Mezzotint Portrait of King Charles I (1600-1649)

King Charles I (1600-1649)
Engraved and published by John Smith, after Sir Anthony Van Dyck
Mezzotint
8 in. x 5 3/4 in. (204 mm x 147 mm) plate size (Trimmed to the plate)
?1718 (1636)
Lettered Carolus I.mus D.G. Ang. Sco. Fra. et Hib. Rex.
Below left A.Van Dyke Eques Pinx. I. Smith fec.
Below right Sold by I. Smith at ye Lyon & Crown in Russell Street Covent Garden

Portrait of Charles I within an oval, bust length, wearing lace collar with an ermine trimmed cope beneath and with the Garter Collar and Great George. Lettered beneath the image

I As described.
Brunswick (AB 3.95), Brussels (S.I 14109), Cambridge (FM), Coburg (XI, 5,4), Eton (CL, Storer Granger, vol. II, part II, fol. 6), Glasgow (HAG, GLAHA 16302), London (BM, 1902-10-11-4463, and large Smith vol. I, p. 19), London (NPG, D11913), Oxford (Christ Church, Smith vol. II, fol. 90, margins), Oxford (AM, Sutherland collection, Burnet vol. I, pt. III, p. 160, two impressions), Paris (BN, Ec. 85, fol. 66), Plymouth (CAG, COP16, f. 92, inscribed in pen and brown ink, Smith's hand 1709 after fec., trimmed), Vienna (HB 95.1, p. 10), Windsor (RL, RCIN 601640).
II Posthumously published.
London (BM, 1902-10-11-4464), Oxford (AM, Sutherland collection, Burnet vol. I, pt. III, p. 160).

References: CS 43 I; Wessely 39; BM 53; New H. 399 (small version).

After the whole length portrait by Sir Anthony Van Dyck dated to 1636 and in the Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace (Glück 382; Millar 1963, 145; Larsen 789; Brown and Vlieghe 90). CS 43 is a reduced version of the mezzotint by John Smith, CS 42.

Engraved by John Smith (1652-1743), one of the premier mezzotint engravers, who made the mezzotint portrait a serious rival to the traditional engraved portrait (in which the French specialised). Smith was the first British printmaker to gain a European reputation. In the first half of the 18th century no serious print collection, whether in Britain or abroad, was without examples of Smith's work. In 1688 Smith became the regular engraver of Kneller's portraits.