Sketches in imitation of drawings of Cipriani.

2 oblong albums, 12 etchings and engravings in brown, sepia and red ink, ca. 26 x 30 cm (plate), 34 x 46 cm (paper), wove paper, large margins, each print signed in plate at lower margin (foxing throughout, edges smudged).

Contemp. paper covers with titles in letterpess printed on covers.

The engraver and painter Francesco Bartolozzi (1725-1815) was a Founding Member of the Royal Academy who served as engraver to the English King George III for almost 40 years. The prospect of better commissions tempted Bartolozzi to Rome in 1762, where he quickly gained a reputation as a masterful engraver. In 1763 a set of Bartolozzi’s etchings after Old Master drawings was published, raising his profile across Europe. He made prints of many of the Old Master drawings in the Royal Collection, including works by Guercino, Holbein and Michelangelo. Bartolozzi is best known as the leading exponent of the “stipple” technique he developed in the 1770s, which created images through delicate networks of dots rather than lines (as in etching or line-engraving). He enhanced the decorative effect of his work by favouring a range of red, orange and brown inks, rather than the more common black. Bartolozzi worked closely with his fellow Royal Academicians, particularly his lifelong friend and compatriot, the architect Giovanni Battista Cipriani. The present lot consists of 2 complete and rare sets (nos. 1 & 2) of 6 etchings each, with mostly mythological and classical subjects, after drawings by Cipriani.