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Plate 42, a drawing room
Ware, Isaac - Enlarge image
Plate 42, a drawing room; The Designs of Inigo Jones and others
- Object:
Print
- Place of origin:
London, England (published)
- Date:
1728 (hand drawn)
1743 (printed) - Artist/Maker:
Ware, Isaac (draughtsman (technical))
William Kent (designer)
Fourdrinier, Paul, born 1720 - died 1758 (engraver (printmaker)) - Materials and Techniques:
Etching, ink on paper
- Museum number:
20603:6
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 54c, case WE
Object Type
This print by Paul Fourdrinier is an etching. The action of acid was used to make a pattern of grooves on a copper printing plate. This image on the printing plate was the reverse of the final image. The grooves were then filled with ink and the image was transferred onto a blank sheet of paper.
Subject Depicted
William Kent employed a variety of ornamental details in this design, including female masks, scrolling foliage and stylised flowers. The chimney-piece incorporates one large lion mask and two smaller animal masks lower down. The frieze below the mantelpiece is decorated with a Greek key pattern.
The two paintings on either side of the chimney-piece look like 16th-century family portraits. In long-established aristocratic families these would have been prized heirlooms. The painting above the fireplace, however, was probably obtained more recently, by a member of the family who had visited Italy on the Grand Tour. Kent has shown that he could design a harmonious architectural framework for paintings that might range from historical portraits to contemporary souvenirs of the Grand Tour.
