The Artist's Wife and Children
Wallerand Vaillant
1665/77
Medium
Mezzotint on paper
Dimensions
37.4 × 29.6 cm (14 3/4 × 11 11/16 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
26800
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The oldest of five artist brothers, Wallerant Vaillant was a successful Dutch artist who made several portraits of royalty. He frequently used the newly discovered technique of mezzotint, as he has done in this print, in which the surface of a copper plate is entirely roughened by a rocker and then burnished to achieve tonal effects.