Portrait of Louis XV
Medium
Mezzotint with etching, in black, brown, blue, and white, with traces of red ink on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
61.8 × 46 cm (24 3/8 × 18 1/8 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
34306
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Jacques Gautier D’Agoty worked as an apprentice in Jacob Christoph Le Blon’s Paris studio for a few weeks in 1738. After Le Blon’s death, he argued that he had improved Le Blon’s color mezzotint process by adding a fourth plate and opportunistically claimed the exclusive right to use the process, by order of Louis XV. Gautier D’Agoty also insisted that—unlike Le Blon—his prints did not rely on hand retouching or highlighting. This portrait of their mutual patron includes both a black plate and e...