Artist's Self-portraits
Renaissance artist Sofonisba Anguissola, from a 1561 self-portrait (still at Althorp, as mentioned on the print):
Sofonisba Angosciola. From an original Painting by herself in the Gallery at Althorp.
Engraved by Hawksworth.
London, Pubd. by Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, Paternoster Row, Novr. 20, 1827.
Engraving from an unidentified publication, sheet 185 x 120mm. 7¼ x 4¾". Trimmed to plate.
Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, and one of few female artists mentioned in Vasari's "Lives of Artists."
[Ref: 19562] £80.00 (£96.00 incl.VAT)
This early portrait of Rubens was probably engraved from a now-lost original of the artist with his son, executed in the 1620s, of which a copy is now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg:
Excellentissimus Dns D. Petrus Paulus Rubenius pictorum Apelles, decus huius saeculi, Orbis miraculum. Aulam Hispanicam, Gallican, Anglicam, Belgicam penicillo suo illus travit. Quem gladio donavit Philippus Quartus Hispaniarum et Statuit sibi a Secretis in sanctiore suo Consilio Bruxellensi. ac iam ad Regem Angliae Legatum extraordinarium misit.
Fecit D.V. Studiosissimus Guilelmus-Panneels. 1630.
Etching. 152 x 114mm. 6 x 4½". Trimmed, creasing, cut..
Portrait of Peter Paul Rubens, aged 50, bust to right, wearing wide-brimmed hat and slashed doublet.
Ex Collection: R. Hobson of Hove.
[Ref: 25466] £50.00 (£60.00 incl.VAT)
The mezzotint of Rembrandt as an old man, is from a portrait in the Uffizi (hence the reference to the 'Medici Collection' and the engraving having been made by Charles Townley, 'Member of the Royal Academy of Painting in Florence):
Rembrandt Painted by Himself Drawn and Engraved by Charles Townley Member of the Royal Academy of Painting in Florence. From the Original Portrait in the Medici Collection. Born in the Year 1606. / Died in the Year 1674.
Published as the Act directs June 30, 1777, and to be had of C. Townley No, 7, New Bond Street [rubbed, so faint].
Mezzotint, with publication address partially erased before it was altered to Pascal's. Image 355 x 290mm, 14 x 11½". Lacking lower margin; the three others tatty and chipped, some senting and a few tiny inkspots on the face.
Chaloner Smith 23, undescribed state (between I and II); Charrington: 170 I of II.
[Ref: 22219] £220
The same gallery holds this self-portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, also engraved by Townley.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, ~ Painted by Himself.
Drawn and Engraved by Charles Townley Member of the Royal Academy of Painting in Florence, From the Original Portrait in the Medici Collection.
Published as the Act directs June 30th 1777, and to be had of C.Townley, No.7 New Bond Street.
Mezzotint. 420 x 280mm. Period ink mss. on scroll, "Disegno del {?] Michel Angolo Bon[...].
Self portrait in cap and gown.
Hamilton: p.57, state i of ii. CS: 24. Ex: Pritchards Collection.
[Ref: 7334] £420.00
Peter Lely, portrait painter to Charles II, looking typically authoritative:
Petrus Lelly Eques Pictor Caroli 2di Magnae Brittaniae Regis.
Petrus Lellii Eques pinxit. I. Becket fecit.
Cum Privilegio Regis. Sold by Alex: Browne at ye blew balcony in little Queen Street. [n.d. c.1680].
Mezzotint, first state, 340 x 250mm. 13½ x 9¾". A strong impression with wide margins.
Alexander Browne (fl.1659 - 1706) published around 100 mezzotints, mainly after Sir Anthony van Dyck and Sir Peter Lely, and was granted in 1684 a privilege or Royal License for ‘the sole printing and publishing’ of his plates for fourteen years.
Chaloner Smith: 63, Later impression.
[Ref: 18319] £280
Louis Michel Vanloo, in a self-portrait working on a painting of his father, portrays himself in a nightgown that presents him as 'artistic yet showy' (Lesley Ellis Miller, A portrait of the 'Raphael of Silk Design). This portrait is at Versailles:
Louis Michel Vanloo, Ecuier, Chevalier de l'Ordre du Roi, Premier Peintre du Rois d'Espagne, ancien Recteur de l'Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Peint par lui meme, en 1762. travaillant au portrait de feu son Pere Jean Baptist Vanloo, Peintre du Rois, Professeur en la meme Academie.
Gravé, en 1779 par Simon Charles Miger Graveur du Roi.
