Charles-Maurice Le Tellier
1670
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 15 7/16 × 12 1/8 in. (39.2 × 30.8 cm) Plate: 13 3/8 × 10 13/16 in. (34 × 27.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mr. Lev Tsitrin, 2001
Accession Number
2001.647.31
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the refined world of 17th French portraiture with Robert Nanteuil'sCharles-Maurice Le Tell* (1670), a masterful engraving now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Department of Drawings and Prints. intimate portrait, measuring 15 7/16 × 12 1/8 inches on its sheet, captures the subject's dignified presence through Nanteuil's precise burin work, a technique that allowed for intricate lines and subtle tonal gradations on copper plates. Nanteuil, one of the era's premier engravers, elevated printmaking to an art form rivaling painting, often depicting nobility and courtiers during Lo...
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...