A self-portrait etching of Thomas Major; head and shoulders, facing three-quarters to the right, with his hair in a pigtail. He wears a plain coat and a cravat. Inscribed on the plate: T. Major Sculp.r Reg. Cap. 1759; and in pencil: Thomas Major the engraver. / very rare –

At first sight this small print seems to be an engraving, for Major expertly manipulated the etched lines – swelling and tapering, dotted, curving in perfect parallel – to capture the modelling of his face with as much precision as if he had been engraving with a burin. Most of his etchings were reproductive, so this delicate self-portrait both advertised Major’s skill to potential clients and gave him an opportunity to work on a more intimate, ‘artistic’ level than his commercial output afforded.

Thomas Major was one of the leading printmakers in England in the mid-eighteenth century. He trained with Hubert Gravelot in London and then spent three years in Paris, including three months in the Bastille in reprisal for the imprisonment of French troops after the Battle of Culloden. On his return to England he secured extensive royal patronage, including that of George II (as his Chief Engraver of Seals, hence the inscription on the plate Sculp[to]r Reg[is] Cap[italis]), his sons Frederick, Prince of Wales, and William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, and Frederick’s son, later George III. Major was one of the founder members of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768 but as an engraver could only be an Associate, not a full member.

Text adapted from Portrait of the Artist, London, 2016