Description:
Framed mezzotint of "Mrs. Priscilla Cooper", engraved by Peter Pelham (1697-1751), an English mezzotint engraver, and based on a painting by Michael Dahl. Mrs. Cooper was the wife of Edwardus Cooper, who was the leading printseller in London from the time of James II until his death ca. 1725; he issued many important prints by Smith, Williams, Faithhorne, Lens, Pelham, Simon, etc. At the time of Cooper's death, John Bowles and other publishers purchased some of his plates and issued inferior impressions. Pelham also produced mezzotint portraits of Edwardus Cooper (see HD 55.103D), her son John, and daughter Elizabeth.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.
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