Charles Turner after Thomas Bennet

Badgers

25 x 20.5 inches

A scarce, colour printed mezzotint; engraved by Charles Turner after Thomas Bennet and published in London by Ackermann in 1831.

Do not be fooled by the rustic subject matter of this print into thinking it has no merit, for by the time Charles Turner produced this exquisite mezzotint in 1831 he was already Mezzotint Engraver to the King and Associate Engraver of The Royal Academy: he was at the top of his game. He was considered one of the most successful and highly skilled engravers of his generation. So beautifully has he rendered this pair of badgers that you can almost touch the coarseness of their hair. Badgers have long held a fascination for the elusiveness of their appearance and their comparative scarcity in the wild. Turner engraved over 600 portraits of people during an illustrious career so we can only speculate that the badgers made a refreshing change of subject matter!