Print Specifics:
- Type of print: Steel engraving - Original antique print
- Year of printing: not indicated in the print. Actual: 1852
- Original artist - Engraver: Bird - Greatbach
- Publisher: Printed by Geo. Virtue, London
- Condition: 1 (1. Excellent - 2. Very good - 3. Good - 4. Fair)
- Dimensions: 9.5 x 13 inches (24 x 33 cm), including blank margins (borders) around the image.
- Paper weight (thickness): 1-2 (1. Thick - 2. Heavier - 3. Medium heavy - 4. Slightly heavier - 5. Thin)
- Reverse side: Blank
- Notes: 1. Green
color around the print in the photo is a contrasting background on
which the print was photographed. 2. Print detail is sharper than the
photo of the print.
Original Narrative:
-
THE
name of the painter of this picture is but little known in our day,
though it is not very many years since he occupied no mean position
among the Royal Academicians. Bird, born in the year 1772, was a native
of Wolverhampton, and at Birmingham served a term of apprenticeship to
a tea-board maker, by whom he was employed to ornament these objects of
manufacture. He subsequently removed to Bristol, and opened a
drawing-school, occupying the hours not devoted to instruction in
sketching and painting, and, after some little time, was persuaded by
friends to send two or three pictures to the Bath Exhibition, which
were readily bought at prices beyond his original demand. His
reputation soon increased, and his works were coveted and acquired by
some of the most distinguished collectors.
-
The Marquis of
Stafford became the possessor of his " Chevy Chace " at the price of
three hundred guineas, and of his "Death of Eli," for five hundred
guineas, while the Council of the British Institution awarded him a sum
of three hundred guineas for the latter picture. The example we here
introduce of his composition belongs to that class in which he most
excelled; it is one that Wilkie himself might have imagined. We
have, indeed, heard that when the latter saw this picture, he remarked
how proud he should have felt had he painted it; certainly the Scottish
artist never produced a more characteristic group than that engaged in
the kitchen of the village ale-house, in disposing of the watch which
the landlord displays to the assembled company, each one of whom is a
natural study. The picture is painted with extraordinary depth
and finish, and might not unworthily be placed by the side of a Teniers
or an Ostade.
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