.A.; G. Stubbs, A.R.A. ; W. Owen, R.A., or
Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., and all of them
are remarkably fine plates. They are all strongly
etched before the mezzotinting is put on, and
here and there are a few engraved lines. Be-
sides these are numbers of portraits, many of
which also are large. They are mostly after Sir
Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. ; H. Thomson, R.A. ;
183
MEZZOTINTS
J. Hoppner, R.A. ; Sir W. Beechey, R.A. ;
Artaud, W. M. Sharp, Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A.,
or J. Northcote, R.A. Etching again shows in
these portraits, as well as small engraved work
in most cases.
Among the quite small portraits is one of
' Caroline, Queen of England,' underneath the
first proof of which Say has written, ' This
attempt to engrave on steel was made in 1820.
W. Say.' This print is to be seen, with further
states, in the second volume of the valuable
collection of prints from engravings by Say,
which was presented to the British Museum by
his son, F. R. Say. A large number of Say's
prints are in tones of brown ink. They are
excellently printed and produced in every way,
the paper fine and free from lumps.
Say was one of the engravers employed by
J. M. W. Turner to finish, in mezzotint, his etch-
ings for the Liber Stttdiorum, sixteen of which
he worked upon.
Say's prints were mostly published by himself
from ' No. 91 (or No. 92) Norton Street Mary-le-
Bone ' ; others were issued by ' H. Macklin, No. 39
Fleet Street,' ' Edwd. Orme, 59 Bond Street,' 'T.
Macdonald, Poet's Gallery 39 Fleet Street,' and
various printsellers.
William Whiston Barney was one of the pupils
of S. W. Reynolds, and engraved mezzotints after
J. Hoppner, R.A., R. Cosway, R.A., and some
others. He was an officer in the army, and served
in the Peninsular War.
Barney was the son of a drawing-master at the
Royal Military Academy, and published some of
184
T. G. LUPTON
his prints himself from '3 Little George Street,
Westminster, 1 or ' College Street ' ; others were
issued by ' Thomas Falser, Surry Side of West-
minster Bridge.'
George Clint was an artist in oils, water-colours,
and an engraver as well. His studio was in Gower
Street, and he had an extensive clientele among
the actors and actresses of his time. In 1821 he
was elected an associate of the Royal Academy.
Clint engraved several excellent mezzotints after
Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; SirT. Lawrence, P.R.A.;
J. Hoppner, R.A. ; G. H. Harlow, and others.
He is supposed to have studied mezzotint engrav-
ing under Edward Bell.
Thomas Goff Lupton was the son of a gold-
smith, and was apprenticed to George Clint the
engraver, afterwards working as an assistant to
S. W. Reynolds, in whose studio he helped to
instruct Samuel Cousins in the mysteries of mezzo-
tint. Lupton drew some excellent portraits in
crayon, some of which were exhibited at the Royal
Academy between 1811 and 1820; but he is best
known for his charming mezzotints on steel, largely
landscape subjects. Lupton engraved largely after
Turner : he mezzotinted the plates of the l^iews
of the Ports of England, afterwards called The
Harbours of England, and the River Scenery of
England, as well as some of the plates of the
Liber Studiorwn. Lupton also mezzotinted some
of Ruskin's and T. S. Boys's etchings in the
Stones of Venice. He experimented largely with
metals with a view to discover some more lasting
substance than the soft copper which had been
up to his time in general use. Nickel and steel
185
MEZZOTINTS
seemed to be the best, and latterly Lupton always
used steel. William Say had experimented before
this with hardened steel, without much success,
and Lupton improved upon Say's procedure by
using soft steel ; and for his success in engraving
on this metal in mezzotint Lupton was awarded
the Isis medal of the Society of Arts in 1822.
From one of these plates upwards of fifteen
hundred good impressions could be drawn with-
out damage.
Lupton engraved a large number of plates after
Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. ; G. Clint, A.R.A. ;
Benjamin Haydon, John Martin, J. M. W. Turner,
R.A. ; Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A., and many more.
All his plates are rich and delicate. His large
plate of the Duke of Wellington on the field of
Waterloo, twenty years after the battle,- is one of
the best known. About this picture it was said
that the Duke was desirous that Haydon should
paint his portrait, and that the painter tried to
excuse himself on the ground that he was no good
at a likeness. ' Never mind that/ said the Duke ;
' I will turn my back upon you and just show
my nose surely you can draw that ! ' and so the
picture was painted. It is altogether a curiously
imagined picture ; the point of view seems to be
somewhere level with the Duke's feet.
Another well-known engraving by Lupton is
that of the Infant Samuel, after Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds, P.R.A. He also engraved numbers of
small plates for book illustrations, all of which
are excellent.
Lupton's work is of great importance. It is
more pleasing than most of the prints from steel
186
T. G. LUPTON
plates, because he has chosen an ink which is not
quite black. There are certain objections to the
use of brown ink for prints made from steel plates,
but Lupton seems to have overcome them quite
successfully. On several of his plates he very
properly adds the words ' Engraved on steel/ a
fashion I should like to see retained by such
modern engravers as still use this difficult medium.
The grain on a mezzotinted steel plate is always
very fine.
Lupton was a miscellaneous engraver. He copied
subject pieces especially after John Martin, James
Northcote, R.A., and G. Clint, R.A. ; portraits
after Holbein, Sir Joshua Reynolds, P. R.A. ; Sir
T. Lawrence, P.R.A., or J. Goubaud, often printed
in a decided brown ink ; and delightful landscapes,
with light and charming skies, after Claude Lorrain,
J. M. W. Turner, W. Collins, R.A., or Thomas
Girtin. Several of these also are printed in brown
ink, and most of them are strongly etched.
