Coins [plate 10]

Art Historical Context

Jacques Callot's *Coins [plate 10]*, etched around 1629–1630, invites visitors into the virtuoso world of 17th-century French printmaking. This intimate etching on laid paper, trimmed to a neat 21.6 × 22.3 cm, belongs to the Rosenwald Collection in the National Gallery of Art's Prints department. As plate 10 in a series, it exemplifies Callot's fascination with everyday yet fantastical objects, rendered with dazzling precision during a turbulent era marked by the early Thirty Years' War. A master etcher from Nancy, Lorraine, Callot (1592–1635) pioneered techniques like fine-line hatching and ...

About the Artist

Jacques Callot · 1592–1635

Jacques Callot (1592–1635) was a French printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine, widely regarded as one of the first great artists to practice the graphic arts exclusively. His more than 1,400 etchings chronicled the breadth of 17th-century life, from Medici court festivities to the brutal realities of warfare. Callot revolutionized etching through technical innovations including the é...