Il Reposo

Details

John Hamilton Mortimer, A.R.A. (1741-1779)
Il Reposo
black ink
11 x 8¼ in. (28 x 21 cm.)

Provenance

Leonard Baskin, Northampton, Massachusetts.
with Ronald l. Winokur, Los Angeles, where purchased for the present collection.

Literature

J. Sutherland, 'John Hamilton Mortimer His Life and Works', The Walpole Society, Leeds, vol. 52, 1988, p. 187, no. 140. 5a, pl. 249.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The present drawing was executed circa 1778 and was part of a set of fifteen etchings dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds including a frontispiece, five allegorical sketches of which this is one, three prints of Banditti and four of monsters. It was published in December 1778 shortly after Mortimer's election as an Associate of the Royal Academy. J. Sutherland, op.cit., notes that it was previously signed 'J. Mortimer Delt' (on the mount).

This drawing appears to be the one on which the etching in reverse of Il Reposo is based, op.cit., no. 140.5. A related drawing held in the Victoria and Albert Museum is a copy of the etching, possibly by the hand of Mortimer himself.

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