The hardness which is generally apparent in
mezzotints on steel is cleverly avoided in Lupton's
work, and it is almost always brilliant and delight-
ful.
Several of Lupton's prints were published by
himself at ' 7 Leigh Street, Burton Crescent,' and
others were published by 'W. B. Cooke, 9 Soho
Square ' ; ' W. Cribb, King Street Covent Garden ' ;
' R. Ackerman, Strand'; ' J. Bulcock, 16 Hamilton
Place, Kings Cross, New Road,' or 'T. Brydone,
Leicester.' He died at 4 Keppel Street, in 1873.
William Ward was an Associate Engraver of
the Royal Academy in 1814, and held the appoint-
ment of mezzotint engraver 'to His Majesty,'
187
MEZZOTINTS
'to the Prince- Regent,' and 'to the Duke of
York.'
He was a great friend of George Morland, the
subject painter, who married Ward's sister, Ward
in turn marrying Morland's sister. W. Ward and
his younger brother, James, were both pupils of
J. R. Smith indeed they may be fairly considered
to have been his best pupils, for the work done by
both of them is of a very high order. George
Morland's wife and sister were both very pretty,
and they posed as models for the lady figures in
several of his pictures. Ward's son, William,
became a mezzotint engraver in due time, and was
engraver to the Duke of Clarence. There is some
confusion as to the work of these three Wards,
as several of their prints are signed in such a
way as to make the true authorship -uncertain.
Ward engraved several portraits, particularly after
T. Gainsborough, R.A. ; Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A. ;
J. R. Smith, Sir H. Raeburn, R.A. ; Sir J. Rey-
nolds, P.R.A. ; J. Hoppner, R.A., and several
others ; but his most characteristic work will be
found among his numerous subject pieces after
George Morland, J. Northcote, R.A. ; H. Fuseli,
R.A. ; H. Singleton, and W. F. Wheatley, R.A.,
or possibly among some of his animal studies.
The large number of plates William Ward
engraved after his brother-in-law George Morland
are a pleasing and graceful tribute to the affection
subsisting between the two artists. Probably
J. Ward's mezzotints after Morland are really
better done, but there are only a few of them, so
W. Ward remains as Morland's chief interpreter.
He has done the work well, but not remarkably
1 88
GEORGE MORLAND
so. The plates show that he engraved them very
quickly, and got as much effect as possible
with the least work. They are generally printed
in brown ink, sometimes in coloured inks, sup-
ported by supplementary hand-work. W. Ward's
portraits are better engraved than the subject
pieces, and some of them, especially those of
men, are really well done, strong, bright, and well
modelled.
George Morland was a son of Henry R. Morland,
a portrait-painter. As a child he showed a great
facility for drawing and painting. At the age of
ten he exhibited a sketch at the Royal Academy,
and became very soon afterwards a student at the
Academy schools. He copied largely in early life
from Dutch masters, and painted several minia-
tures ; and also at an early age he showed signs of
impatience of control and a love of dissipation.
His pictures of the ' Idle and Industrious
Mechanic' were such a success that, thinking he
was to become a rich man, he married Anne,
the sister of his friend W. Ward the mezzotint
engraver, and tried hard to settle down respectably ;
but partly owing to his wife's ill-health and other
domestic troubles, he soon fell back into his former
disreputable ways.
His brother acted as his publisher, and George
Morland painted one hundred and ninety-two
pictures for him alone between 1800 and 1804.
He worked extremely hard, and yet could not
avoid debt although his works fetched high prices.
He was surrounded with so many needy friends, to
whom his purse was always open, that he ulti-
mately became bankrupt and was arrested for
189
MEZZOTINTS
debt, and died in a sponging-house in 1804. He
took pupils at one time of his career. His pictures
were always popular, and he probably painted more
rapidly than any other artist before or after his
time. He could paint a couple of pictures in a
day, and is known on one occasion to have painted
a large landscape with several figures in it in about
six hours. To be able to do this shows that he
knew exactly what to do and how to do it, and it
is also certain that the work he first put on his
canvas was allowed to remain as right there could
have been no going over it a second time.
Morland's pictures were eminently suitable for
reproduction by mezzotint, and from 1788 to 1792
over a hundred engravings in this manner were
published after his work, and during his lifetime
about two hundred and fifty engravings after his
works were made.
His life altogether is a most curious one, and it
is likely enough that if his character had not been
so unfortunately dissolute, he would have been
one of our foremost subject painters. Even as
it is, many of his pictures are very charming,
particularly those sylvan scenes showing the light
and sweeter aspects of country life. He had many
pupils, who no doubt largely worked upon his
canvases, but they were not allowed to meddle
with the design. His pictures show well in
engravings, as in the originals the colouring is
weak and the actual painting slovenly. Mezzotint
engravings after Morland are often printed in
colour; both these and the monotint prints will
increase in value and estimation.
James Ward, a younger brother of William,
190
J. WARD
was a pupil of J. R. Smith as well as of his
brother. He was best known as an animal painter,
and became an R.A. in 1811. He was painter and
mezzotint engraver to the Prince of Wales, and his
prints are rare. He kept the working proofs taken
from his various plates, and presented them to the
British Museum in 1817. The plates have all
been heavily etched to begin with, and in the
finished plates a little engraved work has been
added as well. The proofs show clearly how the
mezzotint process lightens plates the more they
are worked upon. This collection is a most instruc-
tive and valuable witness to the status of mezzotint
engraving as a separate black and white art. In
one case it is noted that Hoppner, on examining
a print made from one of his paintings, saw that
certain alterations would improve it, and when
these corrections were carried out, they were so
satisfactory that he altered the original picture to
agree with them. J. Ward engraved several por-
traits after his own work and that of G. Romney,
W. Owen, R.A. ; J. Hoppner, R.A. ; Sir T.
Lawrence, P.R.A. ; Sir H. Raeburn, R.A. ; Sir J.
