Pre-Raphaelites

To coincide with the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition (Tate Britain), a short listing of related prints:

A portrait of one of the movement's leading lights, John Everett Millais:

 [Sir John Everett Millais].
J.E. Millais RA. Waltner RE [scratched letters etched in plate]. 'Waltner' [pencil signature below image to right].
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1881 by Knoedler & Co in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. Published London January 1st. 1881 by The British & Foreign Artists' Association.
Etching, signed artist's proof limited to 200 copies. 230 x 320mm. Light foxing and creasing, in margin only. [Ref: 4245]   £280.00  


'In 1839 John Everett Millais was a student at the Royal Academy Schools, then located in the same building as the National Gallery, which was designed by William Wilkins and opened in 1838'. This print shows Trafalgar Square soon after the Gallery was opened, giving an idea of the milieu in which Millais was educated:

Place Trafalgar Londres. Trafalgar Square london.
Dessine et lith. par Jules Arnout. Imp. Lemercier, a Paris.
Paris, Bulla Freres et Jouy, Editeurs. London, E. Gambart & Co. 25 Berners St. Oxf. St [n.d., c.1840].
Coloured lithograph, sheet 340 x 455mm. Slightly trimmed.
[Ref: 8749]   £290.00  



Thomas Carlyle, 'a social commentator much admired by the Pre-Raphaelites':

 Thomas Carlyle Esqr. Author of The French Revolution 3 Vols &c.&c.
A D'Orsay fecit May 1839 [signed in plate.]
London, Published June 18 1839, by J.Mitchell, Royal Library, 33, Old Bond St.
Lithograph with colour added by hand, india paper, india 195 x 165mm. 7¾ x 6½".
O'Donoghue p.508, 2.
[Ref: 21889]   £70.00   (£84.00 incl.VAT)


Another of their leading intellectual influences, John Ruskin, here with physician Henry Wentworth Acland:


 Professor Ruskin and Sir Henry Wentworth Acland Bart. From a Photograph taken by Miss Acland, at Brantwood, August 1st 1893.
Copyright. Swan Electric Engraving Co.
Published by George Allen, 156, Charing Cross Road, London [c.1893].
Photogravure, 195 x 140mm. 7¾ x 5½".
NPG x13297. DNB.
[Ref: 21590]   £65.00   (£78.00 incl.VAT)


Exhibited at the Tate are engravings by Carlo Lasinio from Italian frescoes, which have been cited as a key influence on early Pre-Raphaelite works:
Adorazione de Re Magi. Tavola in Legno di Baldasar Peruzzi alta B.a 4.?. larga B.a 4. Scarse. XXXVI.
Carlo Bozzolini dis. Carlo Lasinio fece all'acqua forte Matteo Carboni termino a bulino.
[published by N. Pagni & G. Bardi, c.1791-5]
Etching and engraving, with large margins. Plate 398 x 280mm. 15¾ x 11". Nicks and tears to margins; creasing; soiling.
[Ref: 27309]   £120.00   (£144.00 incl.VAT) see also refs. 27296 & 27306


One of the iconic figures of English Literature is the poet Chatterton, depicted memorably by Henry Wallis. 'Henry Wallis's painting of the young poet Thomas Chatterton on his deathbed has become an icon not only of doomed literary genius but also of Pre-Raphaelite painting'. But between Chatterton's death and Wallis's painting there were also representations of the young writer/forger, including this one:

To the Right Worshipful John Kerle Haberfield, Esqre. Third time Mayor of Bristol, This Engraving of Chatterton Composing the Rowleian M.S.S. in the lumber room of his Mother's house, Colston's Parade,_the Church of St. Mary, Redcliffe, which contains the celebrated Monument Room, being seen through the window, Is respectfully dedicated, by his obliged Servant The Publisher.
R. Jeffreys Lewis. E. Mc.Innes.
Bristol: Published 1st. Septr. 1846, by C. Mitchell, 37, College Street.
Mezzotint. Plate 444 x 503mm. 17½ x 19¾". Trimmed with some tears, particular tear into left-hand side of image. Repaired title area with text scuffed and rubbed.
[Ref: 19469]   £260.00    

Exhibited at the Tate is William Holman Hunt's imposing The Shadow of Death, of which a large print was published by Agnew's: 
'Following the strategy used for the Temple picture [The Coat of Many Colours], Hunt promoted his painting through a commercial gallery. It was sold in 1873 to Agnew's, together with the oil sketch and copyright for the engraving, for the enormous sum of £10,500, which was paid in instalments. The publicity created by the first exhibition of the work at the company's London gallery that year created a vast market for the engraving, which came out in a vast edition of 4,000 in 1878. The profits from print sales were so big as to encourage Agnew's to present the painting to Manchester Art Gallery in 1883, by which time it had been exhibited in London and the English provinces as well as New York and Boston, and celebrated worldwide as 'the greatest Christ that Protestant art has attained to.'

 [The Shadow of Death.]
[William Holman Hunt/painter. Frederick Stacpoole /Engraver.]
In progress for the Publishers, Messrs. Thos, Agnew & Sons, 5 Waterloo Place, London. [n.d., c.1877.]
Mixed method engraving, predominately mezzotint, on indian paper. 655 x 845mm. No Printseller's Association Blind Stamp which appears on later signed proofs and later states. Slightly soiled in margins with minor tears outside the plate on the right margin.
[Ref: 7053]   £950.00    

To finish, a photograph of Millais with friends:
[The Rt. Hon. J. Bryan MP, J.E. Millais RA, Sir H. James MP.]
Photographed by Rupert Polter Dalguise N.B. Sep 30 - 1875 [annotated in ink on verso].
Sepia photograph. 199 x 148mm. Foxing to card on which photograph mounted.
Three sitters pose in a garden with an impressive stone ornament behind. The figure in the centre is Sir John Everett Millais [1829 – 1896], painter and a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
[Ref: 4699]   £260.00    
 

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