Portrait of the Painter Baron François Gérard
before 1837
Medium
Lithograph in black on light gray China paper, laid down on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 21.5 × 19.5 cm (8 1/2 × 7 11/16 in.); Primary support: 27.8 × 22.4 cm (11 × 8 7/8 in.); Secondary support: 44.3 × 35 cm (17 1/2 × 13 13/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
9557
Art Historical Context
This lithograph by Jean François Gigoux captures the likeness of Baron François Gérard, one of the leading portrait painters of the Napoleonic era. Created before 1837, the work reflects the close-knit world of French artists in the early nineteenth century, when painters often portrayed their peers to celebrate professional achievement and personal connection. Gérard, known for his elegant neoclassical portraits of emperors and aristocrats, is here commemorated by a younger colleague using a modern reproductive medium. Gigoux’s choice of lithography is especially telling. Invented only a few...