Reynolds, P.R.A. ; J. S. Copley, R.A. ; Sir M.
Shee, P.R.A.; J. Northcote, R.A., and others.
His engravings are all excellent, splendidly drawn
and admirably engraved. Many of them are
printed in brown ink. His prints were published
by ' Messrs. Wards & Co. No. 6 Newman Street,'
' Messrs. Colnaghi & Co., printsellers, Cockspur
Street,' ' J. Ward No. 13 Southampton Row
Paddington, 1 ' By the author No. 14 Hanover
Street Hanover Square,' ' J. Ward near the
Turnpike Paddington,' ' J. S. Copley, George
191
MEZZOTINTS
Street Hanover Square,' ' J. Boydell,' and some
others.
David Lucas is particularly known because of his
engravings after the landscapes of John Constable,
R.A. He engraved several of these landscapes
both in a large and a small size. The smaller ones
were published as a series under the title of
English Landscape Scenery, in 1855. The general
effect of all of them is, I think, too gloomy, and
I attribute this largely to the use of black ink.
Except for the few moonlight scenes, this colour
does not seem to me suitable for landscapes, and
Lucas's work is much pleasanter in the few cases
where he has used a brown ink.
Besides the landscapes after J. Constable, R.A.,
J. W. Allen, Digby Neave, S. Owen, R. P.
Bonington, C. Tomkins, or Eugene Isabey, Lucas
engraved a few excellent portraits chiefly after
J. Hoppner, R.A. ; J. Lonsdale, or C. R. Leslie,
R.A. ; and subject pieces after T. Gainsborough,
R.A., and W. P. Williams. The grain on most of
the small engravings seems to me too coarse, and
on the larger ones too fine.
His most successful plates are the larger ones,
particularly ' The Lock ' and ' The Cornfield,' both
after Constable, and both heavily etched. They are
brilliant and effective plates. ' Dedham Vale ' is
also a very fine plate.
Where the mezzotinting has been so much
scraped off that it is hardly to be seen at all,
Lucas has now and then succeeded in producing
a pleasant sky, as, for instance, in ' The Corsair's
Isle' or 'The Grand Canal,' both after J. D.
Harding. With regard to the heaviness of the
192
S. COUSINS
skies in the engravings after Constable, it may
perhaps be said that they are also heavy in the
originals. But these do not all represent dark
thunderclouds.
Lucas's prints were most usually published
either by ' S. Hollyer, Everett St. Russell Square,'
or by ' Mr. Constable 35 Charlotte Street Fitzroy
Square.'
In his latter days Lucas became intemperate.
He died in 1881, aged seventy-nine. He engraved
some larger plates after Constable than those in the
English series, and also some others, chiefly after
J. D. Harding, J. W. Carmichael, and F. C. Auld.
He will always be known as one of the most eminent
of our mezzotint engravers who worked on steel.
Samuel Cousins was a native of Exeter, and
his talent for drawing, even as a child, attracted
the attention of persons whose patronage was
of much future service to him, particularly Sir
Thomas Dyke Acland.
About 1811, Cousins then being ten years old,
he came up to London, and gained some premiums
for his work from the Society of Arts. In 1814 he
was apprenticed to S. W. Reynolds the mezzotint
engraver, to whom he shortly became a salaried
assistant, and helped in the production of the small
mezzotints after Sir Joshua Reynolds which are so
well known.
After remaining with Reynolds in this position
for some four years, Cousins set up for himself
as an independent engraver at 104 Great Russell
Street, and in 1855 he received the honour of being
appointed 'Academician Engraver' to the Royal
Academy.
N 193
MEZZOTINTS
In 1872 Cousins presented an almost complete
set of his engravings to the British Museum, and
in 1883 he finally gave up work.
He engraved both portrait and subject pieces :
they are chiefly after Sir T. Lawrence, P.R.A. ;
Sir J. Reynolds, P.R.A. ; Sir D. Wilkie, R.A. ; Sir
Edwin Landseer, R.A. ; J. J. Chalon, R.A. ; C. R.
Leslie, R.A. ; Lord Leigh ton, P.R.A., and Sir John
Millais, P.R.A. Many of Cousins' plates are of
very large size.
He engraved largely upon steel, and regularly
etched his plates all over very carefully before
mezzotinting them, a system much used by many
of his predecessors, especially Richard Earlom.
Many of Cousins' plates were etched for him by
B. P. Gibbon. Cousins' large plate of ' Bolton
Abbey,' after Landseer, became very popular, and
it is supposed that this plate, which was engraved
in 1837, was largely instrumental in showing that
a better effect than that produced by line engraving
could be produced in a much quicker and cheaper
way. Line engraving has certainly for some reason
lost its popularity, and is now little practised except
in the domain of book-plates or lettering.
Cousins' work is likely to be always popular
and highly appreciated. It is excellent in draughts-
manship and brilliant in effect. He has a large
following among modern engravers in mezzotint.
Accessory work of the kind Cousins used is of
course a great assistance to the mezzotint, because
by this means effects can be easily produced, which
would be very difficult with mezzotint alone. At the
same time, it takes the work out of the category of
pure mezzotint, and places it in the ' mixed style.'
194
Q*. .'-K
C. W. CAMPBELL
In the hands of a master this mixed style may
be successful, but, like all easy ways of producing
a strong effect, it is a dangerous power in the hands
of an inferior artist, and I think should be avoided
as far as possible. I prefer to look at a mezzotint
which owes nothing to the etching-needle.
