Caesar and His Prisoners
1878
Medium
Lithograph on cream China paper laid down on white wove paper
Dimensions
Image/chine: 15.7 × 21.2 cm (6 3/16 × 8 3/8 in.); Stone: 24.3 × 17.8 cm (9 5/8 × 7 1/16 in.); Sheet: 45 × 34.5 cm (17 3/4 × 13 5/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
8064
Art Historical Context
Rodolphe Bresdin'sCaesar and His Prisoners (1878) captures a dramatic moment from ancient Roman history, evoking the of Julius Caesar surrounded by his captives. Created during the late 19th century France, this work reflects Bresdin's mastery ofmaking, a medium that allowed artists to produce intricate, reproducible images with remarkable detail. As a lithograph on delicate cream China paper laid down on white wove paper, it exemplifies the technical precision of the era's graphic arts, where lithography—developed in the late 18th century—enabled fluid lines and tonal subtleties akin to drawi...
About the Artist
Rodolphe Bresdin · 1822–1885
Rodolphe Bresdin (1822–1885) was a visionary French draughtsman, engraver, and lithographer whose fantastical imagery captured the empathy of rural poverty and the wild exuberance of the imagination. Born on August 12, 1822, in Montrelais near Le Fresne-sur-Loire in Brittany, he grew up in the Breton countryside amid its bardic folklore traditions before a family dispute left him homeless in Paris...