The Lunch at Ferney
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Plate: 15.8 × 19.1 cm (6 1/4 × 7 9/16 in.); Sheet: 20.4 × 24.4 cm (8 1/16 × 9 5/8 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
133277
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Long banished from official court functions, Voltaire continued entertaining his intellectual friends even into his twilight years. Here the artist Denon, who actively solicited an invitation from Voltaire, shows the philosopher as a doddering, toothless old man in his bedroom at his Ferney estate, near the Swiss border. Voltaire and Denon would later disagree about the arguably satirical intent of this scene and of another portrait by Denon. Nonetheless, the resulting engraving was prized by co...