Cousins' prints were published among others
by 'Colnaghi Senr., Dominic Colnaghi & Co., Print-
sellers to their Majesties, Pall Mall East,' ' F. G.
Moon 20 Threadneedle Street,' and 'W. Walker
22 London Street Edinburgh.'
Among Cousins' followers to-day may be
counted Mr. George Every, who has engraved
some delightful pieces after Lord Leighton, P.R.A.,
and Mr. E. Gilbert Hester, chiefly known for his
engravings after Mr. Marcus Stone.
Charles William Campbell began life as an
architect, but having a great taste for art, he
studied drawing and engraving by himself, and
scraped a few plates in mezzotint, dying unfor-
tunately early in 1887, at the age of thirty-
two.
Campbell's few plates are all excellent; his
delicate style in some degree resembles that of
Mr. John D. Miller. His plates are finely drawn
and beautifully mezzotinted. It is probable that if
he had lived he would have been the mezzotinter
of all others to engrave the work of Sir E. Burne-
Jones, as he was in complete sympathy with the
work of this artist.
His work is pure mezzotint, and proves that
delicate and defined work can be produced, with
trouble, in this manner without any supplementary
engraving or etching at all ; but to do this requires
195
MEZZOTINTS
more time and care than most modern mezzotinters
care to give to their work. His prints were pub-
lished chiefly by Bryan.
As Mr. John D. Miller is the mezzotint engraver
for Lord Leighton, P.R.A., so Mr. Frank Short is
the mezzotint engraver for Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A.
No fine finish is here, but bold scraped work on
a broadly grained ground fittingly renders the
strong, imaginative, mysterious figures which
our greatest artist has created. Mr. Short is
primarily an etcher, but he also possesses a rare
skill with the scraper, and is moreover very curious
and particular as to the printing of his plates and
the colour of his inks. He has written a charming
little text-book on etching, in which is a word or
two about mezzotint.
Frank Short has engraved some plates after
sketches by J. M. W. Turner, in continuation of
the Liber Studiorum. These remarkable plates
are done as far as possible in the same manner
as those of the Liber, strongly etched first, and the
mezzotinting added. Mr. Short's work on these
few plates shows him to be a master, and they are
quite as fine as any plates of the Liber Studiorum
series ; among them are to be found the most suc-
cessful skies ever produced in mezzotint. A few of
Lupton's skies are very good, and fewer still of
Lucas's, but these of Mr. Short's are all good. As
an interpreter of Turner in this manner of engrav-
ing he is unsurpassed.
But these are not, after all, his own original
style of work ; that is rather to be found in the
powerful mezzotint after Mr. G. F. Watts's picture,
' Endymion and Selene,' and I consider this print
196
J. D. MILLER
to be one which may foreshadow the mezzotint of
the future more truly than any other work that is
done to-day.
Mr. John D. Miller is a consummate draughts-
man, and is most thoroughly in accord with the
paintings of his friend Lord Leigh ton, whose work
he has engraved very largely in mezzotint. No
engraver is able so perfectly to render the charm
and delicacy of the late Lora Leighton's work.
Mr. Miller's treatment of textures, drapery, and
accessories generally is very masterly ; his work is
always most delicate and refined, and moreover it
is very pure mezzotint. Instead of 'lining' such
lines as he finds absolutely necessary to emphasise,
he has dotted them, thereby preserving in a marked
degree the general softness of his outline, while
obtaining the requisite definition. No touch is
wrong in any of his work that I have seen, and it
all bears evidence of patient and loving study.
His engravings are published chiefly by Messrs.
Colnaghi or Tooth.
Mr. Gerald P. Robinson is President of the
Society of Mezzotint Engravers, and ' Mezzotint
Engraver to the King.' His engraved work is pure
mezzotint, full of detail, and admirably drawn. It
owes nothing of its effect to etching or engraving.
A typical plate is the fine rendering of the ' Passing
of Arthur,' after Mr. Frank Dicksee, R.A., in which
the effect of the brushwork in the original shows very
clearly. Indeed this is one of the characteristics of
Mr. Robinson's work, and it is a very valuable
quality, and one which has been largely lost sight
of by old as well as modern mezzotint engravers.
At the same time, such careful reproduction of
197
MEZZOTINTS
the actual brushwork in an oil painting must be
treated with caution, as it is one of the points
which a photogravure brings out into marked
prominence.
Mr. Strang is learned in processes, and is the
joint author with Mr. H. W. Singer of an excellent
book on Etching, Engraving, and the other
Methods of Printing Pictures, published in London
in 1897. His mezzotints are very strong in con-
trasts ; those that I have been fortunate enough to
find are more or less ' impressionist,' and have
an appearance of want of finish. This, however,
is no defect ; such plates may quite well be fully
finished in accordance with the intention of the
engraver, only the prints require to be looked at
from a considerable distance.
Among the few modern lady engravers, Miss
E. Gulland has done some quite beautiful work,
sensitive and charming in the highest degree,
splendidly drawn, and very pure mezzotint. The
only pity is that there is so little of it. Mrs. M.
Cormack has also engraved a few admirable plates,
chiefly large heads. She was, I believe, a pupil of
Mr. T. G. Appleton, a most efficient master, who
has himself engraved some fine plates, particularly
after Greuze and Morland.
Mr. R. S. Clouston's work is in many ways of
the highest rank. His larger plates are splendidly
drawn, and his mastery over his scraper is every-
where evident. He works chiefly after Sir Joshua
Reynolds, P.R.A., and T. Gainsborough, R.A., and
he has quite caught the spirit of both these
artists.
