G.B. Cipriani Delin.t F. Bartolozzi Sculp.t
Pub.d 2.d May 1783 by Mrs. Bryer N.13 Poland Street.
Stipple, platemark 260 x 205mm (10¼ x 8"). Thread margins;
Etching by Francesco Bartolozzi (1725-1815), Florentine engraver who in 1768 was elected as a founding member of the Royal Academy in London (the RA did not admit engravers at this time but made an exception in his case). He was already hailed as the best engraver in Italy when he met George III's librarian Richard Dalton in 1763. Dalton invited Bartolozzi to London with a promise of an appointment as engraver to the king. In England he became the most celebrated exponent of the 'stipple' technique whereby he produced prints using dots rather than lines. In 1801 Bartolozzi was invited to Lisbon to reform the royal printing press, and he spent his final years in Portugal. This impression from the collection of Dr. Augusto Calabi of Milan, art historian who co-authored (with A.B. de Vesme) the authoritative catalogue raisonné of Bartolozzi's work.
Calabi & de Vesme 698 ii/iv.
[Ref: 43135]  £160.00