Charles Willson Peale
Medium
mezzotint and engraving in black on wove paper mounted to brown wove paper
Dimensions
image (irregular): 5.56 × 5.56 cm (2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in.) sheet (trimmed to plate): 6.67 × 6.19 cm (2 5/8 × 2 7/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran)
Accession Number
2015.19.1584.37.2
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
This intimate 1807 print by French-born artist Charles B. J. Févret de Saint-Mémin captures the likeness of Charles Willson Peale, one of America’s most influential early painters and museum founders. Created through a combination of mezzotint and engraving on wove paper, the small circular image—measuring just over two inches across—reflects the refined portrait tradition that flourished in the young republic. Saint-Mémin, who arrived in the United States as a refugee from the French Revolution, specialized in profile portraits produced with the aid of a physiognotrace, a mechanical device th...
About the Artist
Charles B. J. Févret de Saint-Mémin
**Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin** Born on March 12, 1770, in Dijon, France, to marquis Bénigne-Charles Févret de Saint-Mémin, a former conseiller au Parlement de Bourgogne, and Victoire-Marie de Motmans, a creole from Port-au-Prince, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin received a military education at the École Militaire in Paris, graduating in 1785. He served as a cad...