{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O73439"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O73439/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LY8547/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019LY8547/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019LY8547","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O73439/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O73439","accessionNumber":"E.117-1998","objectType":"Mezzotint","titles":[{"title":"Head of a Black Man","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Mezzotint is a form of tonal engraving.  The engraver first creates a surface that will print solid black by roughening the surface of a copper plate with a serrated tool called a 'rocker'.  This process raises a fragile burr of displaced copper which will hold a lot of printing ink. The design is then created by smoothing this burr in varying degrees to print a range of velvety tones. For white highlights, the engraver polishes the burr completely away, making the plate perfectly smooth once more, so no ink will adhere after the surface has been wiped. Mezzotint is particularly suited to reproducing the tonal gradations of painting.\r\n\r\nJohn Smith was the most important mezzotinter in late Stuart England as well as being a print publisher. A generation before the now more famous William Hogarth, he was the first native born British printmaker to earn an international reputation. Active from 1683 to 1729 he made his name and his fortune as the creator of portrait mezzotints but in the same period he also made or published 'subject' mezzotints, a blanket term for everything which is not a portrait. \r\n\r\nSmith was taught mezzotinting by Isaac Beckett who learnt the technique from John Lloyd, who in turn learnt it from the Dutch printmaker Abraham Blooteling (1640-1690) who was resident in London from 1673-1680. Smith began his career around 1683 mezzotinting portraits for other publishers but by 1687 was beginning to act as his own publisher and by the early 1690s had taken over from Isaac Beckett (died 1688) as the mezzotinter who had an agreement with Kneller to reproduce his portraits. This professional partnership between an artist and a printmaker is similar to one or two other important examples of the same phenomenon (Raphael and Marcantonio Raimondi, John Constable and David Lucas) in being a crucial vehicle for the dissemination of a painter's work at the same time as it pushed a talented printmaker to new heights of achievement.","physicalDescription":"Portrait of the head and shoulders of a man facing to the viewer's right.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Vaillant, Wallerant","id":"A7418"},"association":{"text":"print-maker","id":"AAT25164"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Smith, John","id":"A8868"},"association":{"text":"publisher","id":"x32600"},"note":"possibly"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"}],"techniques":[{"text":"mezzotint","id":"AAT53233"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Mezzotint","categories":[{"text":"Black History","id":"THES48989"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Images Online","id":"THES48937"},{"text":"Printmaking techniques","id":"THES252987"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2019LY8547"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"EDUC","shelf":"9","box":"D"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Holland","id":"x29020"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"published","id":"x30682"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"mid 17th century","earliest":"1625-01-01","latest":"1675-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"14.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"cut to","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"14.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"cut to","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Museum numbers E.104-133-1998 were lot 500 at the sale at Sotheby's London on 13 November 1997 of an Eighteenth Century Collection of British Prints. This collection was put together in Germany, mostly in the period 1770-1800. The lot consisted chiefly of mezzotints by John Smith, or by other mezzotinters but subsequently republished by John Smith.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Mezzotint. Wallerant Vaillant published by John Smith. Head of a Black Man, made in Holland mid-17th century and published in London between 1683-1729.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"J. E. Wessely, \"John Smith: Verzeichniss seiner Schabkunstblätter\", Hamburg 1887, no 126."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"R. Godfrey \" Sir Christopher Wren and the Head of a Moor\" in Print Quarterly, vol VIII, no 3, September 1991 p.284 (illus)"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Thomas, Ben 'The Paradox of Mezzotint'; University of Kent; 2008"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"'Early English Mezzotints: John Smith as Printmaker and Publisher', Elizabeth Miller; Prints, Drawings and Paintings Temporary Display; 8th April-8th November 1998"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish etching, engravings and woodcuts ca.1450-1700, vol XXXI, Amsterdam, 1987, no 119"}],"production":"The plate reworked removing the monogram. The presence of this print with its monogram removed amongst a collection of mezzotints by or published by John Smith suggests that the copperplate for this print may have come into Smith's possession.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.117-1998"],"accessionNumberNum":"117","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1998,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-24","recordCreationDate":"2003-01-24","availableToBook":false}}