Cupid, in the Character of a Link Boy

Sir Joshua Reynolds|John Dean

1777 · Mezzotint; scratched letter proof · Drawings and Prints

Dean's print reproduces a painting by Reynolds devoted to a familiar London sight—linkboys who were paid to light pedestrians through dark streets before public lighting became commonplace. One of Reynolds's most loyal patrons, John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745–1799), bought the painting from the artist in 1774, it then remained in the family through the late nineteenth century and is now in the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. This impression once belonged to to the British painter Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) as part of a large collection of mezzotints after Reynolds.

Artist

Sir Joshua Reynolds|John Dean

Date

1777

Medium

Mezzotint; scratched letter proof

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1941