Sir Robert Strange after van Dyck.

Charles 1st King of Great Britain &c.

13.5 x 21 inches

A copper plate engraving of King Charles I, engraved by Robert Strange after the portrait by van Dyck and published in London in 1770.

This impressive image is the work of one of the eighteenth century's most accomplished line engravers, Sir Robert Strange. Strange was born in Orkney in Scotland in 1721 but after a brief period on the continent he established himself in London as an engraver of principally historical subjects. He worked during a period when alternative printing methods such as mezzotint and stipple were in fashion but resolutely eschewed such techniques in favour of what he considered to be the superior method of line engraving. He relished the clarity and simplicity of what could be achieved through a clear and expressive line and saw his work in the tradition of the old master engravers.