Portrait of Mariano Fortuny
date: label: date made
content: 1873
label: date made
content: 1875
name: label: graphic artist
content: Ferris, Stephen James
notes: label: Description
content: This profile portrait of Spanish painter and graphic artist Mariano Fortuny is one of two in the NMAH collection that Stephen Ferris made in 1875, soon after Fortuny’s untimely death at age thirty-six in Rome, Italy, on November 21, 1874.
label: Description
content: Gerome Ferris, in a note on the mount, refers to the print as an etching on glass. According to a contemporary, Stephen Ferris “was one of the first artists to practice etching on glass as it was miscalled at the time.” The <i>cliché-verre</i> process, as it known today, originated in France in the nineteenth century. The artist coats a glass plate with an opaque substance and then draws an image on it with a pointed instrument such as an etching needle. He then lays the plate image-side down on a sheet of photosensitized paper and exposes it to light.
label: Description
content: This print and a second portrait of Fortuny by Ferris were the only two American etched portraits shown in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The revival of interest in etching that began in Europe during the 1860s did not really take off in the United States until about 1880, but visitors to the exhibition saw a modest number of American etchings at the beginning of the movement.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
topic: label: Subject
content: Portraits
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
label: See more items in
content: Ferris Collection
label: See more items in
content: Communications
label: See more items in
content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: GA.14552
label: catalog number
content: 14552
label: accession number
content: 94830
objectType: label: Object Name
content: print
label: Object Type
content: Cliche-verre
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 17 cm x 12.5 cm; 6 11/16 in x 4 15/16 in
label: Measurements
content: sheet: 21.5 cm x 14 cm; 8 7/16 in x 5 1/2 in