Print of the Month - June 2014

Verona

Printed c.1837 by George Baxter using his patented Baxter Process.

This is an illustration in Baxter’s book "The Pictorial Album or Cabinet of Paintings." The book contained 11 prints together with descriptions and poetry. It was published shortly after Baxter patented his process and was an advert for this new process and George Baxter's work as well as a desirable book for the drawing room.

The print is after a painting by S Prout and George Baxter produced a second version of this view in 1850.

The book describes the view: - “Verona - old seat of learning and genius! How beautiful dost thou look, spreading out thy marble palaces and verdant groves to the beholder’s gaze. How clear seems that placid water which almost laves the feet of those quaint and venerable structures, mellowed in their tint by the hand of time - which, however, has visited them but gently. Reader, look through the arch of the first bridge that spans the Adige, and at the extremity of your view, on the right-hand side, stands a mansion which was, and perhaps still is, tenanted by the gentle being whose designation at one period of her life forms the title to this little story.”

Print size 13.5 x 10 cm. Printed on tinted paper.

Under the print in the centre is the title, and below that is “Printed in Oil Colours by G. Baxter (Patentee), from a painting by S. Prout,” in one line. Below that is “London, Chapman & Hall, Strand.”