John Raphael Smith (1751–1812), “Contemplating the Picture”, c. 1785

Code: 10880

Dimensions:

John Raphael Smith (1751–1812)
“Contemplating the Picture”
Stipple engraving printed in colours  
Unrecorded proof state before final lettering 
Published by the artist 
London, 1785 
Framed

Measures:
37 cm x 30 cm (Framed)

A depiction, within an oval format, of a fashionably dressed woman with a large bow in her hair, slouched in an armchair at a writing desk looking wistfully at a miniature portrait painting held in her right hand, attached to a long ribbon. Lettered beneath the image only with the artist's details "J.R. Smith Delint". Well framed in a good 19th Century gilt-gesso frame.

The image suggests various narratives to the viewer as we observe the young lady, wrapped-up in her own contemplative thoughts as she observes the image of the person in the miniature.

See National Trust Collection, Trerice, Cornwall [NT 336716] for a version of the engraving also with the artist's publication line but with the further title beneath. Copies in final published state are dated "Novr 14th 1785".

Literature:- 
Not recorded in this state. For a full description with two previously recorded states see Item 90, p.97 of Julia Frankau "An Eighteenth Century Artist & Engraver: John Raphael Smith His Life and Works", London, Macmillan & Co., 1902