Alexander Lord Loughborough
Alexander Lord Loughborough c1800 by Florentine Engraver Francesco Bartolozzi (1727 – 1815); as well as a painter, a founding member of the Royal Academy and known for popularizing the crayon method of engraving.
This is an engraving of Alexander Wedderburn 1st Earl of Rosslyn, PC, KC (1733 – 1805); a Scottish lawyer and politician who served in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1780, and who was raised to the peerage as Baron Loughborough; as well as serving as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1793 to 1801.
The engraving shows Lord Loughborough seated in a chair that is off to side of a large column that is covered by a large drape, that also partially overlaps the chair.
He is wearing a large wig that flows down to his chest, an embroidered floral white shirt, with ruffle sleeves that protrude from an elaborate overcoat that he is wearing with very fancy sleeves.
He has is left arm resting on the chairs left armrest, while his right hand holds upright an ornamental ledger that is resting on his right thigh that has to long tassels hanging from the sides.
To his right is a cloth covered table that seems to have a crown resting on it.
This is a remastered digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available as a canvas print online.
Info Below Derived From Wikipedia.org
Bartolozzi was born in Florence, and as was the custom of the time, it was thought that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a gold and silver smith.
This though would change since the young Bartolozzi showed a great deal of skill and taste in designing; as a result he was thus placed under the supervision of two Florentine artists, including Italian Painter Ignazio Hugford (1703 – 1778) and Italian Rococo Style Painter Giovanni Domenico Ferretti (1692 – 1768) who instructed him in painting.
After three years of art training, he went to Venice to study engraving; and spent six years working for German Engraver and Draughtsman Joseph Wagner (1706 – 1780), an engraver and printseller, before setting up his own workshop.
The first engraving Bartolozzi produced in Venice were plates in the style of Italian Baroque Period Painter Marco Ricci (1676 – 1730) and Giacomo Francesco Zuccarelli (1702 – 1788) a Late Baroque or Rococo Period Landscape Painter.
Then in 1762 Bartolozzi moved to Rome for a short period of time, where he completed a set of engravings representing frescoes at Grottaferrata by Italian Baroque Painter Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri 1581 – 1641) depicting the life of St Nilus.
That set of engravings and his etchings of old master’s works, began to draw public attention throughout Europe; and in 1763 he met Richard Dalton (1715 – 1791), draughtsman, engraver and the English Royal Librarian who was traveling in Italy looking for acquisitions for King George III art collection.
Dalton offered him an appointment as Engraver to the King; which Bartolozzi accepted and left for London in 1764; where he lived for 42 years.
During his time in London he produced a large number of engravings, which included Clytie after Italian Painter Annibale Carracci (1560 – 1609), and of the Virgin and Child, after Italian Baroque Painter Carlo Dolci (1616/7 – 1686).
A large proportion of them are from the works of Italian Painter Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727 – 1785) and British Painter Angelica Kauffman (1741 – 1807). Bartolozzi also contributed a number of plates to Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery.