Mezzotint after a watercolour by the English landscape painter Peter de Wint (1784-1849)
 
 
The Artist: Peter de Wint (1784-1849). 
 
Of Dutch extraction Peter de Wint was born and brought up in Staffordshire.  From 1802 to 1806 he was apprenticed to the mezzotint engraver, miniaturist, and portrait painter John Raphael Smith (1752–1812), and he later studied at the Royal Academy, exhibiting there in 1807 and entering the RA schools in 1809. He was elected an Associate of the Old Watercolour Society in 1810 and was made a full member the following year.
 
Although he painted extensively in oil, it is as a watercolourist that he is best known.  Many of his views are in the area around Lincoln. He was also a successful drawing masters spending summers teaching prosperous provincial families. 
Further reading:
David Scrase, Drawings & Watercolours by Peter De Wint, exhibition catalogue, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 1979
Hammond Smith, Peter De Wint 1784-1849, London 1982
 
The Engraver: Frank Short
Sir Francis Job 'Frank' Short (1857-1945) was a printmaker, writer and  teacher of printmaking. He went Stourbridge, South Kensington and Westminster Schools of Art, mastering the techniques of mezzotint, aquatint and etching and was Professor of engraving at the Royal College of Art between 1913 and 1924. Between 1910 and 1938 he was President of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Between 1885-1904 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, and won two medals for engraving at the Paris Salon in 1889 and 1900.
 
Short lived and worked in London and Sussex for most of his life. His work is noted for its expressive power in the way he used line in drypoint etching and engraving. He also revived the technique of mezzotint and pure aquatint as well.