RHODES, Richard. 17390

£75

Description

Autograph Letter Signed, about the completion of a plate, describing clearly his method of historical engraving. 1 page 9 x 7 inches, in good condition. Camden Town, 29 November 1819. Uncommon. Richard Rhodes (1765–1838), engraver, produced chiefly small line-engravings for illustrated books, in the style rendered popular towards the close of the last century by James Heath and continued by Charles Heath, to whom Rhodes was principal assistant for many years. He engraved plates after Fuseli in Woodmason’s ‘Shakespeare,’ 1794, and in Cowper’s ‘Poems,’ 1806; ‘Timon of Athens,’ after Howard, in Boydell’s ‘Shakespeare,’ 1802; some plates in ‘Ancient Terra-cottas in the British Museum,’ 1810; numerous illustrations to Tegg’s ‘Shakespeare,’ after Thurston, 1812–13; some of Stothard’s designs for Byron’s ‘Poems,’ 1814; eleven plates for Somerville’s ‘Poems,’ 1815; several plates after Westall and others for Sharpe’s ‘Poets,’ 1816–17; and a portrait of Henry Mackenzie, author of ‘The Man of Feeling,’ after Geddes. “When you reflect that the principal light in the Subject falls on the figures, you must be aware that cannot effectively be the first tinted. In Historical engraving this mode of operation is invariable, at least I have never seen one instance to the contrary. Be this as it may, it is my practice, and I cannot engrave on any other principle.”