Mr. Norman Hirst is well known for his graceful
198
NORMAN HIRST
work after William Draper. He is a very learned
mezzotinter, and has done some delightful plates.
His work is clear and brilliant, sure to be popular,
and he likes a pleasantly tinted ink which enhances
the natural delicacy of his work.
199
GENERAL INDEX
PACE
ABINCTON, Mrs., . . 42
Engraving, . 153
Plate, . . .154
Acid for roughening plates, . 9
for cleaning prints, . 36
Adhesive paper for fastening
prints, 37
Agoty, J. F. Gautier D', colour
printer, . , . -30
Alberoarle, George, Duke of.
Engraving by W. Sherwin, . 82
Amelia Elizabeth, Landgravine
of Hesse. Engraving by L.
von Siegen, . . 8, 54
Plate, . 54
America, first mezzotinter in, . 1 20
Analogy between mezzotint
and wood engraving, . . 2
Ancaster, Duchess of. En-
graving by J. Mac Ardell, . 130
Plate, . . .130
Ancrum, Countess of, Plate, 150
Anglo-Saxon Review, . -34
Appleton, T. G., engraver, . 198
Aquatint, . 14
Art Pictoria, 1669, . . 44
Artistic possibilities of mezzo-
tint, 41
Arts, Society of, award to W.
Dickinson,
'47
186
award of Isis Medal
to T. G. Lupton, .
award to W. Hum-
phrey, . 150
award to J. Spils-
bury, .... 150
PACK
Aureole used in engravings by
the Canon von Fiirstenberg, 69
Avenant, Madam D', Portrait, 100
BAILLIE, William, engraver, . 127
Barney, William, engraver, . 184
Bartlctt, Richard, Portrait, . 153
Beard, Thomas, engraver, . i 23
Beckett, Isaac, engraver, . . 48
Bedford, Duke of, Plate, . 140
Duchess of, Plate, . .178
' Beggars, The.' Engraving by
C.Turner 168
Berners, Dame Juliana, . . 24
Bickart, Jodocus, engraver, . 70
' Blacksmith's Shop, The.' En-
graving by K. Earlorn, . 1 36
Blake, William, . . a
Bleeck, Peter van, engraver, . 122
Blois, layer of mezzotint ground
for A. Blootcling, . .76
Blooteling, Abraham, engraver, 74
Bockman, G., engraver, . .122
Bohemia, Queen of. Engrav-
ing by L. von Siegen, . . 58
Bonfoy, Mrs. Engraving by
J. MacArdell, . . .130
Plate, . .132
Book of St. Albans, . . 24
Bouverie, Mrs., and son, Plate, 148
' Boy with Lamb,' Plate, . .160
Boydell, John, publisher, 137,142
British Mezzotint Portraits,
1878, . 47
British Museum, mezzotints at
the, . v
201
MEZZOTINTS
PAGE
Brooks, John, engraver, . .129
Brookshaw, Richard, engraver, 152
Browne, Alexander, engraver, 44, 83
Bruggen, Jan van der, engraver, 48
Burch, Albert van der, engraver, 48
Burford, Thomas, engraver, . 136
Burin, early use of the, . . 50
Burlington Fine Arts Club, The.
Exhibitions held at, v, i, 24, 130
Burnishers, . . . 12, 60
Burr, . 4, 52
CAMPBELL, Charles W., en-
graver, . . . .195
Caroline, Queen. Engraving
by W. Say, . . . 184
Cat, Christopher, . . . 117
Catherine of Braganza, Queen.
Engraving by W. Sherwin, . 80
Centlivre, Mrs. Engraving by
P. Pelham, . . . .120
Charles i. Engraving by F.
Place, . . . .84
Charles n., Portraits, 76, 81, 96
Plate, .... 96
Charlotte, Queen. Engraving
by W. Say, . . .112
Plate, . . .126
Chelsum, H. D., . . . 46
Cheylesmore, Lord, . v
Claud Lorrain, painter, . . 137
Cleaning of mezzotints, the, 35,39
Clint, George, engraver, . . 185
Clinton, Lady Catherine Pel-
ham. Engraving by J. R.
Smith, .... 1 60
Plate, . . . .160
Closterman, John, painter, . .104
Clouston, R. S., engraver, . 198
' Coke Family, The,' Plate, . 73
Color if to, c. 1721, . . . 27
Colour Prints, how to dis-
tinguish, . . . .31
madebytheD'Agotys, 30
made by William
Blake, . . . .25
202
PAGE
Colour Prints made by J.
Christophe Le Blon, . . 27
in the Book of St.
