Poet

1775

John Hamilton Mortimer

Associated Names
John Hamilton Mortimer

Artist, British, 1740 - 1779

The image shows a waist-length portrait of a person positioned in profile, turned slightly to the back as if looking over their shoulder. The person has distinct, well-defined eyebrows and a piercing gaze, with eyes looking towards the viewer. They have curly dark hair adorned with a laurel wreath. The person wears detailed clothing with a ruffled collar and a cloth draping across their shoulder. They hold a quill pen in their right hand. The background has a stippled texture forming an oval around the figure and the word "POET" inscribed at the top.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Thomas Vogler in memory of his brother Donald J. Vogler

  • Dimensions

    plate: 40 × 32.5 cm (15 3/4 × 12 13/16 in.)
    sheet: 43.9 × 34 cm (17 5/16 × 13 3/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2017.53.70

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Sunderland 1986, no. 96.1

  • Series Title

    Twelve Characters from Shakespeare

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Campbell Fine Art, London, 2 August 1992); Donald Vogler, Portland, OR; gift to NGA, 2017.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1986

  • Sunderland, John. "John Hamilton Mortimer: His Life and Works," Walpole Society 52 (1986): no. 96.1

Inscriptions

upper center in plate: POET.; lower left in plate: Published May 20 1775 by J. MORTIMER, Norfolk Street, STRAND; lower center in plate: The Poets eye in a fine frenzy rowling / Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to heav'n, / And as imagination bodies forth / The forms of things unknown the Poet's pen / Turns them to shape and gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name; lower right in plate: Midsummer Nights dream Act V. Scene I.

Wikidata ID

Q77259472

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