Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty (1740-1780) after Anna Dorothea Therbusch-Lisiewska (1721-1782)

This colour mezzotint is considered the rarest and most sought-after printed portrait of the great Prussian king. Singer knew three impressions in public collections: Berlin, Dresden and London. (The impression in Berlin is now lost, the one in Dresden is partially painted over and closely trimmed.) In their Neue Lagerlist 75, C. G. Boerner mention few others: one in their Lagerliste 71 (1979) ; one in their sale 165 in 1930 in Leipzig; one in the collection Freiherr von Lanna, sold at Gutekunst in Stuttgart in 1910; and one in the sale 418 at Stargardt, Berlin, in 1939. Nearly all of them are defective in one way or the other; the impression in the British Museum is in good condition.