Spring

Williams, John Michael, after

Mezzotint on paper of the personification of Spring, engraved by James McArdell (1729-1765) and published by John Bowles (1701-c.1780) in London between 1753 and 1766. It is a copy of a painting by John Michael Williams (fl.1743-1780), current whereabouts unknown. The print was produced as one of a set of Four Seasons, with Autumn also engraved by McArdell. Summer and Winter were engraved by Richard Houston (c.1721-1775) and were copies of paintings by Samuel Wale (1720-1786). Spring is presented as a fashionable woman in a garden. She holds a garland of flowers and leans against the basin of an ornamental fountain decorated with the intertwined tails of two dolphins spouting water. For a comment on McArdell see Wep 4178.12.