1781
Thomas Watson (English, 1743-1781) after Joseph Wright of Derby (English, 1734-1797)
United Kingdom
Thomas Watson was one of the most gifted mezzotint engravers of his generation. In this intimate and slightly humorous example after a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, he achieved a convincing sense of interior candlelight illumination through his soft touch. The portraits in this image appear to depict the same girls found in Wright’s similarly lit composition An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, an oil painting now in the National Gallery in London.
Mezzotint, with traces of engraving, in dark brown on ivory laid paper