Louis XIV
1663
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Plate: 40.5 × 33.4 cm (16 × 13 3/16 in.); Sheet: 51.5 × 40.1 cm (20 5/16 × 15 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
10876
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This portrait was one of several prints of Louis XIV that Nanteuil engraved based on a pastel that he composed from life. Nanteuil frequently brought friends to entertain his models as they sat, giving his portraits a relaxed, natural look, but Louis XIV was a reputedly difficult subject who detested sitting for extended periods. Nonetheless, Nanteuil would engrave 12 portraits of the king, and draw him in person on more than one occasion. As his career progressed, Nanteuil’s prints grew more pa...
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...