Henri Du Plessis
1601 to 1650
Medium
engraving
Dimensions
sheet: 32 × 25.5 cm (12 5/8 × 10 1/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1950.14.568
Art Historical Context
This engraving by Robert Nanteuil captures the likeness of Henri Du Plessis, rendered after an original design by the celebrated French Baroque painter Philippe de Champaigne. Created between 1601 and 1650, the work exemplifies the refined portrait tradition of seventeenth-century France, such prints served both as personal tributes and as widely circulated images of notable figures. Nanteuil, one of the era’s foremost engravers, translated Champaigne’s painted composition into the precise lines and subtle tonal gradations possible through the engraving medium. Measuring 32 by 25.5 centimeter...