Code: 11067
Dimensions:
“Henry Hope Esqr of Amsterdam”
(Mezzotint Portrait of Henry Hope (1735–1811))
Engraved by Charles Howard Hodges (1764–1837)
after Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)
Published by John & Joshiah Boydell
London, 1788
Measures:-
268 mm x 173 mm
With the name of the sitter beneath "Henry Hope Esqr of Amsterdam" and "Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds" // "Engraved by Hodges". Trimmed to just outside the platemark on three sides and with the loss of the Boydell publication line from 1788 below.
A portrait in mezzotint after a now lost painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The sitter Henry Hope (1735–1811) was an exceptionally wealthy British-American/Dutch merchant banker. A financial genius, he became head of the family banking business 'Hope & Co' and in 1786 Adam Smith dedicated the fourth edition of his book 'The Wealth of Nations' to him.
The wealth he generated through the Hope & Co banking business allowed his extended family to pursue their interests as connoisseurs, collectors and patrons of the arts. His own taste was greatly influential on that of his young second cousin, the collector and designer Thomas Hope (1769–1831).
See Yale [B1977.14.10009]; Fine Art Museum of San Francisco [1963.30.12940]; National Portrait Gallery [NPG D35972] etc
