Portrait of Louis XVI
late 18th century
Medium
Stipple engraving, printed in colors
Dimensions
sheet: 10 11/16 x 8 11/16 in. (27.2 x 22 cm) oval image: 7 15/16 x 6 5/8 in. (20.2 x 16.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Susan Dwight Bliss, 1956
Accession Number
56.558.24
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate stipple engraving, titled *Portrait of Louis XVI captures the likeness of France's ill-fated king in an oval frame, a popular format for intimate royal portraits of the era. Created anonymously by a French artist in the late th century, the print measures about 10 by 8 inches and was produced using a technique of fine dots—stippling—to build subtle tones and gradients. Notably printed in color, it exemplifies an innovative printmaking method that allowed for vibrant, painterly effects affordable for wider audiences beyond oil paintings. Louis XVI reigned from 1774 to 1792, a tum...
About the Artist
Anonymous, French, 18th century · 1700–1800
The artist known as Anonymous, French, 18th century, represents a collective of unidentified talents active roughly between 1700 and 1800, a period of profound artistic evolution in France from the opulent Rococo to the austere dawn of Neoclassicism and Revolutionary fervor. Little is documented about their personal training or mentors, as their anonymity obscures individual biographies, though th...