Eight Mezzotints from Liber Veritatis
London: 1776. Suite of eight framed Richard Earlom mezzotints from Liber Veritatis. The following numbered plates are included in this lot: 133,142, 143, 144, 148, 167, 171 and 185. Each is signed “R Earlom Fecit” in plate at the lower right; at the lower left is printed “Claude le Lorrain delin”; printed between these is the plate number, publication month and day followed by “1776 John Boydell Engraver in Cheapside”.
Condition: Fine, though these prints have not been examined out of their frames.
Dimensions
Plate impressions: w 10 1/8 in x h 8 in
frame: w 18 in x h 15.75 in.
1329791
Shelved Dupont Bookstore
Sold
NOTES
Richard Earlom (1743 –1822) was an English printmaker and lifelong Londoner. In 1765, he was commissioned by John Boydell to copy all 200 drawings of Claude Lorraine's record of his paintings as prints, which were published from 1774 to 1777, when a collected edition in two volumes was published as Liber Veritatis. Or, A Collection of Two Hundred Prints, After the Original Designs of Claude le Lorrain, in the Collection of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, Executed by Richard Earlom, in the Manner and Taste of the Drawings.... A further volume of 100 prints after other Lorraine's drawings from various British collections was added in 1819, also using "Liber Veritas" as its title. These were then in a rebound book at Devonshire House in London; they are now in the British Museum. The prints used etching for Lorraine's pen lines, and mezzotint for the ink washes, giving a good impression of the originals. All used brown ink on white paper, so disregarding the blue of half the original pages. The prints were a huge success, reprinted and the plates reworked to give increasingly detailed reproductions. They were recommended by drawing teachers as models for copying and influenced the technique of English watercolor artists such as Francis Towne.