Charles Faure
ca. 1648
Medium
Engraving; first state of two (Petitjean & Wickert)
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 9/16 × 3 1/4 in. (11.6 × 8.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Lev Tsitrin, 2000
Accession Number
2000.416.78
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of 17th-century French portraiture with Robert Nanteuil's *Charles Faure* (ca. 1648), a masterful engraving from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection. Nanteuil, one of the era's premier engravers, captured the likeness of Charles Faure—a notable figure of his time—in this intimate sheet measuring just 4 9/16 × 3 1/4 inches. Produced during Louis XIV's early reign, the portrait reflects the growing fascination with individualized likenesses among intellectuals and courtiers, disseminated through prints to reach a broader audience beyond oil...
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...