Jean Champlain
1655
Medium
Engraving; first state of four (Petitjean & Wickert)
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 1/2 × 7 3/8 in. (26.6 × 18.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1920
Accession Number
20.13.12
Tags
Art Historical Context
Robert Nanteuil's *Jean Champlain* (5) is a masterful that exemplifies the pinnacle of 17th-century French portraiture. Created as the first state of four—meaning the earliest, unaltered impression before later revisions—this print captures the sitter, likely a contemporary French figure, with striking realism. Measuring 10 1/2 × 7 3/8 inches, it belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection, acquired the Rogers Fund in 1920. Nante (1623–1678), one of Louis XIV's favored engravers, elevated printmaking to fine art through his precise burin work. His technique invo...
About the Artist
Robert Nanteuil · 1623–1678
Robert Nanteuil (1623-1678) was a French portrait engraver, draughtsman, and pastellist who became the preeminent portraitist to the court of Louis XIV. His technical mastery and royal patronage fundamentally transformed the status of engraving in France, elevating it from a mechanical craft to a recognized fine art. Nanteuil stands as the outstanding French portrait engraver of the seventeenth c...