Louis XIV
1664
Medium
engraving
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Miss Ellen T. Bullard
Accession Number
1941.4.8
Art Historical Context
Behold the regal portrait *Louis XIV* (1664), a masterful engraving by Robert Nuil, one of 17th-century France's finest printmakers. Created during the early years of Louis XIV's absolute reign—the Sun King's golden age—this work captures the young monarch at age 26, embodying the grandeur of Versailles-era France. Nanteuil, the king's official engraver, specialized in precise, lifelike portraits of nobility, blending Baroque elegance with technical virtuosity. Engraving, Nanteuil's chosen medium, involved incising intricate lines into a copper plate with a burin tool, then printing to produc...
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...