A Fish Market

Set of 4 EARLOM, RICHARD (1742-1822), English mezzotint engraver, born and died in London. His natural faculty for art appears to have been first called into exercise by admiration for the lord mayors state coach, just decorated by Cipriani. He tried to copy the paintings, and was sent to study under Cipriani. He displayed great skill as a draughtsman, and at the same time acquired without assistance the art of engraving in mezzotint. Beautifully rendered mezzotints after the Dutch master of still life Franz Snyders, from John Boydell’s ‘Houghton Gallery’ series. These stunning prints, reflects Earlom’s skill as an engraver as well as Snyder’s genius as a painter. His meticulous yet delicate technique managed to accomplish new levels of technical superiority not thought possible in mezzotint, and his unique style of creating intricate details and textures allowed him to produce some truly outstanding images. Earlom began a close working relationship with John Boydell in 1774, and he contributed hundreds of engravings to the publisher’s Shakespeare Gallery and Liber Veritas series after the drawings of Claude Lorrain. The paintings on which these fine plates are based were once part of Sir Robert Walpole’s celebrated collection of Old Masters at his Gallery at Houghton. In 1779, Walpole’s grandson sold the majority of the gallery’s contents to Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. In an effort to preserve a national record of this important collection, the eminent publisher and print seller John Boydell commissioned several prominent engravers including Earlom to produce a series of mezzotints of Houghton’s key works. Known as the Collection of Prints Engraved after the most Capital Paintings in England, publication of engravings after artists like Van Dyck, Teniers and Rubens were begun in 1781 and eventually completed in 1788. Its finely detailed one hundred and twenty-eight plates were highly regarded, and the project was instrumental in solidifying Boydell’s reputation as a preeminent print publisher. One of the most influential figures in the history of English printmaking, John Boydell was instrumental in re-establishing England’s flagging reputation as a creative nucleus of printmaking. He was not only an accomplished engraver and an industrious publisher, but as a print seller, he came to dominate the English print trade. He is probably best known as the originator of The Shakespeare Gallery, which made him one of the most successful print-sellers of his time. Clayton, The English Print 1688-1802, p. 115-116, 209 &amp 230.