STEEL ENGRAVING - From the original painting by Sir George Beaumont in the National Gallery in London, England. As described in Pictures of the Great Masters, 1840.  Engraved by R. Brandand.  Measurements - page size 10 5/8"x 8", engraving 4 3/4"x 6 1/2", matted to 9"x 12" for easy framing.

SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT

LANDSCAPE THE WOODED BANK OF A RIVER

     George Howland Beaumont was born at Dunmow in Essex, where his father then resided, in November 1753. He was the only child of Sir George, the sixth baronet of that name, by Rachel, daughter of Matthew Howland, esq.Of Stonehall, Dunmow.

Sir George succeeded to the title and the baronetcy, in the year 1762, losing his father at the early age of ten; but his mother, the dowager Lady Beaumont, a very fine old woman, whose whole-length, portrait was taken by Owen, the academician, shortly before her decease, survived till the year 1814.

      Having received his earlier education at Eton, Sir George entered himself of New College, Oxford, in the year 1772. The pious, exemplary, and reverend Charles Davy became his tutor, happily for all parties concerned; nor may we omit to mention that about this period of his life he became intimately acquainted with our great English landscape painter, Wilson, who taught him drawing and painting, and who doubtless gave that pictorial turn to his taste and talent, which remained with him ever after, and became at once the charm and solace of his life.

     In the year 1778, Sir George married Margaret, daughter of John Welles, esq. of Astrop in Northumberland, eldest son of Lord Chief Justice Welles. Having a mutual taste for the Fine Arts, they lived harmoniously, but had no children. In 1782, Sir George, accompanied by his lady, went to the Continent, and visited the most distinguished parts of France, Switzerland, and Italy. At the general election, in 1790, he was returned member for Beeralston, but sat in the House of Commons only during the Parliament which lasted till 1796.

     It was not in the arena of politics that Sir George Beaumont distinguished himself; but as a patron of art, and an amateur practitioner of painting, his celebrity ranks high, and many admired specimens of his talent in landscape painting have been exhibited at the Royal Academy.

     A congenial taste introduced him to the friendship of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who at his death bequeathed to the Baronet his “Return of the Ark,” by Sebastian Bourbon, now in the National Gallery, as a memorial of his esteem -a very appropriate one, considering who was the testator, and who the legatee.

     The “Return of the Ark,” is one of the sixteen pictures which Sir George, a year or two of his demise, presented to the National Collection, where, inscribed as those pictures are - and we trust will ever be - in legible characters, with the munificent donor’s name, they constitute his most appropriate and most public monument: -a monument in every sense honourable.  Both in public and private life, Sir George was abounding in blandishment. His manners and accomplishments rendered him an ornament of the circles in which he moved; and those circles the highest in points of taste and intellect, if not of rank. He died of erysipelas in the head, on the 7^th of February in 1827.   

    The subject of the present picture is not extraordinary, but such as in countries of hill and dale is not unfrequent; but the Baronet has contrived to throw into it a broad, bright, Rembrandtesque chair'-oscuro. He did not himself place it in the National Gallery. His modesty would have shrunk from mixing it with the sixteen from the consecrated pencils of the Old Master; but it was afterward presented, with becoming respect for the talent of her husband as a landscape painter, by his widow, who afterwards died, at their seat of Coleorton, at the same age of seventy-three years.

 IMPORTANT TO NOTE

 Antique prints, etchings, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, lithographs, ect. are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated in the auction, thus giving the buyer an idea of it's age.

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