30. Thomas Lupton (1791-1873)
after Nicolaes Maes (1632-1693)
The Surprise

(click on image to print)
Lipton, The Surprise

The Surprise

Mezzotint, 1824, 243 x 190 mm. Fine, black impression on wove paper with good but uneven margins, as published in Gems of Art. Mezzotint, from its beginnings, was the ideal technique for translating oil paintings into graphic art. At its height in the eighteenth century, thousands of such prints were made, some of them, though now out of favor, among the greatest reproductive prints ever produced. Lupton was a master of mezzotint whose misfortune it was to have been born a century too late to be considered among the great names of the technique. Still, the work is wonderful.