A portrait engraving is a print depicting a person, produced by engraving or a related intaglio process from a metal plate. Most were made after paintings or drawings by other artists, translating a portrait into a form that could be reproduced and distributed in quantity.
Portrait engravings flourished from the sixteenth century onwards and were used as book frontispieces, in collections of illustrious figures and as individual prints for display. In Britain, the mezzotint became the dominant medium for reproducing society portraits in the eighteenth century, with skilled engravers interpreting works by Reynolds, Gainsborough and their contemporaries. Line engraving and later steel engraving were used for book illustration and for portraits of statesmen, clergy, writers and royalty throughout the nineteenth century. Collecting portrait engravings by sitter, by engraver or by the painter they reproduce has a long tradition, and the practice of grangerising, inserting such prints into books, was once popular. Value depends on the quality of the impression, the state of the plate, margins, condition and the importance of the sitter. Framed groups of portrait engravings are a classic feature of libraries, studies and staircases in country-house interiors.
