Charles Chaplin, from "L'Artiste"

Art Historical Context

This lithograph, titled *Charles Chaplin, from "'Artiste"*, captures the likeness of Charles Joshua Chaplin, prominent 19th-century French painter of English descent known for his elegant portraits and genre scenes. Created by a collaborative team of lithographers—Vincent Vidal, Célestin Nanteuil and printer Bertauts—it appeared in the August 1, 1859, issue of *L'Art*, a influential Parisian periodical dedicated to promoting contemporary art and artists from 1831 to 1904. Measuring 12 1/2 × 9 3/16 inches, the print exemplifies the era's fascination with artist portraits, blending flattery with documentary precision. Lithography, the medium here, was a revolutionary technique in the mid-19th century, allowing for detailed reproductions at scale and making art accessible beyond elite circles. Nanteuil, in particular, was renowned for his delicate line work in illustrations for magazines like *L'Artiste*, which often featured such vignettes to celebrate the creative community amid France's Second Empire cultural boom. This portrait not only honors Chaplin's rising fame but also reflects the period's self-referential art world, where periodicals fostered a sense of camaraderie among painters, sculptors, and illustrators. Today, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department as a gift from Donato Esposito in 2019, it offers a window into 1850s artistic life—intimate, reproducible, and quintessentially French.

About the Artist

Vincent Vidal|Célestin Nanteuil|Bertauts|Charles Joshua Chaplin (French|French|French|French) · 1811 |1813 |1830 |1825 –1887 |1873 |1860 |1891

French, Carcasonne 1811–1887 Paris|French (born Italy), Rome 1813–1873 Bourron-Marlotte| |French, Andelys 1825–1891 Paris