Furness, William Henry, Jr. "Emerson"

William Henry Furness Jr. "Emerson."

Philadelphia: 1860s-1880s. 16 x 12 (plate mark). Mezzotint engraving by Emily Sartain from an unfinished portrait. Wide margins. Handwritten in pencil is the text that was printed on copies after copyright. Very good condition.

William Henry Furness Jr. (1821-1867), son of famed Unitarian minister Rev. William Henry Furness (1802-1896) and brother to renowned architect Frank Furness (1839-1912), was born in Philadelphia, gained fame as a portraitist, studied for a while in Europe, and lived alternately in Boston and Philadelphia, where he often exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Daughter of John Sartain (1808-1897) who immigrated to Philadelphia from England and is known as "the father of mezzotint engraving" in the United States. Emily Sartain (1841-1927) was an artist of considerable skill who produced a quantity of fine prints and served as principal of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (which later merged into the present Moore College of Art and Design) for 33 years, from 1886 until 1919.

Furness worked on his portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), finishing just the figure of the standing subject but none of the background. His father commissioned Sartain to create this engraving in 1871, and sent a copy to his good friend Emerson. Emerson replied in a letter of December 17, 1871, that "It was certainly a kinder & more desirable figure & expression than I fear any photograph would give me," and went onto say that his wife found it "not only a good picture, but an excellent likeness," in which opinion his daughter concurred.