Pierre Dupuis, Painter to the King
1663
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Plate: 31 × 23.3 cm (12 1/4 × 9 3/16 in.); Sheet: 32.6 × 25 cm (12 7/8 × 9 7/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
60
Art Historical Context
Created in 1663 by French engraver Antoine Masson, this portrait captures Pierre Dupuis, a respected painter who held the prestigious title of Painter to the King under Louis XIV. The work exemplifies the era’s growing emphasis on royal and artistic patronage, when court painters enjoyed elevated social status. As an engraving on paper, it allowed the image to circulate widely, preserving Dupuis’s likeness for collectors and admirers beyond the French court. Masson’s precise line work highlights the formal conventions of seventeenth-century portraiture, from Dupuis’s dignified pose to the sub...