Line engraving, platemark 410 x 280mm (16¼ x 11"). Collector's stamp of George Usslaub on reverse. Large margins.
Lugt: 1221
[Ref: 23110] £260
A dramatic Portrait in Character of the short-lived proto-Romantic John Hamilton Mortimer (the painting at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne):
[John Hamilton Mortimer.]
H. Mortimer. W.H. Watt.
London, Published Dec.r 1.1833, by John Major. 50, Fleet Street.
Engraving. India paper proof. Plate 260 x 164mm. 10¼ x 6½".
Proof of the portrait used as frontispiece to Allan Cunningham's essay 'Mortimer, Portrait in Character' from his 'Cabinet Gallery of Pictures'.
Sunderland: 107d
[Ref: 18957] £45.00 (£54.00 incl.VAT)
Elisabeth Sophie Chéron, a poet as well as painter, in the act of composition:
Elisabeth Sophia Cheron. Uxor Jacobi le Hay, Picturae, Poeseos, Musicae, ceterarumque liberalium artium laude, tum omni actione vitae clarissima. Obiit III. Non. Septemb: Anno. M.DCCXI. Vixit annos ad 63.
[F. Chereau sculpsit.]
[n.d. c.1750.]
Engraving. Plate178 x 107mm. 7 x 4¼".
A self-portrait of Élisabeth Sophie Chéron (1648-1711), Plate 1 from "Pierres Antiques Gravées Tirées des Principaux Cabinets de la France".
[Ref: 25065] £130.00 (£156.00 incl.VAT)
Benjamin West, second President of the Royal Academy, painted his self-portrait seated upon the President's throne, with Somerset House (then home of the RA) in the background. That portrait is in the collection of the RA and was cropped to make this engraving:
Benjamin West Esq.r President of the Royal Academy and Historical Painter to his Majesty.
Benj.m West Esq.r P.R.A. Pinx.t T. Holloway sculp.t
Published as the Act directs, by Tho.s Holloway, & the other Proprietors, April 25. 1798.
Engraving and etching. Plate 299 x 241mm. 11¾ x 9½". Slight printers crease.
The print was published as an illustration to the first English edition of Johann Caspar Lavater's 'Physiognomische Fragmente', Vol III, pl. 171, between pp.150-51.
Ex Collection: R. Hobson of Hove.
[Ref: 25512] £220
And finally, G.F. Watts painted his self-portrait (with a nod towards Rubens, perhaps?) in 1864, now in the Tate. He supervised the subsequent engraving by C.W. Campbell, correcting and initialling this proof of the finished print:
[George Frederick Watts]
[Charles William Campbell after George Frederrick Watts]
[n.d., c.1885]
Unique proof mezzotint on chine collé touched by Watts with his initials bottom right, platemark 500 x 365mm (19½ x 14¼"). Paper missing top right, resulting in creasing to chine collé; foxing in margins.
Extremely rare touched proof of Charles William Campbell's engraving from the 1664 half-length self-portrait by G eorge Frederick Watts (London, Tate Gallery). Watts has made correction to the print himself, and initialled the print in the lower right.
For another impression see ref. 23410
[Ref: 23409] £2,500
Engraved by Hawksworth.
London, Pubd. by Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, Paternoster Row, Novr. 20, 1827.
Engraving from an unidentified publication, sheet 185 x 120mm. 7¼ x 4¾". Trimmed to plate.
Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1532-1625) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance, and one of few female artists mentioned in Vasari's "Lives of Artists."
[Ref: 19562] £80.00 (£96.00 incl.VAT)
This early portrait of Rubens was probably engraved from a now-lost original of the artist with his son, executed in the 1620s, of which a copy is now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg:
Fecit D.V. Studiosissimus Guilelmus-Panneels. 1630.
Etching. 152 x 114mm. 6 x 4½". Trimmed, creasing, cut..
Portrait of Peter Paul Rubens, aged 50, bust to right, wearing wide-brimmed hat and slashed doublet.
Ex Collection: R. Hobson of Hove.
[Ref: 25466] £50.00 (£60.00 incl.VAT)
The mezzotint of Rembrandt as an old man, is from a portrait in the Uffizi (hence the reference to the 'Medici Collection' and the engraving having been made by Charles Townley, 'Member of the Royal Academy of Painting in Florence):
Published as the Act directs June 30, 1777, and to be had of C. Townley No, 7, New Bond Street [rubbed, so faint].
Mezzotint, with publication address partially erased before it was altered to Pascal's. Image 355 x 290mm, 14 x 11½". Lacking lower margin; the three others tatty and chipped, some senting and a few tiny inkspots on the face.
