5. Valentine Green (1739-1813)
after Sir Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
David Garrick, Esqr.

(click on image to print)
Green: David Garrick, Esqr.

David Garrick, Esqr.

Mezzotint, 1769, 614 x 381 mm., Chaloner Smith 46 i/ii, Russell 46 ii/iii, Whitman 7. David Garrick (1717-1779) was an eminent actor, playwright, producer and theater manager, the most influential man of theater of his age. Of his acting, Alexander Pope wrote, “That young man never had his equal as an actor, and he will never have a rival.” He managed the Drury Lane Theater until shortly before his death, and he was the first actor to be buried in Westminster Abbey. He is pictured here, appropriately, with his arm around a pedestal bust of William Shakespeare, many of whose roles he essayed. The original painting, commissioned by Garrick himself, was in the Town Hall of Stratford-on-Avon until it was destroyed by fire in 1946. Green’s translation of it is one of the masterpieces of mezzotint. A superb impression of the rare state before title, on laid paper with thread margins outside the platemark; the very tip of the upper right corner restored and a few thin spots, otherwise in excellent condition.

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