Profile Portrait of a Man after an Old Master Drawing, Photogravure, circa 1900
€ 155
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1900
Mapmaker / artist
Unsigned photogravure after an unidentified drawing
Publisher
Not named on the sheet
Technique
Photogravure
Coloring
Uncolored
Sheet size
34 × 25 cm (13.4 × 9.8 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14343-75
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good condition for its age. Light toning; soft creases to the upper right corner and right edge; a few small spots in the lower left margin. The image is clean. Please review the images for further condition details.
About this sheet
An original photogravure of a portrait drawing of a man in profile, printed around 1900 in a deep plate mark on a large sheet of heavy wove paper. The sheet carries no title, name or credit.
The sitter faces right, his head slightly raised, with thick dark hair cut in a straight fringe across the forehead and falling to the nape of the neck in the bobbed fashion of the early sixteenth century. The face is modeled with soft shading around the eye, cheek and double chin, while the collar and shoulders are left as a few fine outlines, so that the sheet keeps the look of an unfinished preparatory study. A pale band runs across the background behind the head.
Photogravure was the finest photomechanical process of its time. A photograph of the original is etched into a copper plate through a fine grain, and the plate is then inked and printed on a press like an etching, so that every stroke and smudge of the drawing is reproduced in a rich, continuous tone. Between about 1880 and 1914 museums and publishers across Europe issued large portfolios of photogravure facsimiles of old master drawings, printed with a plate mark on generous sheets so that each could be framed.
The gray tone of the plate catches the texture of chalk or silverpoint on paper, and the mount line embossed around the image gives it the appearance of a drawing in a mat.
This sheet will appeal to admirers of Renaissance portrait drawing and of fine early photomechanical printing, and it looks particularly well in a plain light frame on a study or library wall.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