Chaloner Smith 23, undescribed state (between I and II); Charrington: 170 I of II.
[Ref: 22219] £220
The same gallery holds this self-portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, also engraved by Townley.
Drawn and Engraved by Charles Townley Member of the Royal Academy of Painting in Florence, From the Original Portrait in the Medici Collection.
Published as the Act directs June 30th 1777, and to be had of C.Townley, No.7 New Bond Street.
Mezzotint. 420 x 280mm. Period ink mss. on scroll, "Disegno del {?] Michel Angolo Bon[...].
Self portrait in cap and gown.
Hamilton: p.57, state i of ii. CS: 24. Ex: Pritchards Collection.
[Ref: 7334] £420.00
Peter Lely, portrait painter to Charles II, looking typically authoritative:
Petrus Lellii Eques pinxit. I. Becket fecit.
Cum Privilegio Regis. Sold by Alex: Browne at ye blew balcony in little Queen Street. [n.d. c.1680].
Mezzotint, first state, 340 x 250mm. 13½ x 9¾". A strong impression with wide margins.
Alexander Browne (fl.1659 - 1706) published around 100 mezzotints, mainly after Sir Anthony van Dyck and Sir Peter Lely, and was granted in 1684 a privilege or Royal License for ‘the sole printing and publishing’ of his plates for fourteen years.
Chaloner Smith: 63, Later impression.
[Ref: 18319] £280
Louis Michel Vanloo, in a self-portrait working on a painting of his father, portrays himself in a nightgown that presents him as 'artistic yet showy' (Lesley Ellis Miller, A portrait of the 'Raphael of Silk Design). This portrait is at Versailles:
Gravé, en 1779 par Simon Charles Miger Graveur du Roi.
Line engraving, platemark 410 x 280mm (16¼ x 11"). Collector's stamp of George Usslaub on reverse. Large margins.
Lugt: 1221
[Ref: 23110] £260
A dramatic Portrait in Character of the short-lived proto-Romantic John Hamilton Mortimer (the painting at the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne):
H. Mortimer. W.H. Watt.
London, Published Dec.r 1.1833, by John Major. 50, Fleet Street.
Engraving. India paper proof. Plate 260 x 164mm. 10¼ x 6½".
Proof of the portrait used as frontispiece to Allan Cunningham's essay 'Mortimer, Portrait in Character' from his 'Cabinet Gallery of Pictures'.
Sunderland: 107d
[Ref: 18957] £45.00 (£54.00 incl.VAT)
Elisabeth Sophie Chéron, a poet as well as painter, in the act of composition:
[F. Chereau sculpsit.]
[n.d. c.1750.]
Engraving. Plate178 x 107mm. 7 x 4¼".
A self-portrait of Élisabeth Sophie Chéron (1648-1711), Plate 1 from "Pierres Antiques Gravées Tirées des Principaux Cabinets de la France".
[Ref: 25065] £130.00 (£156.00 incl.VAT)
Benjamin West, second President of the Royal Academy, painted his self-portrait seated upon the President's throne, with Somerset House (then home of the RA) in the background. That portrait is in the collection of the RA and was cropped to make this engraving:
Benj.m West Esq.r P.R.A. Pinx.t T. Holloway sculp.t
Published as the Act directs, by Tho.s Holloway, & the other Proprietors, April 25. 1798.
Engraving and etching. Plate 299 x 241mm. 11¾ x 9½". Slight printers crease.
The print was published as an illustration to the first English edition of Johann Caspar Lavater's 'Physiognomische Fragmente', Vol III, pl. 171, between pp.150-51.
Ex Collection: R. Hobson of Hove.
[Ref: 25512] £220
And finally, G.F. Watts painted his self-portrait (with a nod towards Rubens, perhaps?) in 1864, now in the Tate. He supervised the subsequent engraving by C.W. Campbell, correcting and initialling this proof of the finished print:
[Charles William Campbell after George Frederrick Watts]
[n.d., c.1885]
Unique proof mezzotint on chine collé touched by Watts with his initials bottom right, platemark 500 x 365mm (19½ x 14¼"). Paper missing top right, resulting in creasing to chine collé; foxing in margins.
Extremely rare touched proof of Charles William Campbell's engraving from the 1664 half-length self-portrait by G eorge Frederick Watts (London, Tate Gallery). Watts has made correction to the print himself, and initialled the print in the lower right.
For another impression see ref. 23410
[Ref: 23409] £2,500
