Richard Earlom (1743-1822), one of the greatest mezzotinters of his day, made this print to reproduce a painted portrait by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). This is a proof before lettering but the arms have already been engraved below the image.

Mezzotint became particularly fashionable in England, especially for reproducing portrait paintings, and became dubbed la manière anglaise. Richard Earlom (1743–1822), one of the pre-eminent mezzotint engravers of the period, made this print to reproduce a painted portrait by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). This is a proof before letters were added below, although the arms have already been engraved below the image.

The print shows a full range of tone, from the dark velvety black of the lady’s dress to the white of the lace sleeves. In the background the buildings and trees are barely visible on the plate itself but show up strongly in the print, demonstrating how much ink can be held by the burr brought up in the process. The engraver, or more likely an apprentice, rocked a toothed tool repeatedly in different directions over the entire surface of the plate to create pits and bring up metal burr. When inked like this the plate printed a deep velvety black. To create a tonal image, the engraver burnished away the burr; the more burnished the line, the white it would print. Under a magnifying glass the grey tones sometimes reveal the criss-crossing effect of the rocker. The process, though laborious, allowed an image to be built up in tone rather than line. Mezzotints were expensive because the plates could only make around 200 impressions before the burr wore out or was compressed by the roller press – and only the first 10 or 20 would be of good quality.