H Beard Print Collection
1811
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1811
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
This print shows a head-and-shoulders portrait of Mrs. Liston from 1811. The artist, Samuel De Wilde, worked in England during the early 1800s. It’s a print, not a painting, so the lines and shading were carved or etched on a plate before ink was pressed onto paper. Early 19th-century prints like this often captured the faces of everyday sitters. A print like this could be made in dozens or even hundreds of copies, so it helped spread the sitter’s likeness beyond a single painting. Look up Romanticism next.
