Print made by Luigi Schiavonetti, 1765–1810, Italianafter Francis Wheatley, 1747–1801, British
Title:
Milk below Maids
Date:
1793
Materials & Techniques:
Color printed etching, aquatint and stipple engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on medium, slightly textured cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 16 1/4 × 12 1/2 inches (41.3 × 31.8 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1974.12.3
Gallery Label:
In the late 1790s the portrait and genre painter Francis Wheatley exhibited at the Royal Academy fourteen paintings of London street vendors, each showing an encounter between tradesperson and customer, rather than depicting the criers as isolated figures as was usual in the "Cries" tradition. Thirteen of the paintings were published as stipple engravings by Colnaghi & Co. between 1793 and 1797 under the collective title The Itinerate Trades of London. The prints were extremely popular, and were reprinted so frequently that by 1812 new plates had to be engraved. --- It is likely that Belisario would have known these engravings, which were still being widely circulated during the years when he was training as an artist. Wheatley's predominantly female vendors and their clientele are remarkably elegant, and his images may have been influential on Belisario's rendering of costume in Sketches of Character. Gallery label for Art and Emancipation in Jamaica: Isaac Mendes Belisario and his Worlds (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-09-27 - 2007-12-30)
