Head of Executioner, from John Evelyn's Sculptura (1755): Artwork and History

Head of Executioner, from John Evelyn's Sculptura (1755) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Richard Houston (Irish, circa 1721–1775) after Prince Rupert of the Rhine (German, 1619-1682).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Richard Houston was an Irish painter and etcher who worked in England. He copied paintings primarily by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This print, however, is one of at least five copies of a mezzotint by Prince Rupert, who brought this new technique to England around 1654.

Object facts

• Title: Head of Executioner, from John Evelyn's Sculptura
• Date: 1755
• Artist attribution: Richard Houston (Irish, circa 1721–1775) after Prince Rupert of the Rhine (German, 1619-1682)
• Place of origin: Ireland
• Medium: Mezzotint in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Image/plate: 13 × 16.3 cm (5 1/8 × 6 7/16 in.); Sheet: 17.8 × 17.8 cm (7 1/16 × 7 1/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1887.433

Collection credit

Elizabeth Hammond Stickney Collection

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.