Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger, Héloïse, 1820, Engraving

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An original antique engraved portrait of Héloïse by Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger, circa 1820. The sitter, the technique and the date … Read more An original antique engraved portrait of Héloïse by Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger, circa 1820. The sitter, the technique and the date given here are those recorded when the sheet was examined by hand; a date given as circa is an estimate from the style and manner of the printing. Héloïse was the scholar and abbess whose love affair with Peter Abélard and their later correspondence made the pair the most famous lovers of the French Middle Ages and a favourite subject of the Romantic period. The print is recorded as the work of Friedrich Wilhelm Bollinger. Engraving was the principal medium of the printed portrait for three centuries. The image is cut into a metal plate, inked and printed under heavy pressure, and the engraver builds up the form of a face through the spacing and swelling of the lines, which is why a well engraved portrait rewards close looking. The technique of this sheet is recorded as engraving without distinguishing copper from steel, and it is described that way here rather than guessed at. This sheet came to the gallery in a group of eighty five portrait prints kept together as lot BG-14343. Because eleven of them carry the imprint of William Mackenzie of Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and New York, the group was first taken for a single Victorian biographical series. Identification sheet by sheet has shown that it is something more interesting: a gathering of portraits from across Europe and across two and a half centuries, in engraving, etching and lithography. Each sheet is therefore described on its own evidence and not on the group's. Portrait prints have been collected in their own right since the eighteenth century, when James Granger's Biographical History of England of 1769 set off a fashion for illustrating books with portraits of the people named in them, and they are still collected today for the sitter, for the maker and for the face itself. A single portrait frames well in a narrow moulding with a generous mat, and a group of them hung together, whether by period, by profession or simply by the strength of the faces, makes one of the most satisfying walls there is for a study, a library, a landing or a dining room. The print is in good condition for its age, with toning to the backing sheet and light scattered spotting in the margins; the image itself is clean. This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed. See less