Mary Wright Sonntag Wells
Medium
mezzotint and engraving in black on wove paper mounted to brown wove paper
Dimensions
image (irregular): 5.56 × 5.56 cm (2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in.) sheet (trimmed to plate): 6.67 × 6.19 cm (2 5/8 × 2 7/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran)
Accession Number
2015.19.1584.21.5
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
This intimate 1802 portrait by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin captures Mary Wrightntag Wells in a circular format. Created as a mezzotint and engraving on wove paper, the small print measures just over two inches across, suggesting it may have been intended for personal keepsakes or albums rather than public display. Saint-Mémin, a French émigré artist working in the early American republic, specialized in such profile likenesses that combined mechanical tracing devices with skilled hand engraving. The medium’s rich, velvety blacks and fine tonal gradations demonstrate the technical sophistication of early nineteenth-century printmaking. Mezzotint allowed artists to achieve painterly depth in a reproducible format, making portraits accessible beyond the elite circles who could afford oil paintings. Mounted on brown paper, this example from the Corcoran Collection highlights how prints circulated as both artistic objects and social documents of their time. Today housed at the National Gallery of Art, the work offers visitors a glimpse into the intimate visual culture of the Federal era, when engraved portraits helped shape personal and national identities.
About the Artist
Charles B. J. Févret de Saint-Mémin · 1770–1852
**Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin** Born on March 12, 1770, in Dijon, France, to marquis Bénigne-Charles Févret de Saint-Mémin, a former conseiller au Parlement de Bourgogne, and Victoire-Marie de Motmans, a creole from Port-au-Prince, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin received a military education at the École Militaire in Paris, graduating in 1785. He served as a cad...