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Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
JOHN HAMILTON MORTIMER Self Portrait in Character.
Etching, circa 1775. 420x305 mm; 16 3/4x12 1/4 inches. Proof before letters, with the titled added in pencil in the blank lower margin. A superb impression.
According to the Royal Collection Trust, London, "This etching corresponds, in reverse, with a drawing in the Victoria and Albert Museum, itself a version of an oil by Mortimer in the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne (Victoria and Albert Museum, E.328–1961; for the painting see Sunderland 1986, number 107). Another etching after the same drawing, by Mortimer's collaborator Robert Blyth and published in 1782, has been claimed to be a later state of the present print, but is from a different plate: as well as many differences of detail, the tonalities capture none of the dramatic atmosphere and stark lighting. Mortimer did not make many prints, but in 1775–76 he produced a set of 12 heads of figures from Shakespeare that have very much the same character and technique seen here. It seems therefore that the present plate was etched by Mortimer himself and that Blyth made his own version for publication a few years later."
With—WENZEL HOLLAR. Pietro Aretino, etching, 1649. Pennington 1348 * GÉRARD EDELINCK. Portrait of Aegidius Sadeler, Engraver, etching and engraving, circa 1700. Proof, before letters and the completion of the composition. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Frederic Robert Halsey, New York (Lugt 1308, versos).
