Description:
Mezzotint of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) S.T.D. Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick's in Dublin, engraved by Peter Pelham (1697-1751), an English mezzotint engraver, and printed for John Bowles and Son at the Black House in Cornhill. Dean Swift was also a well known writer, and the verse at the base of the print gives more details. This print may be a later 18th century restrike from a surviving Pelham plate. Peter Pelham emigrated from England to Boston in 1727, where he continued his profession as an engraver and painter; and in 1737, established a school for "Education of Children in Reading, Writing, Needlework, Dancing, and the Art of Painting on Glass." In 1748, Pelham married his third wife, Mary Copley, the widowed mother of John Singleton Copley (1738-1815), when John was 10 yrs. The 3 1/2 yrs. before Pelham's death in 1751 represented an early, significant influence on John Copley with instructions in artistic techniques and theory, business, European traditions and designs, and manners. It has also been suggested that having John Copley as an apprentice helper enabled Pelham to produce his last seven portraits, done between 1750-1751.
Tags:
portraits; clergy Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+55.103C |
