Chancellor Michel Le Tellier
1659
Medium
engraving
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.6618
Art Historical Context
Step into the refined world of 17th-century France with Robert Nanteuil's *Chancellor Michel Le Tellier (1659), a engraving now housed in the National Gallery of Art's Rosenwald Collection Nanteuil, one of the era's greatest portrait engravers, captures Michel Le Tellier, a statesman and Secretary of State for War under Louis XIV Created during the height of absolutist rule, this print immortalizes Le Tellier just before his elevation to Chancellor in 1677, reflecting the grandeur of the French court amid the Sun King's ambitious reign. Engraving, Nanteuil's specialty, involves incising fine ...
About the Artist
Robert Nanteuil · 1623–1678
Robert Nanteuil (1623-1678) was a French portrait engraver, draughtsman, and pastellist who became the preeminent portraitist to the court of Louis XIV. His technical mastery and royal patronage fundamentally transformed the status of engraving in France, elevating it from a mechanical craft to a recognized fine art. Nanteuil stands as the outstanding French portrait engraver of the seventeenth c...