Portret van Frances Anne Greville en Henry Francis Greville als Hebe en Cupido

James McArdell made this mezzotint print of Frances Anne Greville and Henry Francis Greville in 18th century Britain. The classical allegory would have been immediately legible to audiences at the time. Frances, the older sister, is depicted as Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth, holding a classical urn. Her younger brother, Henry, is Cupid, god of love, clinging to her side. The piece draws on two major trends in British portraiture at the time. Firstly, the British aristocracy commissioned portraits in the ‘Grand Manner’, celebrating their status through classical allegory. Secondly, the printmaking industry boomed in this period. Publishers commissioned popular portrait painters such as Joshua Reynolds to make paintings specifically to be reproduced as prints. This made images, and therefore status, available to a much wider audience. Prints like these provide useful evidence for social historians interested in how taste and status were disseminated in 18th century Britain. They reveal the fascinating interplay between painting, printmaking, commerce, and the aristocracy.