Orinda Phillips
Engraver Isaac Beckett British
Sitter Catherine Phillips British
Not on view
Mezzotint, a tonal method of printmaking, was invented in Germany in 1642 and introduced to Britain by Dutch engravers. Beckett was the first great native-born Englishman to practice the technique, producing just over than a hundred prints between 1681 and his early death in 1688. Most of these are portraits, many after works by leading painters such as Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller. This example represents Catherine Phillips, an admired seventeenth-century poet who adopted the name Orinda.