Gentleman with a Sword Before Some Buildings
Medium
Etching; reverse copy
Dimensions
Sheet (trimmed): 5 1/2 × 3 3/4 in. (13.9 × 9.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.1575
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming 17th-century etching titled *Gentleman with a Sword Some Buildings*, captures aapper French gentleman poised confidently with his sword, set against a backdrop of architectural structures. Created in 1629 and attributed to an anonymous French—possibly in the manner of master etcher Abraham Bosse—it the intricate printmaking of the early Baroque era. Measuring just 5½ × 3¾ inches on a trimmed sheet, its modest scale belies the detailed rendering typical of etchings, a technique Bosse helped popularize through his innovative use of acid to bite fine lines into metal plates, allowin...