DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73058#0030
Bartolozzi and his Works.
however useful and prized they may be as illustrating the foibles of the time,—cannot but
be considered as instances of a waste of talent. But Bartolozzi was tempted through his
good nature as well as his interest ; for artists and amateurs vied with each other in their
persuasions to induce him to engrave their works: artists hoped through him to strengthen
a weak reputation, and amateurs were sure that their rudimentary sketches would develop
under his masterly touches to a maturity that had no pre-existence.
Bartolozzi, like almost every other distinguished man of his day, was a visitor at
Holland House,* and he is said to have often declared that a statue therein by Nollekens f
* See Faulkner's " History and Antiquities of Kensington " (1820), p. 97.
+ Videj. T. Smith's "Nollekens and his Times." Colburn, New Burlington Street, 1828.
was one of the finest specimens of sculpture since the days of Phidias and Praxiteles. But
his relations were not all with the rich, for Faulkner, in his " Account of Fulham," says
that when Bartolozzi came to reside at North End, in the house opposite to Foote's villa,
about the year 1780, his benevolent disposition was shown in many instances, and that the
poor of the neighbourhood frequently experienced his liberality.
Here, as elsewhere, Bartolozzi was overpowered with work. Mr. Carey says* that
* Vide Ackermann's " Repository of Arts," vol. xiv., 1815.
when he passed the engraver's house—which he frequently did—late at night or in the
small hours of the morning, the lamp in his workroom was generally burning; and in
regard to the time at which he began his labours in the morning, Mrs. McQueen, the
mother of the present members of the firm of J. H. & F. C. McQueen, fine-art copper-
plate printers, remembers her father having frequently to go to Mr. Bartolozzi's house at
Fulham (where he had a copperplate press), at six o'clock in the morning, to prove his
plates under the artist's personal superintendence.
Of Bartolozzi's Fulham life we have a few other glimpses. On Mr. Carey going up
on one occasion into the room where Bartolozzi and some of his select pupils worked, the
engraver pointed out some fine impressions of Gerard Audran's " Battles of Alexander,"
from Le Brun, with which the walls were hung, enthusiastically exclaiming, " There is my
master: every time I look up he speaks to me, and I take lessons from him every day."
Bartolozzi was a great snuff-taker, and used to keep a large box at his side when at
work, throwing the remains of each huge pinch on the floor, so that a heap had gathered
by the end of the day. His living rooms were decorated with framed proofs of some of his
own works, including many proofs of musical tickets designed by Cipriani ; the " Clytie,"
the "Silence," and some few of his etchings from the well-known set after Guercino. There
was also a proof example of the " Italian Ball and Wedding," from Zuccarelll, of which
Bartolozzi engraved the figures, and Vivares *—for whose conscientiously accurate work
* Francis Vivares was a Frenchman, the son of a tailor, and for some time followed the occupation of his father ;
he became one of the most eminent landscape engravers of his time.
he had the warmest admiration—the landscapes. On a friend calling and expressing his
enthusiastic appreciation of these proofs, Bartolozzi modestly referred to them as inferior
productions, merely put up to " cover the walls," and turned the conversation to the
12 excellence
however useful and prized they may be as illustrating the foibles of the time,—cannot but
be considered as instances of a waste of talent. But Bartolozzi was tempted through his
good nature as well as his interest ; for artists and amateurs vied with each other in their
persuasions to induce him to engrave their works: artists hoped through him to strengthen
a weak reputation, and amateurs were sure that their rudimentary sketches would develop
under his masterly touches to a maturity that had no pre-existence.
Bartolozzi, like almost every other distinguished man of his day, was a visitor at
Holland House,* and he is said to have often declared that a statue therein by Nollekens f
* See Faulkner's " History and Antiquities of Kensington " (1820), p. 97.
+ Videj. T. Smith's "Nollekens and his Times." Colburn, New Burlington Street, 1828.
was one of the finest specimens of sculpture since the days of Phidias and Praxiteles. But
his relations were not all with the rich, for Faulkner, in his " Account of Fulham," says
that when Bartolozzi came to reside at North End, in the house opposite to Foote's villa,
about the year 1780, his benevolent disposition was shown in many instances, and that the
poor of the neighbourhood frequently experienced his liberality.
Here, as elsewhere, Bartolozzi was overpowered with work. Mr. Carey says* that
* Vide Ackermann's " Repository of Arts," vol. xiv., 1815.
when he passed the engraver's house—which he frequently did—late at night or in the
small hours of the morning, the lamp in his workroom was generally burning; and in
regard to the time at which he began his labours in the morning, Mrs. McQueen, the
mother of the present members of the firm of J. H. & F. C. McQueen, fine-art copper-
plate printers, remembers her father having frequently to go to Mr. Bartolozzi's house at
Fulham (where he had a copperplate press), at six o'clock in the morning, to prove his
plates under the artist's personal superintendence.
Of Bartolozzi's Fulham life we have a few other glimpses. On Mr. Carey going up
on one occasion into the room where Bartolozzi and some of his select pupils worked, the
engraver pointed out some fine impressions of Gerard Audran's " Battles of Alexander,"
from Le Brun, with which the walls were hung, enthusiastically exclaiming, " There is my
master: every time I look up he speaks to me, and I take lessons from him every day."
Bartolozzi was a great snuff-taker, and used to keep a large box at his side when at
work, throwing the remains of each huge pinch on the floor, so that a heap had gathered
by the end of the day. His living rooms were decorated with framed proofs of some of his
own works, including many proofs of musical tickets designed by Cipriani ; the " Clytie,"
the "Silence," and some few of his etchings from the well-known set after Guercino. There
was also a proof example of the " Italian Ball and Wedding," from Zuccarelll, of which
Bartolozzi engraved the figures, and Vivares *—for whose conscientiously accurate work
* Francis Vivares was a Frenchman, the son of a tailor, and for some time followed the occupation of his father ;
he became one of the most eminent landscape engravers of his time.
he had the warmest admiration—the landscapes. On a friend calling and expressing his
enthusiastic appreciation of these proofs, Bartolozzi modestly referred to them as inferior
productions, merely put up to " cover the walls," and turned the conversation to the
12 excellence