Print of the Month - April 2020
Printed by George Baxter using his patented Baxter Process, it is also called “Les petite Jardiniers".
This print was used as an illustration in two pocket-books; Marshall’s Cabinet of Fashion, 1847, and Le Souvenir, 1847.
Engraved in the bottom plate margin, in the centre, is the above title; on the right is “From a Painting by E. Magnus, Esq,” in two lines; and on the left is “Baxter’s Patent Oil Printing, 11, Northampton Square,” in two lines.
Eduard Magnus painted genre, portraits and historical scenes.
He spent most of his life in Berlin, where he was born in 1799 and died in 1872, although during his career he travelled to England, France, Italy and Spain.
Magnus became a member of the Academy of Berlin in 1837 and a professor there in 1844.
Like many artists, Eduard Magnus appears to have painted several versions of this scene.
Both a circular painting and a rectangular one have come to market in the last 20 years.
We can’t yet be certain which painting Baxter might have seen but we do know it was loaned by E. Gambert, probably of the art publishers E. Gambert & Co.
The print was produced from a steel plate and eight colour blocks.
It was originally sold for 6d.
Print size 9 x 6 cm.
There is a large round print of the same subject said to be a Baxter plate, but it is never seen in colours.