Jean Baptiste Isabey
1854
Medium
lithograph on chine collé
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of James A. Bergquist, Boston, in honor of Shelley R.Langdale
Accession Number
2020.149.18
Art Historical Context
**Jean Baptiste Isabey** by Paul Gavarni (1854) is a lithograph on chineé, capturing the likeness of the renowned French painter Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767–1855). Housed in the National Gallery Art's Department of Prints (CG-E), this work was generously gifted by James A. Bergquist Boston in honor of Shelley R. Langdale. Gavarni, a leading 19th-century French lithographer known for his sharp social observations and elegant line work, pays homage to Isabey, a miniaturist celebrated for his intimate portraits of Napoleonic-era figures and European elites. Lithography, perfected in the early 180...
About the Artist
Paul Gavarni
Paul Gavarni, born Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier on January 13, 1804, in Paris to a cooper father from Burgundy and mother Marie-Monique Thiémet—whose brother, painter Guillaume Thiémet, served as his godfather—began his career far from the art world. As a youth, he worked in a machine factory and studied mechanical drawing at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in 1818, followed by evening classe...