Skip to main content

Head of a young boy holding a book: P.14814-R

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Head of a young boy holding a book

Maker(s)

Printmaker: Green, Benjamin
Draughtsman: Bossi, Benigno (After)

Entities

Categories

Description

Soft-ground etching on laid paper. Head and shoulders of a boy with unkempt, dark hair, directed towards the right, head turned three-quarters towards the viewer and holding an open book before him at the far right with one hand visible. This is a copy in reverse by Benjamin Green after a print dated 1758 by Benigno Bossi, from his series, 'Raccolta di teste' ['Collection of heads'] (1755-1789). Scratched below the image border at lower left: 'Louthenburg Del' and at lower right: 'B Green Sc.'. Inscription in graphite on the verso: '6'. This number clearly relates to Bossi's 'Raccolta di teste' series, as the original is number 6 of 43. This is a scratched letter proof state. The attribution to the artist Philip James de Loutherbourg, 'Louthenburg del' is not only incorrectly spelled but also erroneous. Green was also making copies after prints by de Loutherbourg around the same date that he was copying Bossi, so this is probably a mistake made by a studio assistant. The prints by Green after de Loutherbourg and Bossi held at the British Museum have engraved production details rather than scratched and with the correct spelling of de Loutherbourg. See Notes.

Legal notes

Unknown

Acquisition and important dates

by unknown

Dating

18th Century
1770 - 1780

Note

Height 96mm (plate) x width 76mm (plate); height 99mm (sheet) x width 79mm (sheet)

School or Style

British

Techniques used in production

Soft-ground etching

Identification numbers

Accession number: P.14814-R
Primary reference Number: 225423
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Wednesday 5 September 2018 Updated: Monday 7 January 2019 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Head of a young boy holding a book" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/225423 Accessed: 2024-12-18 04:31:26

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/225423 |title=Head of a young boy holding a book |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-18 04:31:26|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-225423

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...