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Frontispiece: J.J. Rousseau

Augustin de Saint-Aubin after Maurice-Quentin de La Tour

1777

Frontispiece: J.J. Rousseau by Augustin de Saint-Aubin after Maurice-Quentin de La Tour

Medium

etching and engraving

Classification

Print

Department

CG-E

Museum

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Credit

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.2483

Art Historical Context

Step into the world of Enlightenment portraiture with *Frontispiece: J. Rousseau*, a delicate etching and engraving from 1777 by Augustin Saint-Aubin, faithfully reproducing a pastel portrait by the renowned French artist Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. As a frontispiece, print likely served as the ornate introductory image for a book honoring Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the influential philosopher whose ideas on education, nature, and social contract shaped modern thought. Created just a year before Rousseau's death in 1778, it captures the era's fascination with his revolutionary spirit. De La Tour,...

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