The Superb Lily, from The Temple of Flora
1799
Medium
Color mezzotint, aquatint and etching, inked à la poupée, heightened with hand-colored watercolor on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 44.7 × 36 cm (17 5/8 × 14 3/16 in.); Plate: 48 × 36 cm (18 15/16 × 14 3/16 in.); Sheet: 53.5 × 42.5 cm (21 1/8 × 16 3/4 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
22485
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The consummate mezzotint engraver Richard Earlom produced this large-scale mixed-media print of the Superb Lily (seen here in the second of four substantially different states) around 1799. The image was intended to be included in botanist Richard John Thornton’s grand publication of over life-sized prints of 70 species of flora, celebrating Carl Linnaeus’s 1735 classification system. By 1810, Thornton issued an apology to his neglected subscribers and printed extra impressions for an 1811 lotte...
About the Artist
Richard Earlom · 1728–1794
Richard Earlom (1743–1822) stands as one of the supreme masters of mezzotint engraving in British art history, whose technical virtuosity and dedication to reproductive printmaking brought the works of Old Masters to unprecedented audiences. Born in London on May 14, 1743, Earlom spent his entire career transforming paintings and drawings into prints of extraordinary quality, elevating reproductiv...