James McArdell
James McArdell is represented here by two mezzotints after Rubens, both titled Rubens with his Wife and Child and both printed from plates dated 1740. The collection preserves early impressions of the pair, one a first state proof before letters and the other a second state, which makes the small group useful for anyone following how the plates were finished and lettered. These reproductive engravings belong to the eighteenth-century vogue for mezzotint, a tonal technique well suited to translating the painterly surfaces of old-master compositions into black and white.
2 works in the collection · All public domain (CC0)
