The Right Honorable Sir Charles Pratt, Knight, now Lord Camden

John Faber, the Younger

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print's history demonstrates how images cannot always be taken at face value. It portrays Charles Pratt, a British lawyer and politician who was appointed Chief Justice of Common Pleas in January 1762, and Earl Camden in July 1765 – his titles appear in the lower margin. Rather than starting from scratch in this case, the publishers John and Carington Bowles, decided to alter an earlier portrait of a completely different judge named Sir Thomas Burnet (1694-1753). They must have owned the printing plate engraved by John Faber the Younger after a painting made by Allan Ramsay that had been published before Burnet's death. Sometime after 1765, an unidentified engraver burnished away the area used to print Burnet's face and re-engraved Camden's in its place. The impressive long wig, fur-lined robes, velvet-covered armchair and curtained setting were all left untouched. Text below the image was also changed to identify the new sitter and publishers, and we know that the altered image was issued in 1768 or before, because the address given for John Bowles in the lower margin changed in the latter year.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.