Etching and engraving, 1758. Signed "Gravé par Ryland" in the plate.

I. 39.3 x 48.0 cm, S. 41.0 x 49.2 cm. The sheet with a crowned double-headed eagle watermark.

Jean-Richard 1539.

Boucher's oil painting, on which this print is based, was executed in 1741 and is now in a private collection. Ryland dedicated the print to Boucher, with whom he studied under in Paris during the 1750s. On his return to London, Ryland became a pioneer of the stipple engraving technique and a prosperous print seller and publisher. However his business went bankrupt in 1771 and he was later suspected in involvement of forgery on a charge of producing and uttering two bills of exchange with intent to defraud the East India Company. He was tried, convicted and executed for the crime in 1783. The artist and poet William Blake (England 1757-1827) prophesied twelve years earlier that Ryland would be hanged. Blake had been sent by his family at the age of fourteen to be apprenticed to Ryland, however, he refused, saying to his father, "I do not like the man's face: it looks as if he will live to be hanged!"

PROVENANCE
The collection of Engineer and Major Frank Bensow (1883-1969).