THOMAS WORLIDGE (1700-1776)

STUDY OF A MAN WITH A HEADSCARF
Graphite, with stumping, and double framing lines in pencil
Signed with initials & dated u.r. TW 1761
20.4 x 14 cm
 
 
 
 
 
Worlidge was a versatile artist who worked across several media throughout his career. He began as a portrait painter and miniaturist, but turned in middle life to producing head-studies such as the present sheet in black-head pencil, for which he charged two guineas, and found great commercial success in this. Later in life, he focused on producing etchings in the manner of Rembrandt, using a dry-needle with triangular point. He also made direct copies of some of Rembrandt’s prints, among them the artist’s portrait of himself and the hundred-guelder plate. An etching after Rembrandt’s portrait of Sir John Astley was described by Horace Walpole as Worlidge’s ‘best piece.’ 
 
Unlike much of Worlidge’s Rembrandt-esque works, the present sheet – signed and dated 1761 –would appear to have been inspired by similar male heads that appear in the drawings and prints of the Neapolitan artist Salvator Rosa (1615-1673).
 
 
 
Worlidge’s last work was his Antique Gems, a series of 182 etchings of antique gems and cameos. The series was published in several parts, some of which seem to have been issued as early as 1754; but Worlidge died before the work was completed. It was finished by his pupils William Grimaldi and George Powle. In April 1754 Worlidge had a large collection of his works to be sold by public auction. The printed catalogue bore the title, ‘A Collection of Pictures painted by Mr. Worlidge of Covent Garden, consisting’ ‘of Histories, Heads, Landscapes, and Dead Game, and also some Drawings.’ The highest price fetched was £51 15s. 6d., which was given for a ‘fine head’ after Rembrandt. More than sixteen hundred prints and more than thirteen hundred drawings by Worlidge were sold by Abraham Langford in March 1767 by order of his widow, Elizabeth Wicksteed, who was a talented artist herself.