{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O82626"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O82626/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O82626","accessionNumber":"E.120-1998","objectType":"Mezzotint","titles":[{"title":"Adonis and a Sleeping Goddess","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":"Mezzotint","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Smith, John","id":"A8868"},"association":{"text":"mezzotinter","id":"AAT25176"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Poussin, Nicholas","id":"A7232"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":"Possibly after"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"printing ink","id":"AAT187371"}],"techniques":[{"text":"mezzotint","id":"AAT53233"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Mezzotint","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Images Online","id":"THES48937"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLD","id":"THES49658"},"free":"","case":"EM","shelf":"24","box":"B"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"after 1699","earliest":"1700-01-01","latest":null},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"27.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Size of plate","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"22.0","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Size of plate","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"I.Smith fc. Poussin Pinxit. Sold by I. Smith at the Lyon & Crown in Russell Street Covent Garden.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Textual information","note":"Textual information"},{"content":"Ten lines of verse beginning-\r\n\"The silly Poets, they say No,\r\nThe cunning Painter says,'twas so;\"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Textual information","note":"Textual information"}],"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":"John Smith (1652-1743) after ?Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) \r\nAdonis and a Sleeping Godess\r\nMezzotint","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"G.K. Nagler \"Neues allgemeines Kunstler-Lexicon\", Munch 1835-52 no 368"},{"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":"J. E. Wessely, \"John Smith: Verzeichniss seiner Schabkunstblätter\", Hamburg 1887"}],"production":"The Witt Library at the Courtauld Institute records three painted versions of this subject. An octagonal shaped one at Chatsworth, one in a landscape format in reverse of the print sold at Hotel Drouot, Paris June 1884 sale of the Lord Dunmore Collection and a third described as Circle of Vouet, sold at a Christie's sale, Villa D'este, (Lago di Como) 31 March- 1 June 1971.\r\n\r\nAnother impression is in the Smith Volume in the National Portrait Gallery where it is called Cupid and Psyche but Adonis is mentioned by name in the verses under the image.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Adonis","id":"N159"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"eroticism","id":"AAT249821"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"The poem under the print reads\r\n\r\nThe silly poets, they say No,\r\nThe cunning painter says, 'twas so;\r\nThe poets swear the painter lies,\r\nThe painter cries, believe your eyes.\r\nWell! I believe the painter still;\r\nFor who can think say what you will,\r\nThat when Adonis lay so near,\r\nA goddess thighs, he could forbear.\r\nSo having found more pleasing game\r\nLet Cupid hunt, he'll ply the dame.\r\n\r\nThere are at least two versions of this painting in existence including an octagonal canvas at Chatsworth, but the suggestive poem is an additional feature only present in the print. Some other prints published by Smith have lecherous captions and some even verge on the pornographic.","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["E.120-1998"],"accessionNumberNum":"120","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1998,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2003-07-23","availableToBook":false}}