Anecdotes of painting in England : with some account of the principal artists and incidental notes on other arts
Horace Walpole's 1762 Anecdotes of Painting in England, printed by Thomas Farmer at Strawberry Hill, is a scholarly art history for connoisseurs and collectors, drawing on George Vertue's notes on English artists. Its engraved plates are formal oval-free head-and-shoulders portraits of painters and patrons, with sitters in periwigs and fur-trimmed robes set against plain grounds, shaded with fine hatched lines. A designer might take the restrained engraved portrait format, the period wig and costume detail, and the tonal hatching for vintage editorial or heritage typography layouts.
