I recently received a question from a Cameo Creations Collector that may be of interest to others. So I thought I would post my response. I was asked what the meaning of R.A. was that you sometimes see in regards to painting descriptions. R. A. means "reproduced after". Essentially it means the portrait was painted as a classical reproduction of a well-known work by a famous artist. For example, If I was a painter that was painting after the time of Rembrandt and actually "reproduced" one of Rembrandt's paintings, I would note my endeavor as reproduced after the same work name by Rembrandt. It's sort of like giving proper credit to the original master. Yes, you are acknowledging the painting is one of your originals but it's composition was copied from an existing work.
The image at left is a print of a Cameo Creations portrait of Countess Hochnstein by Vincent Nesbert after (R.A.) an original by Carl Ferdinand Stelzner.
