Portrait of Henry IV

Art Historical Context

This lithograph portrait of King Henry IV, created in 1817 by French artist Baron François Pascal Simon Gérard, captures the beloved monarch who reigned from 1589 to 1610. Gérard, a leading Neoclassical painter and official portraitist to Napoleon, turned to the newly invented medium of lithography during the Bourbon Restoration. The technique, which allowed artists to draw directly on stone for reproduction, offered a fresh way to disseminate royal imagery to a broader public. Executed in black on ivory wove paper, the print measures just under eight inches high yet conveys regal authority through precise line work and subtle tonal modeling. Produced just three years after the monarchy’s return, the image likely served to link the restored Bourbons with Henry IV’s legacy of tolerance and stability following France’s revolutionary upheavals. Today housed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Prints and Drawings, the work illustrates how early nineteenth-century artists harnessed lithography’s accessibility to blend historical reverence with contemporary political messaging. Its modest size and crisp detail make it an engaging example of how printmaking helped shape public memory of France’s past.