Current Location: In storage
Titles
The Image Boy
Oval No. 49
Maker(s)
Printmaker:
Le Blond, Abraham
Publisher:
Le Blond & Co
Entities
Categories
Description
A boy selling parian-ware busts and small statues is doing business with some women outside a cottage. Written on the verso in pencil: '12/6'. The colours are very faded.
Notes
History note: Given by G.H.W. Rylands
Legal notes
Given by G.H.W. Rylands
Acquisition and important dates
Method of acquisition: Given
by
Rylands, G.H.W.
Dating
19th Century
Production date:
circa
AD 1853
Note
Stamped at lower left: 'LE BLOND & CO LONDON'. From a set of 32 Baxter-process prints by George Baxter licensee, Abraham Le Blond known as 'The Ovals'. In a departure from Baxter, who stuck his prints onto embossed or printed mounts, Le Blond printed this set, probably with a view to economy, directly onto mounts after which an embossed border, title and number were then added. Lycett and Martin, following Courtney Lewis, have suggested that The Image Boy along with Please Remember the Grotto were the first two of The Ovals to be produced and that they can be dated to 1853. The Le Blond Ovals, almost certainly in all 32 cases, are reproductions after a series of small oval oil paintings on board by the artist, John Anthony Puller (1799-1886). Puller exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition between 1821 and 1862 and at the British Institution between 1825 and 1867. Many of his painted ovals, which compare exactly with the compositions of the Le Blond Ovals, have appeared at auction quite regularly during the last 20 years and it has been possible to trace 22 of Puller's compositions to the Le Blond Ovals. It is thought that Puller was probably contracted to produce the small oval paintings for Le Blond, although no evidence of this arrangement has come to light. (See New Baxter Society) Moreover, the fact that a number of small ovals on board by Puller of scenes which are not included in the Le Blond Ovals (such as 'A Travelling Pedlar' and 'A Picnic'), may indicate that a series of small oval compositions for the popular market originated with Puller and that it was Le Blond who struck a deal with Puller for the right to reproduce a selected number for his Baxter process series. For the transfer from painting to print, Le Blond employed the artists George Stone, his eldest son, Francis Le Blond and later his youngest son, Bernard Maynard Le Blond. (Lycett and Martin, 1994, p.19)
School or Style
British
