Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci

 

James David Smillie

  1833 - 1909 (biography)

1879  

etching 

5 x 3" -3/8" platemark; image 2-9/16 x 2-3/16" 

signed in the lower left sheet corner 

proof, from an unstated edition 

annotation in pencil, lower left sheet corner: "Leonardo da Vinci / by J.D.S. after etching by Leo. Flameng / etched for Roberts & Co. Boston" 

Witthoft 10 

cream laid tissue 

published 

Roberts & Co., Boston 

BC068 

$400.00 

This miniature portrait of Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by the publishers J.H. Roberts & Co. in Boston, MA. It was done after the engraving by French printmaker Leopold Flameng, which had been published two years prior in Philip Gilbert Hamerton's The Intellectual Life (New York, London. MacMillan & Co., 1887). This impression is on a fine ivory tissue wove and notes the purpose of the work for publication in the lower left corner of the sheet. Other proofs can be found on sturdier wove papers.

The author Philip Gilbert Hamerton was himself a printmaker and a strong advocate for contemporary printmaking as an artistic - rather than commerical - endeavor. He was a leader in the Etching Revival in the UK.