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11. George Mullins 1756-c. 1798
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A Spaniel Dog: ‘Done from an Original Picture painted by George Mullins’
Published by Robert Sayer, 7 January 1772
Mezzotint, 32.5 x 44.5cm
Signed ‘G. Mullins pinxt et fecit’
Literature: David Alexander, Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Engravers, 1714-1820 (New Haven and London, 2001
This extremely rare print is the only known engraving by the painter George Mullins. Only two other impressions of the print are recorded, including one in the British Museum (1870,0625.1028). The signature proudly states that the Irishman was responsible for both the original painting from which the image derives but also for producing (or ‘scraping’ in the phrase used at the time) the mezzotint. This establishes Mullins’s status as a peintre-graveur, or maker of art, or original, rather than reproductive, prints and provides a link – indeed the only link recorded – between the Dublin Group of mezzotint makers (notably James McArdell (1729-65)) who dominated printmaking in London between 1750 and 1775 and the equally talented group of Irish landscape painters, perhaps most notably Thomas Roberts (1748-77), a pupil of Mullins, who lived with him in his wife’s tavern, the Horseshoe and Magpie in Temple Bar. Indeed several other young artists lodged with them including James Coy (c. 1750-c. 1780), and Robert Healy (1743-71). Mullins moved to London in about 1770, in which year he exhibited at the Royal Academy, giving his address as ‘At Mr Robert Carver’s’ on Great Newport Street, showing just how closely interconnected this group of Irish artists were. Two years later he exhibited a ‘Portrait of a Spaniel Dog’, which he had already engraved in the present work, offered for sale in January, some months before the summer exhibition. It was published by the leading printseller, Robert Sayer who had been involved with other members of the Dublin Group. Although this is the only known print which he produced, Mullins shows himself a capable practitioner, revelling in the deep blacks that the medium permits, to capture the fur of the dog’s coat with masterly effect. It is possible that Mullins was inspired in his subject matter by another anomalous work by an Irish landscape, George Barret’s (c. 1732-84) A Spaniel and Wild Duck, engraved by Irish Group member James Watson (1740-90). The dog painted by Barret belonged to his patron Lord Edward Bentinck, but here, instead of being a commission, it is tempting to suggest that, as with Thomas Gainsborough’s Tristram and Fox (c. 1775, Tate, Britain), this spaniel may have been Mullins’s own dog and fondness for his pet accounts for this otherwise anomalous image within Mullins oeuvre – and at the same time explains the clear affection with which it is portrayed.
Price: Enquire
A Spaniel Dog: ‘Done from an Original Picture painted by George Mullins’
Published by Robert Sayer, 7 January 1772
Mezzotint, 32.5 x 44.5cm
Signed ‘G. Mullins pinxt et fecit’
Literature: David Alexander, Biographical Dictionary of British and Irish Engravers, 1714-1820 (New Haven and London, 2001
This extremely rare print is the only known engraving by the painter George Mullins. Only two other impressions of the print are recorded, including one in the British Museum (1870,0625.1028). The signature proudly states that the Irishman was responsible for both the original painting from which the image derives but also for producing (or ‘scraping’ in the phrase used at the time) the mezzotint. This establishes Mullins’s status as a peintre-graveur, or maker of art, or original, rather than reproductive, prints and provides a link – indeed the only link recorded – between the Dublin Group of mezzotint makers (notably James McArdell (1729-65)) who dominated printmaking in London between 1750 and 1775 and the equally talented group of Irish landscape painters, perhaps most notably Thomas Roberts (1748-77), a pupil of Mullins, who lived with him in his wife’s tavern, the Horseshoe and Magpie in Temple Bar. Indeed several other young artists lodged with them including James Coy (c. 1750-c. 1780), and Robert Healy (1743-71). Mullins moved to London in about 1770, in which year he exhibited at the Royal Academy, giving his address as ‘At Mr Robert Carver’s’ on Great Newport Street, showing just how closely interconnected this group of Irish artists were. Two years later he exhibited a ‘Portrait of a Spaniel Dog’, which he had already engraved in the present work, offered for sale in January, some months before the summer exhibition. It was published by the leading printseller, Robert Sayer who had been involved with other members of the Dublin Group. Although this is the only known print which he produced, Mullins shows himself a capable practitioner, revelling in the deep blacks that the medium permits, to capture the fur of the dog’s coat with masterly effect. It is possible that Mullins was inspired in his subject matter by another anomalous work by an Irish landscape, George Barret’s (c. 1732-84) A Spaniel and Wild Duck, engraved by Irish Group member James Watson (1740-90). The dog painted by Barret belonged to his patron Lord Edward Bentinck, but here, instead of being a commission, it is tempting to suggest that, as with Thomas Gainsborough’s Tristram and Fox (c. 1775, Tate, Britain), this spaniel may have been Mullins’s own dog and fondness for his pet accounts for this otherwise anomalous image within Mullins oeuvre – and at the same time explains the clear affection with which it is portrayed.