NARRATION OF PHILOCTETE’S SUFFERINGS IN LEMNOS 1794 John Barlow ENGRAVING

Original 1794 10 inch x 7 3/4 inch etching and engraving titled THE NARRATION OF PHILOCTETE’S SUFFERINGS IN LEMNOS.

From ‘The Adventures of Telemachus’ an epic poem by the French Archbishop François Fénelon with alterations by the Rev. Mark Anthony Meilan. Mark Anthony Meilan was a writer, born about 1743, who at one time a situation in the post-office, which he resigned in order to become an instructor in private families in English, bookkeeping, and shorthand, of languages, arts, and sciences. He took orders, and for some time served the curacy of St. John, Wapping. In 1809 he was assistant minister of St. Mary, Newington, Surrey, and was apparently alive in 1816.

Engraved by John Barlow (c. 1760 - 1810). Reproductive etcher, working in London.

After Joshua Cristall (1767 - 1847). Cristall studied engraving at the Royal Academy Schools in London, but his artistic career did not really begin until a legacy he received on his parents' deaths allowed him to go to North Wales in 1802. Here he sketched alongside John and Cornelius Varley, and these connections enabled him to become a founding member of the first Watercolour Society. In 1808, he had a major success with a series of pictures of the Kent coast. He moved to Herefordshire in 1822 and spent eighteen years working and exhibiting there before returning to London. Cristall's work remained largely disregarded for a hundred years until art historians identified him as an innovative figure of central importance in watercolour history.

Text below image: “I know not what I do: give give, I cry, / O give me a sharp knife and let me die. / Burn me, young man, performing what my hand / Did for ALCIDES in OETAS land.”

’Published as the Act directs by M.A. Meilan, March 24th, 1794

Image size 5 3/4 inch x 5 inch

The engraving is in very good condition with a light stain in the lower right corner and age related toning. Reverse side blank.