Portret van Anne Boyle 1771

This is James Watson's portrait of Anne Boyle, made using mezzotint, a printmaking technique that was very popular in the eighteenth century. Look closely and you’ll see the soft tonal gradations achieved by thousands of tiny dots etched into the copperplate. This painstaking process involved rocking a tool called a ‘rocker’ across the plate to create a burr, then smoothing areas to create lighter tones. This mezzotint technique allowed for rich, velvety blacks and subtle shifts in tone, perfectly suited to capture the textures of Anne Boyle's clothing and the contours of her face. Mezzotint was a highly skilled and labor-intensive craft, demanding precision and patience. While it could reproduce paintings and portraits for wider distribution, the handwork involved ensured that each print retained a unique quality. The artistry and labor embedded in this mezzotint print reminds us that even reproductive processes can be deeply creative and culturally significant.