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Creator:
Print made by William Faithorne, 1656–ca. 1701
after Sir Peter Lely, 1618–1680
Title:
Beauty's Tribute (Elizabeth Cooper)
Part Of:

Collective Title: Portraits of Ladies in Mezzotints

Date:
undated
Materials & Techniques:
Mezzotint on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Plate: 13 11/16 × 10 3/16 inches (34.8 × 25.8 cm), Sheet: 12 1/2 × 10 1/8 inches (31.8 × 25.7 cm), Image: 12 5/8 × 10 1/8 inches (32 × 25.7 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in graphite, below image, lower center: "Miss Cooper"

Lettered, below image, lower left: "Beauty commands submifsion as it's due, | Nor is't the slave alone that owns this true," | PLeilly Eques pinx :" ; lower right: "Much fairer Youths shall this just tribute pay, | None Fate deplore, but thankfully obey" | W Faithorne fee" ; lower center: "BEAUTY'S | TRIBUTE | Sold by W. Herbert at the Golden Globe on London Bridge."

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1974.12.440
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
boy | children | fountain | garden | genre subject | girl | grapes | house | landscape | portrait | servant | tree
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:23735
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In a lush garden with glimpses of a house and fountain beyond, a kneeling boy—whose identity as African or Asian remains unclear—presents a girl with a bunch of grapes. This mezzotint is based on a late seventeenth-century painting by Sir Peter Lely of Elizabeth Cooper, daughter of an eminent London print publisher. Whereas engravings after painted portraits usually retained the name of the sitter, Faithorne’s print shows how portraits could also be recast as generic images for a wider public audience. The composition closely follows Lely’s earlier portrait of Lady Charlotte Fitzroy; it replicates the kneeling boy while altering the girl’s features. A title and four lines of verse have been added that shift the emphasis away from Cooper’s specific likeness towards a generalized depiction of “beauty”:

Beauty commands Submission as it’s due,
Nor is’t the Slave alone that owns this true.
Much fairer Youths shall this just Tribute pay,
one Fate deplore, but thankfully obey.

While the image explicitly contrasts the girl’s whiteness with the boy’s darker skin, the verse suggests that all (enslaved and free, black and white) will willingly submit to a natural order in which “beauty”—implied here to be European and white—reigns supreme.

Gallery label for Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14)

Figures of Empire: Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-10-02 - 2014-12-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

David Bindman, The Image of the Black in Western Art, From the " Age of Discovery " to the Age of Aboloition Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque , vol. 3, part 1, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; London, England, 2010, pp. 265, 266, pl. 149, N8232 I42 2010 vol.3,part 1 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) Citation is to Volume 3, Part 1 [YCBA]

Figures of Empire : Slavery and Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Britain, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2014, p. 41, V 2556 (YCBA) Also available online: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://britishart.yale.edu/sites/default/files/inline/Figures%20of%20Empire_booklet_FINAL.pdf [YCBA]

Catherine Molineux, Faces of Perfect Ebony, Encountering Atlantic Slavery in Imperial Britain , Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2012, pp. 32, 33, fig. 1.3, DA125.N4 M65 2012 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Slavery and Portraiture in 18th-century Atlantic Britain, [Website] , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2015, Available online https://interactive.britishart.yale.edu/slavery-and-portraiture/ [Website]


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