Samuel Cousins (English, May 9, 1801 - May 7, 1887) was a mezzotint engraver. After the introduction of steel for engraving purposes about the year 1823, Cousins and his contemporaries were compelled to work on it, because the soft copper previously used for mezzotint plates did not yield a sufficient number of fine impressions to enable the method to compete commercially against line engraving, from which much larger editions were obtainable. The painter-like quality which distinguished the 18th century mezzotints on copper was wanting in his later works, because the hardness of the steel on which they were engraved impaired freedom of execution and richness of tone, and so enhanced the labour of scraping that he accelerated the work by stipple, etching the details instead of scraping them out of the ground in the manner of his predecessors.
[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Mezzotint, plate 30.6 x 23.8 cm]
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