LIEUTENANT COLONEL HENRY TOWNSHEND (1737-1762) BY JAMES MACARDELL (1729 - 1765), PROBABLY AFTER SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

A striking and stylish 18th Century engraving of Henry Townshend (1737-1762), Army officer; grandson of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend. Posed next to a bust, this makes this a very unique and rare double portrait. Completed by James MacArdell (1729-1765) likely after a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

James MacArdell (1729-1765) was born in Cow Lane, Dublin around 1729. He studied mezzotint-engraving under John Brooks. When Brooks moved to London about 1746, MacArdell and other pupils followed. He opened a print shop at the Golden Head in Covent Garden, where in 1753 he published six views of Dublin. MacArdell died on 2 June 1765, in his fifty-seventh year, and was buried in the churchyard at Hampstead, where a stone bore an inscription to his memory

In 1749, he engraved the picture of Lady Boyd, after Allan Ramsay, and the portrait by William Hogarth of Thomas Coram in 1750, the Duke of Dorset, after Kneller, and 'The Sons of the Duke of Buckingham,' after Anthony van Dyck. In 1754 he engraved his first plates after Sir Joshua Reynolds; these plates were the Earl and Countess of Kildare, companion plates, published in Dublin by Michael Ford, and Lady Charlotte Fitzwilliam, published by Reynolds himself. Subsequently, MacArdell engraved thirty-four more portraits by Reynolds and twenty-five by Thomas Hudson. He engraved fine portraits of George III, Queen Charlotte, and one of George II on horseback.

Mezzotint. Framed: 44 cm x 32 cm / 17.2 in. x 12.5 in. Sheet : 39 cm x 28 cm/ 15.5 in. x 11 in. Executed 1762

Price: £420

Higher resolution images on request.  
Worldwide shipping available.