Jean Le Camus
1674
Medium
Engraving; third state of three (Petitjean & Wickert)
Dimensions
Sheet: 19 3/4 × 16 3/4 in. (50.1 × 42.5 cm) Plate: 18 5/16 × 15 1/4 in. (46.5 × 38.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Nathan Chaikin, 1961
Accession Number
61.524.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the refined world of 17th French portraiture with Robert Nanteuil's * Le Camus* (1674), a masterful engraving now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department. third and final state of three—catalogued by Petitjean and Wickert—captures sitter in exquisite detail on a sheet measuring nearly 20 by 17 inches. Nanteuil, France's preeminent engr during the reign of Louis, elevated printmaking to art form rivaling painting producing over 200 portraits the era's intellectuals,, and officials. Engraving allowed Nanteuil to achieve unparalleled precision through ...
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...