Early 19th Century Engraving "Duke of Buckingham" by Jacobus Houbraken

Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, is one of the most compelling and ultimately tragic figures of the Wars of the Roses. He was Richard III's most powerful ally in the seizure of the throne, the man who helped orchestrate the deposition of Edward V, and then, within months, the leader of a rebellion against the very king he had helped create. He was beheaded in Salisbury marketplace in 1483, aged somewhere around twenty-six. History has never quite settled on what he was: opportunist, idealist, or simply someone who miscalculated at the worst possible moment.

Houbraken gives him a face that holds all of that ambiguity. The portrait, engraved after a picture then in the possession of Magdalene College, Cambridge, shows a heavy-set man in the dress of the Yorkist court, a jeweled medallion at his chest, a fur-trimmed robe, the flat black cap of the period set at an angle that suggests authority without arrogance. The oval wreath cartouche that frames him is one of Houbraken's most elegant compositional devices, and the narrative vignette below the portrait, a multi-figure scene rendered with the same precise, controlled line as the portrait itself, adds the storytelling dimension that distinguishes these prints from simple likenesses.

Artist Biography

Jacobus Houbraken (1698-1780) was a Dutch engraver, apprenticed under his father, Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719). Houbraken’s style was similar to the portrait engravers of the great seventeenth century French school, most notably, Nanteuil, Drevet and Edelinck. He surpassed these masters in his ability to capture textures and tones. The Italian engraver, Raphael Morghen said, “No engraver has ever equalled, and probably will not equal, the Dutchman Jacobus Houbraken, in the manner of imitating the flesh and the hair by means of the graver.” He was sought after by both English and Dutch publishers. His most famous engravings for English publication were those for the historical series, "The Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain", published in parts in London between 1734 and 1752. He worked alongside George Vertue (1684-1756), but most of the great portrayals were left to Houbraken, including those of Newton, Pope, Dryden, Shakespeare and Milton. Under the framed portrait of each individual, he designed and engraved the vignettes and objects associated with each person. Jacobus Houbraken's most important set of original portrait engravings, The Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain, required almost twenty years to complete. The set contains one hundred and eight portraits of British luminaries dating from the 14th to early 18th centuries including Kings, Queens, noblemen, politicians, writers, scientists and philosophers.