Antique Original from 1783 [Joh. Heinrich Lips, 1758-1817] after Rubens popular - SOCRATES - 1777 - Classical, Portraits

popular Johann Heinrich Lips (29 April 1758, in Kloten – 5 May 1817, in Zürich) was a Swiss copper engraver; mostly of portraits.
After Rubens
32 x 25.4 cm
Copper engraving, 1783.
Lips' talent for drawing enabled an apprenticeship for him with the painter, Johann Caspar Füssli. Later, he was also able to obtain a position with the etcher, Johann Rudolf Schellenberg, in Winterthur. From 1774 to 1776, he worked with Schellenberg to produce the illustrations for Lavater's famous work Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntniß und Menschenliebe, a major treatise on physiognomy. Following that, he briefly worked with Johann Caspar's son, Johann Heinrich Füssli, better known as Henry Fuseli.
From 1780 to 1782, with financial assistance, he made a study tour of Germany which included time at the Drawing Academy in Mannheim and a visit to Düsseldorf, where he discovered the works of Anthony van Dyck. From 1782 to 1789, he spent much of his time in Rome, where he became part of the German artistic community; befriending Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, who was touring Italy with Goethe.