Albans, . . . 24
made by Edmund
Evans, . . . .24
made by the Japanese, 24
in the Mentz Psalter, 24
made by J. C. Ploos
van Amstel, . . -33
used by Erhard
Ratdolt, . . . .24
used by Henry Shaw, 24
made by Johannes
Teyler, . . 25
Constable, John, painter, . 192
Continental engravers in mez-
zotint, . . . .48
Contre-e'preuves, . . .18
Copley, John Singleton,/<'/w, 120
Copper used for mezzotint
plates, 15
Cormack, Mrs. M., engraver, . 198
' Cornfield, The.' Engraving by
D. Lucas, .... 192
' Corsair's Isle, The.' Engrav-
ing by D. Lucas, . . 192
' Cottagers, The,' Plate, . .188
Cousins, Samuel, engraver, . 193
DAHL, Michael, painter, . . 104
Damp stains on prints, . . 35
Dauphin, The, 1773. Engraving
by R. Brookshaw, . . 152
Davenport, Mrs. Engraving
by J. Jones, . . .156
Plate, . . Frontispiece
Dawe, George, engraver, . .146
Philip, engraver, . .146
Dean, John, engraver, . . 157
' Dedham Vale.' Engraving by
D. Lucas, .... 192
Delatre, Auguste, printer, . vii
Derby, Charles, Earl of. En-
graving by A. Blooteling, . 76
GENERAL INDEX
MM
Description of mezzotinting in
A rs Piftoria, . . .44
Devonshire, Earl of. Engrav-
ing by I. Beckett, . . 48
Dickinson, William, engrarer, . 147
Dixon, John, engraver, . ' 5 '
Doughty, William, engraver, . 163
Dry-point engraving, . . 3
Dunkarton, Robert, engraver, . 154
Dupont, Gainsborough, en-
graver, . . 165
Dusart, Cornelius, engraver, . 48
Dust harmful to mezzotints, 37, 38
Dustproof junctions necessary
in frames, . . . -38
EARLOM, Richard, engraver, . 136
Eighteenth century mezzo-
t inters, . . . .108
Electrotyping copi>er plates
with steel, . . . .16
Eltz, Friedrich von, engraver, . 70
' Embassy of Hyder Beck to
Calcutta.' Engraving by R.
Earlom 139
'Emperors of Turkey.' En-
gravings by J. Young, . .169
' Endymion and Selene.' En-
graving by F. Short, . .196
English Landscape Scenery.
With engravings by D. Lucas, 193
Engraved lines on mezzotints, 3
Engraved backgrounds used by
L. von Siegen, . . -59
Engraving on metal, . . i
Etched lines on mezzotints, 3, 14
Etching, engraving, and other
methods of printing pictures,
1897, . . 198
Etching, soft ground, . . 33
Evans, Edmund, colour printer,
*4, 34
Evelyn, John, . 43
Every, George, engraver, . . 195
Eyes in mezzotint, . . -63
PAGE
| FABKR, John, engraver, . -113
i Faber, John, junior, engraver, . 1 16
. Faithornc, W., engraver, . . 94
! Ferdinand in., Emperor of
Germany. Engraved by L.
von Siegen, . . -58
File used as a rocker, . . 9
Finlayson, John, engraver, . 150
First English mezzotinter in
America, . . . .120
Fisher, Edward, engraver, . 144
Fisher, Kitty, Plate, . .144
Fitzwilliam, Lady Charlotte.
Engraving by J. MacArdell, 129
Flowers and Fruit, Plate, . 140
Framing of mezzotints, . . 37
French /force, . . 3
Frye, Thomas, engraver, . 124
Fiiger, H., fainter, . 49
Fungus on prints, . 34
Fiirstenberg, Canon von, en
graver, . . . .69
GAINSBOROUGH, Thomas,
/fainter, . . . .165
George in. Engraving by
S. W. Reynolds, . . .179
Gibson, Thomas, painter, . 115
Giles, Henry. Engraving by
F. Place, . . . 85
Girard, Alexis, engraver, . . 48
1 Girl with a Muff.' Engraving
by I. Jehner, . . | . 153
Grafton, Duchess of. En-
graving by J. Verkolje, . 105
Grain on mezzotints, . . 10
'Grand Canal, The.' En-
graving by D. Lucas, . .192
Grease, danger of, on printing
paper, . . . .22
' Great Executioner, The. 1 En-
graving by Prince Rupert, . 66
Green, Valentine, engraver, . 1 40
Groot, Jan de, engraver, . . 48
| Grozer, Joseph, engraver, . 164
203
MEZZOTINTS
Gulland, Miss E., engraver,
PAGE
HAECKEN,
engraver,
Half-tone blocks,
Hamilton, Lady.
by J. R. Smith,
Alexander van,
. . .123
. 176
Engravings
157, 160
Hand-coloured prints, . . 31
Harbours of England, The.
With engravings by T. G.
Lupton, . . . .185
'Hebe.' Engraving by J.
Jacobe, . . . .49
Hester, E. Gilbert, engraver, . 195
Hirst, Norman, engraver, . 198
Histoire de la gravure en
manure noire, 1839, . . 46
History of the art of engraving
in mezzotinto, 1786, . . 46
Hodges, Charles H., engraver, 166
' Hope nursing Love,' Plate, . 146
Hoppner, John, painter, . .170
Houston, Richard, engraver, . 134
Hudson, Thomas, painter, . 119
Humphrey, William, engraver, 150
Hunt, Arabella. Engraving by
John Smith, . . . 100
Huysman, painter, . . -73
INK very permanent in colour, 39
Inking of engraved plates, . 19
of smooth plates, . . 6
Intaglio engraving on metal, . i
' Inverary Pier,' Plate, . . 182
Iron mould on prints, . . 35
JACOBE, John, engraver, . . 49
Jacobs, Miss Esther. Engrav-
ing by J. Spilsbury, . .150
Phi', . . .150
James n. Engraving by J.
Verkolje IO5
204
PAGE
Japanese colour prints, . 24, 34
Jehner, Isaac, engraver, . . 152
Jones, John, engraver, . .155
Judkins, Elizabeth, engraver,
4, 88, 153
Jupiter, Juno, and Io,' Plate, 102
KAUFFMANN, Angelica, painter, 133
Kent, Lady, Plate, . . .158
Kininger, I. V., engraver, . 49
Kinks in prints, . . .23
Kirkley, Caroline, engraver, 88, 154
Kit-cat portraits, . . .117
Kneller, Sir Godfrey, painter, .
