Portrait of Mathew Stevenson

Art Historical Context

Step into the elegant world of 18th- to early 19th-century portraiture with William Richardson's *Portrait of Stevenson*, a delicate engraving now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Drawings and Prints. Created during a time when printed portraits democratized access to likenesses of notable figures, this work captures the refined style of the Georgian era, where engravings served as affordable alternatives to paintings for collectors and the emerging middle class. Engraving, the medium here, involved incising fine lines into a metal plate with a burin, inking it, and pressing paper to transfer the image— a meticulous technique prized for its precision and reproducibility. Measuring a compact 9 3/8 × 6 inches on the sheet (with the plate mark at 6 15/16 × 5 5/16 inches), this print exemplifies ephemera from the period: intimate, portable, and often collected as souvenirs. Donated to the Met in 1926 by Bella C. Landauer, it highlights the cultural role of such prints in preserving personal and public identities. Though details on Mathew Stevenson remain elusive, the portrait's classification as a male portrait underscores the era's fascination with individuality, blending artistry with the era's printmaking innovations. A charming glimpse into history's gallery of faces!