The Great Age of English Mezzotints - Hood Museum of Art

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later acquired by Catherine the Great(1729–1796) for the newly built Hermitagein Saint Petersburg. The HoughtonGallery prints were issued generally in setsof ten between 1774 and 1788—nearlyhalf of them executed as mezzotints.The leading printmaker among the fortyfiveinvolved in the vast enterprise wasRichard Earlom, who prepared twenty-sixplates, including the extraordinary pairA Fruit Piece and A Flower Piece (fig.11) after the Dutch painter Jan van Huysum(1682–1749). Earlom perfected themixed-media technique that combinedmezzotint and etching to render a richvariety of textures and hues. He used thesame method to reproduce the subtlevariations of tone in his reproduction oftwo hundred pen-and-wash drawings byClaude Lorrain (1600–1682), which thepainter had bound together and entitledthe Liber Veritatis, or “Book of Truth,” asa partial record of his pictures (fig. 12).Boydell’s advertisement for the first of thetwo volumes of prints emphasized Earlom’sability to replicate “the manner andfig. 13. Henry Birche (pseudonym for Richard Earlom)taste of the original drawings” (The Publicafter Thomas Gainsborough, Boys and Dogs, 1791, mezzotintand etching. Collection of Robert Loper.Advertiser, 12 April 1774, p. 1).Although no concrete evidence hasbeen found to indicate that Earlom wascontractually restricted from working for any other publishers from 1781 to 1793, he apparentlyprepared several plates for Benjamin Beale Evans (about 1765–1824) under the pseudonym ofHenry Birche in the 1790s. In the case of Boys and Dogs of 1791 (fig. 13), the printmaker capturedthe haunting atmosphere of bucolic tranquility and striking violence in Thomas Gainsborough’s(1727–1788) celebrated canvas. Earlom and Evans subsequently collaborated oneleven other mezzotints between 1793 and 1799, almost all of which reproduced English painters(Rubenstein, “Richard Earlom,” p. 21).The various annual exhibitions raised public awareness of contemporary artists in Englandand likewise increased demand for prints of more fashionable pictures instead of those by foreignersand old masters. Given the prevalence of portraits at many of these events, there was acorresponding interest in such subjects, especially those of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792),the most influential painter of his day and the first president of the Royal Academy. From themid-1750s onward, Reynolds recognized the power of the prints to promote his pictures. Asone critic noted in 1787, “Sir Joshua has been more indebted to [printmaking] than any otherartist past or present. The preservation of such designs as his is an act of service to fame” (British14
fig. 14. John Jones after Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mrs. Tollemache in the Character of Miranda, 1786,mezzotint. Collection of Robert Dance, Class of 1977.15
Page 1 and 2: “The Artful Disposition of Shades
Page 3 and 4: fig. 1. Jonathan Spilsbury after Ma
Page 5 and 6: Production, Distribution & Marketin
Page 7 and 8: fig. 5. John Smith after Sir Godfre
Page 9 and 10: fig. 8. Richard Earlom after Joseph
Page 11 and 12: fig. 10. John Raphael Smith, Miss M
Page 13: four people in front of the window
Page 17 and 18: fig. 15. John Dixon after George St
Page 19 and 20: CHECKLISTDimensions for prints are
Page 21 and 22: Thomas Frye, Irish active in Englan
Page 23 and 24: John Smith (printmaker and publishe

The Great Age of English Mezzotints - Hood Museum of Art

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