41, 48, 102
Knots m wood backing of
framed prints, . . .38
Kremer, J. T., engraver, . . 70
Kyte, Francis, engraver, . .119
LABORDE, Le"on de, . . . 46
Lady engravers in mezzotint, . 88
Lambert, Gen. John. Engrav-
ing by F. Place, . .84
Lamp black used to remedy
defects on prints, . . 22
Landscape in mezzotint, . . 88
Large size mezzotints, . . 42
Lawrence, Sir Thomas, painter, 1 6 1
Le Blon, J. Christophe, 27, 29
Lely, Sir Peter, painter, . . 79
Lens, Richard, engraver, . .97
Letter from L. von Siegen to
the Landgrave of Hesse, . 54
Lettering on prints, . . 19
Liber Studiorum, . . .180
Supplementary plates
engraved by F. Short, . .196
Liber Veritatis, . . 137, r 80
Lives of the Reformers,
1759, . . 114, 134
Lloyd, J., engraver, . .91
'Lock, The.' Engraved by
D. Lucas, . . . .192
GENERAL INDEX
FACE
' Lores of the Gods.' Engraved
by J. Smith, . . 101
Lucas, David, engraver, . .192
Lumley, George, engraver, . 85
Lupton, Thomas G., engraver, 185
Luttrcll, E., engraver, . . 90
MxcARDKLL, James, engraver, 128
Maile, Georges, engraver, . 49
Marchi, Joseph P. L., engraver, 143
Margins of prints, . . 24, 37
Marie Antoinette. Engraving
by R. Brookshaw, . .152
' Marlborough Family, The.'
Engraving by C. Turner, . 168
'Marriage i la Mode.' En-
gravings by R. Earlom, . 136
Mary, Princess of Orange. En-
graving by L. von Siegen, . 58
Mary of Mod en a. Engraving
by J. Verkolje, . . .105
Mather, Rev. Cotton. En-
graving by P. Pelham, . 120
Mayer, Dietrich, etcher, . . 33
Mentz Psalter, coloured letters
in the, . . . .24
Meulen, Peter van der. En-
graving by I. Beckett, . . 93
Meyer, Miss. Engraving by
J. Jacobe, . . -49
Mezzotint engraving, . . 2
Mezzotint prints, delicacy of, . 39
Mezzotint unsuitedtolandscape, 41
Middleton, Lady. Engraved
by J. MacArdell, . 130
Plate, . .134
Mildew on prints, . . 39
Miller, Andrew, engraver, . 126
Miller, John D., engraver, . 197
' Milvus.'a signature of F. Ky te, 119
' Mixed manner,' ... 4
Monkhousc, Cosmo, . . 29
Monmouth, James, Duke of.
Engraving by A. Blooteling, 76
Plate, .... 76
MM
Monumental Brasses, . -51
Moor, head of a. Engraving
credited to Sir Christopher
Wren, . 46, 49, 7 1
Mordaunt, Colonel, 'The Cock-
Match.' Engraving by R.
Earlom, . . 136, 139
Plate 138
Morland, George, painter, . 189
Moser, Mary, fainter, . .134
Mounts for prints, . . -36
Muilman, Mrs. T. C. (Mrs.
T. C. Phillips). Engraving
by John Faber, junior, . 118
Plate 118
Murphy, John, engraver, . .163
NIELLO, . . -51
' Night,' Plate, . . .136
Nineteenth century, mezzotint
engraving in the, . -171
ORIGINAL work in mezzotints, 40,88
PALE spots on prints, . . 34
Paper pierced bymezzotint burrs, 1 1
Papers used for prints, . .21
Parentalia, 1750, . . -7*
1 Passing of Arthur.' Engrav-
ing by G. P. Robinson, . 197
' Paste for fastening down prints, 37
Pelham, Peter, engraver, . . 1 20
Pether, William, engraver,
124, 125, 145
Phillips, Mrs. T. C Engraving
by John Faber, junior, . 118
Plate, . . . .118
i Philosophers, heads of. En-
gravings by John Faber, . 114
Photogravure, . . .174
Pichler, J. P., engraver, . . 49
Pigouchet,
Pimples on printing paper, . 2 1
205
MEZZOTINTS
PAGE
Place, Francis, engraver, . . 83
PloosvanAmsteljJ.C., engraver, 33
Pointing work, . 6, 50, 52
Pole rocker, . . . 2, 10
Portraiture in mezzotint, . 41, 87
Portsmouth, Louise, Duchessof.
Engraving by A. Blooteling, 77
Plate, . . .78
Printing ink used to remedy
defects on prints, . .22
Printing of mezzotints, the, 22,23
Prints coloured by Sir Joshua
Reynolds, . . . . 32
Printsellers' Association, . 1 7
Proofs, 18
Purcell, Richard, engraver, . 142
RANELAGH, Countess of. En-
graving by John Smith, . 100
Plate, . . . .100
Ratdolt, Erhard, printer, . 24
Recueil d'estampes, 1744,. . 74
Reid, Susan, engraver, . . 88
Relief engraving on metal, . 2
Reynolds, Sir ]oshua.,flainter, 32, 131
Samuel \V., engraver, . 178
Rice paste used for mixing
with inks, . . . -34
River Scenery of England.
With engravings by T. G.
Lupton, .... 185
Robinson, Gerald P., engraver, 197
Rocker for mezzotinting, . 9
Roller form of roulette, . . 7
Romney, George, painter, . 156
Roulettes, . . . 3, 53
'Royal Academy, The.' En-
graving by R. Earlom, . 136
Royalties, . . . -173
Rupert, Prince, engraver, 64, 65
Ryland, William W., engraver, 126
'ST. BRUNO.' Engraving by
L. von Siegen, . . -59
2O6
PAGE
'St. Dunstan.' Engraving by
G. Bockman, . . .122
St. Edward's Crown, . . 34
' St. John ' (' Boy with Lamb ').
