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Charles Melchior Descourtis1789/94
- Attribution
- Charles-Melchior Descourtis (French, 1753-1820) after Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (French, 1755-1830)
- Medium
- Color aquatint (ash manner), with etching and engraving, on ivory wove paper
- Physical dimensions
- Image: 30.7 × 23.5 cm (12 1/8 × 9 5/16 in.); Plate: 39 × 29.2 cm (15 3/8 × 11 1/2 in.); Sheet: 49.3 × 34.4 cm (19 7/16 × 13 9/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Charles Netcher
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Source rights statement: Public domain
View the museum record ↗From the museum
Louis-Marin Bonnet’s color-printing repertoire included these variations on the fashionable pastel portrait genre. Softly layering multiple chalk-manner plates in colored inks, he completed the images with gold-leaf-accented frames. As the use of gold leaf was strictly regulated in France, Bonnet created an elaborate ruse: the English titles, sometimes misspelled, and printer’s address on the paper frame suggest that these prints were published in London, not Paris. Patently 18th century, with a hint of the boudoir, the resulting works closely resemble highly finished pastels.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0