About this artwork
Thomas Watson was one of the most gifted mezzotint engravers of his generation. In this intimate and slightly humorous example after a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, he achieved a convincing sense of interior candlelight illumination through his soft touch. The portraits in this image appear to depict the same girls found in Wright’s similarly lit composition An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, an oil painting now in the National Gallery in London.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Prints and Drawings
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Artist
- Thomas Watson
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Title
- Miss Kitty Dressing
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Place
- United Kingdom (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1781
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Medium
- Mezzotint, with traces of engraving, in dark brown on ivory laid paper
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Dimensions
- Image: 40.9 × 32.9 cm (16 1/8 × 13 in.); Plate: 45.3 × 33 cm (17 7/8 × 13 in.); Sheet: 58.7 × 46 cm (23 1/8 × 18 1/8 in.)
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Credit Line
- Elizabeth Glore Memorial and Print and Drawing Purchase funds
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Reference Number
- 2002.104
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/158689/manifest.json