AFTER SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS (PLYMPTON 1723-1792 LONDON)
Venus and Cupid
reverse glass painting
55.5 x 35 cm (21.5 x 13.75 in)
framed

This unusually large and well-preserved reverse glass painting follows a design by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Venus and Cupid (Christie’s, New York, 25 May, 1999, lot 91), much admired in the late 18th- and early 19th centuries as attested to by the prints, engravings and enamels which it inspired. See, for example, the stipple engraving made by Joseph Collyer in 1786 (Victoria & Albert Museum DYCE.3048).