Charles Burney Mus: Doct: Oxon. / F.R.S.

 

Francesco Bartolozzi

  1728 - 1815

1784  

stipple engraving and etching 

7 5/16 x 6" image 

F. Bartolozzi, Sculpt, in lower right, beneath image 

 

"Sir Joshua Reynolds pinxt", lower left; titled, lower center; dated, lower center 

deVesme & Calabi 772; Nat. Portrait Gallery, London D1149; Print Collector's Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 2 April 1927, page 156 

thick antique-white laid 

iii/iii 

artist 

17764 

$750.00 

Bartolozzi created over 2550 prints in his long career. This print is considered one his finest portraits in the medium. An organist and musicologist, Charles Burney (1726-1814) was the author of the monumental A General History of Music, published 1776-89, and the father of Fanny Burney, the novelist and diarist. In 1781 he wrote, 'I have lately sat for my picture to Sr. Jos. Reynolds, for my Friend Mr Thrale... who has a Library furnished with 12 or 14 portraits of persons with whom it is a great honour to be placed'. Thrale's library was at his home in Streatham and Burney's portrait hung between Reynolds's portraits of Baretti and Burke. He is depicted holding a musical score and wearing his gown as a Doctor of Music (Oxford, 1769).