Portrait of Archibald Brewer

James McArdell , Irish, c.1729-1765

Title

Datec. 1750

MediumMezzotint on paper

Dimensions

35 × 25.1 cm

Credit LinePresented, Gordon G.F. Dixon, 2024

Object numberNGI.2024.1

DescriptionArchibald Bower (1686-1766) was born in Dundee, studied in Italy and was ordained a Jesuit priest. He later converted to Protestantism and became a friend of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne and Librarian to Queen Caroline. A controversial historian, he published a seven-volume history of the popes between 1748 and 1766. The Irish engraver James McArdell made this mezzotint after a painting by George Knapton (1698–1778). Knapton was a founder member of the Society of Dilettanti. He painted many members of the group and this portrait of Bower is similar in style to those portraits. Bower is captured mid-flow, the image gives the impression that he is engaged in conversation with someone beyond the picture plane. McArdell’s ability to create life-like passages of light and shade through a skilful burnishing back of the roughened surface of the copperplate can be seen in this print.
Inscriptionlower centre; M. Bower qu a ecrit la vie des pape
ProvenancePurchased by the previous owners father from Craddock and Barnard Printsellers, 32 Museum Street, London for £200, Cat no. 135, 1987; Purchased by the current owner’s (again) father from the William Weston Gallery, Saint James's, London SW1A 1DR, for £360 in June 1992; purchased by the previous owner's father from Grovenor Prints London in 2018; Presented, Gordon G.F. Dixon, 2023