Death of a Fair Infant. Page 77.

Method Stipple engraving
Artist Benjamin Smith after Richard Westall
Published Published March 25. 1797, by J.&J. Boydell, & G. Nicol, Shakspeare Gallery, Pall Mall; & No. 90, Cheapside.
Dimensions Image 214 x 150 mm, Sheet 376 x 275 mm
Notes An illustration of Verse VII of Milton's On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough from John and Josiah Boydell's The Poetical Works of John Milton (1794-1797). The author imagines the child as a star fallen from Heaven, gathered up, mid-swoon, by Jove, who will bear her back to her eternal place in the firmament.

The publication of Boydell's Milton followed the success of his Shakespeare Gallery, and included 28 plates by Richard Westall after works by Henry Fuseli. Fuseli, one of the Shakespeare Gallery's key contributors, had been inspired by Boydell's success, subsequently painting 40 large-scale scenes from Paradise Lost that he intended to form the core of his own 'Milton Gallery'.

Richard Westall RA (2nd January 1765 - 4th December 1836) was a British painter, illustrator, printmaker, and drawing master, best known for his portraits of Lord Byron, and his work as a painter for John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, and Henry Fuseli's failed Milton Gallery.

Benjamin Smith (1754-1833) was a British engraver, printseller, and publisher. A student of Francesco Bartolozzi, his most celebrated engravings were the series he undertook for Boydell's editions of Shakespeare and Milton, though he also produced many fine plates after William Hogarth and George Romney, as well as portraits of George III.

Ex. Col.: Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd, collector's mark on verso.
Framing mounted
Price £110.00
Stock ID 36270

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