Descartes
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 10.5 × 7.3 cm (4 3/16 × 2 7/8 in.); Sheet: 18.8 × 13.3 cm (7 7/16 × 5 1/4 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
53610
Art Historical Context
This delicate engraving by Jean-Baptiste de Grateloup captures the likeness of the renowned philosopher René Descartes in a compact format ideally suited to prints and drawings collections. Created on paper through the precise technique of engraving—where the artist incises fine lines into a metal plate that is then inked and pressed—the work exemplifies how this medium allowed for detailed reproduction and wide circulation of portraits during the early modern period. Its modest plate size of just over four by three inches invites close viewing, highlighting the intricate craftsmanship require...
About the Artist
Jean-Baptiste de Grateloup · 1735–1817
Jean-Baptiste de Grateloup (1735–1817) was a French engraver and miniature painter whose long career spanned the final decades of the ancien régime and the upheavals of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. Born in the Landes region of southwestern France, he established himself in Paris as a professional printmaker working across a range of portrait and reproductive subjects. Grateloup's practi...