Anne Vallayer-Coster
Medium
etching and engraving
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
1979.25.6
Art Historical Context
This delicate etching and engraving, titled *Anne Vallayer-Coster captures the likeness of the renowned French still-life painter Anne Vallayer-Coster, by Charles Francois Le Tell after 1770. As a print in the National Gallery of Art collection (acquired through the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund), it exemplifies 18th-century reproductive printmaking, a vital medium for disseminating images of prominent artists and their works to a wider audience beyond elite patrons. Vallayer-Coster, during the late Rococo and early Neoclassical periods, was one of the few women admitted to the Académie Royale de P...