Fenelon
Medium
Aquatint on paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 10.6 × 7.5 cm (4 3/16 × 3 in.); Sheet: 18 × 13.5 cm (7 1/8 × 5 3/8 in.)
Classification
aquatint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
53629
Art Historical Context
Jean-Baptiste de Grateloup’s aquatint “Fenelon” offers a finely detailed portrait of the influential French theologian and writer François Fénelon. Measuring just 10.6 × 7.5 cm for the image, the small print is rendered with the soft tonal gradations characteristic of aquatint, a technique that uses acid to etch a textured plate and produce effects similar to watercolor washes. This medium allowed printmakers to achieve subtle shading and atmospheric depth that traditional line engraving could not easily match, making it especially suited for intimate portraits meant for books or private coll...
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...