Bailey Bartlett
Medium
mezzotint and engraving in black on wove paper mounted to brown wove paper
Dimensions
image (irregular): 5.56 × 5.56 cm (2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in.) sheet (trimmed to plate): 6.67 × 6.19 cm (2 5/8 × 2 7/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran)
Accession Number
2015.19.1584.16.1
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
This intimate portrait of Bailey Bartlett, created in 1800 by French-born artist Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, captures a moment in the early years of the American republic. Saint-Mémin, who emigrated to the United States in the 1790s, specialized in producing profile likenesses of prominent citizens using innovative techniques that combined mechanical tracing with traditional printmaking. His works served as both personal mementos and visual records of the young nation's emerging leadership class. The medium—mezzotint and engraving on wove paper—allowed Saint-Mémin to achieve rich tonal depths and fine detail within a remarkably small format, roughly two inches square. This labor-intensive process, involving rocking a copper plate to create velvety blacks and then engraving highlights, reflects the period's appreciation for portable, affordable portraiture that could be collected or exchanged among friends and family. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Corcoran Collection, the print exemplifies how European artistic traditions adapted to document American identity at the turn of the nineteenth century, preserving the features of individuals like Bartlett for posterity in an era before photography.
About the Artist
Charles B. J. Févret de Saint-Mémin · 1770–1852
**Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin** Born on March 12, 1770, in Dijon, France, to marquis Bénigne-Charles Févret de Saint-Mémin, a former conseiller au Parlement de Bourgogne, and Victoire-Marie de Motmans, a creole from Port-au-Prince, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin received a military education at the École Militaire in Paris, graduating in 1785. He served as a cad...