Young woman seated with a child on her lap

This print shows a young woman in a dark dress, seated on a chair, with a child asleep on her lap. The title, artist, engraver and printer are however all unknown.

This print was made using the mezzotint process of print making - from the Italian, mezzotinto or half-tone or half painted. The process involves printing from a metal plate where the surface is made rough where the darkest tones are needed, and progressively soother to the lightest parts of the image. The advantage of this type of printing over several other methods is that lines (hatching and cross hatching) and dots are not needed to produce half tones giving a richer print as a result. The earliest mezzotint prints date from 1642.