Mother and Three Children
c. 1622
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 13.7 × 8.7 cm (5 3/8 × 3 7/16 in.) sheet: 14.7 × 9.7 cm (5 13/16 × 3 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1949.5.298
Art Historical Context
Jacques Callot's *Mother and Three Children*, created around 1622, is a etching on laid paper, just 13.7 × 8.7 cm on the plate. This intimate print, part of the National Gallery of Art's Rosen Collection (Department CG-E), captures a tender domestic moment amid the artist's broader exploration of human life during the Baroque era. Callot, a masterful French printmaker active in Italy and his native Lorraine, revolutionized etching techniques with his innovative use of multiple acid bites and fine tools, achieving extraordinary detail in tiny formats. Working for the Medici court in Florence d...
About the Artist
Jacques Callot · 1592–1635
Jacques Callot (1592–1635) was a French printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine, widely regarded as one of the first great artists to practice the graphic arts exclusively. His more than 1,400 etchings chronicled the breadth of 17th-century life, from Medici court festivities to the brutal realities of warfare. Callot revolutionized etching through technical innovations including the é...