Engraving by John Dean,
Plate 1 60
'Sainte Famille aux Lunettes.'
Engraving by L. von Siegen, 59
Salisbury, Countess of, Plate, . 144
Salts of lemon for cleaning
prints 36
' Samuel.' Engraving by T. G.
Lupton, . . . .186
Say, William, engraver, . .183
Schimmelpenninck, Rutger
Jan. Engraving by C. H.
Hodges, .... 167
Scrapers, . . . 5, 60
Sculptura, 1662, . . . 43
'Seasons, The." Engraved by
I. Jehner, . . . -153
' Serena,' Plate, . . .162
' Set-To, The.' Engraved by
J. Young, . . . .169
Seventeenth century mezzo-
tints, . . . . -50
Shaw, Henry, . . . .24
Sherwin, William, engraver, . 80
' Shipwreck, The,' Plate, . .168
Short, Frank, engraver, . . 196
Siegen, Ludwig von, engraver, 7, 53
Simon, John, engraver, . .112
Singer, H. W 198
Size for strengthening prints, . 36
Skies in mezzotint, aquatint,
and etching, . . .14
'Slave Trader, The.' Engraving
by J. R. Smith, . . .161
' Small Executioner, The.' En-
graving by Prince Rupert, . 68
Small mezzotints, . . .178
Smibert, }o\m, painter, . . 121
Smith, J. Chaloner, . . 47
John, engraver, . . 98
John Raphael, engraver, . 158
Soft ground etching, . . 33
GENERAL INDEX
MM
Somer, Jan van, engraver, . 72
Paul van, engraver, . 72
Specimens of corrected proofs, 101
Spencer, the Countess,
Plato, 166
Spilsbury, Jonathan, engraver, 149
Spooner, Charles, engraver, . 1 28
'Standard Bearer, The.' En-
graving by Prince Rupert, . 67
Plate, . . 68
States of prints, . . .20
Steel plating, . . 17, 177
Steel used for mezzotints, 16, 112
Stipple engraving, . . 3
Stones of Venice, engravings in,
by T. G. Lupton, . .185
Strang, W., engraver, , .198
Stuart, Lords John and Ber-
nard. Engraving by J.
MacArdell, . . -130
Sulphur proofs, . . -51
Symonds, Abraham. En-
graving by A. Blooteling, . 77
TEMPEST, Pearce, engraver, . 107
Teniers, David, engraver, . 48
Teyler, Johannes, engraver, . 25
Thompson, Jane, engrarer, . 88
Three-colour process, invented
by J. Christophe Le Blon, . 27
* Tiger - Hunting.' Engraving
by R. Earlom, . . . 136
' Times of the Day.' Engraved
by R. Houston, . . . 135
Tin as a backing for framed
prints, . 38
Tompson, Richard, engraver, . 106
Tonson, Jacob, . . .117
Townley, Charles, engrarer, . 146
Trial proofs 19
Turner, Charles A. TL.,rngraver, 1 67
J. M. \V., fainter, . -179
Madam. Engraving by
I. Beckett, . . . -93
Plate, . . .94
PAGE
Tweeddale, Earl of. Engraving
by Sir G. Kneller, . 41, 103
Tyburn, Ryland the engraver
hanged at, . .126
Typography, . . 50
VAILLANT, \Vallerant, engraver, 70
Valck, Gerrard, engrarer, . 78
| Vandervaart, J., engraver, . 96
] Vandyck, Sir Anthony, fainter, 78
Varnished mezzotints, . . 28
Vellum, mezzotints printed on, 28
Velvet useful for lining frames, 38
Vcnizer, George, engraver, . 27
j Verkolje, John, engraver, . 105
! Victoria, Queen, Plate, . .194
I Views of the Ports of England.
Engraved by T. G. Lupton, 185
Visscher, Cornelius, engraver, . 75
Vogel, Bcrnhard, engraver, . 49
Vostre, Simon, publisher, . 2
WALKEK, James, engraver, . 155
Walpole, Sir Robert, . .27
I Ward, James, fainter, . .191
j William, engraver, . . 187
Watson, James, engraver, . 148
Thomas, engraver, . .149
' Wellington, Duke of. En-
graving on steel, by T. G.
Lupton, . . . .186
|Welsteed, Rev. William. En-
graving by J. S. Copley, . i i
West, Benjamin, fainter, . 138
White, George, engraver, . 114
William, Prince of Orange.
Engraving by L. von Siegen, 58
Pfate 58
Williams, R., engraver, . . 94
Wissing, W., fainter, . . 96
Wolff, Mrs., Plate, . .196
Wood engraving, . . 2, 176
Woolrich, Philip. Engraving
by F. Place, ... 84
Plate, . .84
2O7
MEZZOTINTS
PAGE
. l8
15
119
Wren, Sir Christopher, en-
graver, . . 46, 49, 7 1
Working proofs,
Worn plates, .
'Worthies of Britain.'
gravings by F. Kyte,
En-
Wycherley, W. Engraving by
J. Smith, .
fynne, W. Williams
with Lamb' ), Plate,
J. Smith 100
Wynne,_ W. Williams ('Boy
1 60
PAGE
XYLONITE for protecting prints, 36
YORK, Mary Beatrice, Duchess
of. Engraving by A. Bloote-
Hng, 76
Young, John, engraver,
1 68
ZOFFANY, Johann./ajVz/w, . 138
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press
BINDING SECT. MAY 2 1 1981
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
Davenport, Cyril
Mezzotints
