The Beautiful Fruit Gatherer

This print, titled ‘The Beautiful Fruit Gatherer’ dates from around 1790. It was produced using the mezzotint method popular at this time, where the copper plate surface is ground to produce a rough surface. Areas are then scraped and polished to produce light and dark tones. The colours of this print are particularly bright and vibrant. The scene depicts a young woman fashionably dressed in an ornate dress and bonnet picking grapes from a vine. The basket on the ground beside her is filled with grapes, figs and peaches. In the background there is a man-made rectangular lake with a small temple beyond. The print is trimmed below the caption, but was probably printed for Sayer and Bennett who were map and printsellers based in Fleet Street in London.