Modern Paintings And Pictures
Lot 275:
Description
This set of four color stipple engravings depicts street scenes from late 18th-century London. The series is based on Francis Wheatley’s “Cries of London” and utilizes the stipple engraving technique to achieve soft tonal gradations, supplemented with hand-coloring or color-printing. The four scenes included are: a vendor selling oranges to two women; a group of three women at a doorway with wicker baskets; a street scene featuring a traveling knife-grinder at his wheel; and a street ballad seller offering broadsides to a crowd that includes a woman with a child and a dog. Each plate shows a distinct indentation from the copper plate pressure during printing. In the lower right margin of each print, there is a handwritten signature in pencil that reads “F. Petitjean”. Printed text is present in the upper and lower margins of the plates, though it is partially obscured by the mats. Each engraving is presented in a black wooden frame with a gold-toned beaded inner edge and a cream-colored mat.
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