Portrait - Houbraken Jacobus, Sir Philip Sydney - 1747

Date: 1747

Artist: Houbraken Jacobus

Engraver: 

Size: 37cm x 24cm

Condition: very good

Technique: copperplate engraving  

Description: original copperplate engraving 

Provinance:

Portrait - SR Philip Sydney - Houbraken 1698-1780

Jacobus Houbraken

Jacobus Houbraken (25 December 1698 – 14 November 1780) was a Dutch engraver born in DoDrdrecht, the son of the artist and biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719), whom he assisted in producing a published record of the lives of artists from the Dutch Golden Age.

In 1707 he moved to Amsterdam, where for years he helped his father with his magnum opus, his art historical work The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters (1718–1721). When his father died he assisted his mother with the last proofs of the manuscript before publishing. With this project he started his portraits of Netherlandish celebrities, that are today, in many cases, the only likenesses left of these people. He was influenced by studying the works of Cornelis Cort, Jonas Suyderhoef, Gerard Edelinck and the Visschers whilst in Amsterdam

Houbraken devoted himself almost entirely to portraiture. His work became famous through his collaboration with the historian Thomas Birch and artist George Vertue, on the project entitled, Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain, published in parts in London from 1743 to 1752, and from which our plates come
He died, aged 81 in Amsterdam.

His oeuvre of more than 400 portrait engravings form an important record for art provenance. His portraits were often set in an oval frame, with a subtitle with the subject's claim to fame. Under that in small letters, he placed his notes about the original oil portrait.