[A Pencil Sketch by William Daniell, after Architect George Dance, showing the artist Samuel Pepys Cockerell] - 1809

1809. Each pencil sketch on a sheet 10 x 8 inches. Matted to 15 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches. Minor toning and soiling. Very good. This pencil drawing by William Daniell, likely created as a preparatory work for his engraved portraits in A Collection of Portraits Sketched from the Life (1809-1814), offers a rare glimpse into the intricate process behind the creation of his celebrated engravings, particularly highlighting his collaboration with architect and portraitist George Dance.

A pencil drawing by landscape painter and engraver William Daniell, after drawing by George Dance, possibly executed around the time of Daniell's engraving of the portraits for the work A Collection of Portraits Sketched from the Life since the year 1793 by George Dance...(London, 1809-1814). Daniell (1769-1837) was an accomplished landscape artist, etcher and engraver. He traveled with his uncle, renowned landscape painter Thomas Daniell, to India (1786-1793), where he assisted his uncle and developed his own skills. He later produced many magnificent views of locales around the globe, particularly of India. In addition to his well-known landscape works, he also engraved and published a series of portraits drawn by architect George Dance (1741-1825), some of which were published in a two volume work in 1809-1814. Late in his career, Dance turned his hand to other art forms, including music and chalk profile portraits of friends and acquaintances. The subject depicted here is fellow artist, Samuel Pepys Cockerell, who was a fellow architect. Each volume of the work published thirty-six portraits with descriptive text about the subject. The Yale Center for British Art holds not only the published work but also a volume of proof prints, each labeled in manuscript, with the manuscript title "A Series of Portraits drawn by George Dance Esq. and Engraved by Wm. Daniell." This proof volume is comprised only of portraits, with no text, and includes a further eighty-five engravings beyond the seventy-two published by Daniell in 1809-1814. Samuel Pepys Cockerell does not appear in the published work, though he is among the proof prints. Since Dance's original drawings were done in chalk, which is a much looser medium than line-engraving, it is possible that Daniell created this drawing to provide himself with a more defined and delineated image from which to create his engraving. This drawing therefore provided an interesting and important step in the engraving process.