Frontispiece from "La Vie des Peintres"
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 6 5/16 × 3 15/16 in. (16 × 10 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.1764
Art Historical Context
This frontispiece, created between 1753 and 1764, served as the opening illustration for *La Vie des Peintres*, a multi-volume work by Jean-Baptiste Descamps celebrating lives of European painters.-Philippe Le Bas a master engraver, translated the design into etching and engraving, techniques that allowed for fine detail and tonal richness ideal for book illustration. The modest sheet size—roughly the dimensions of a small print—reflects its intended role within a published volume rather than as a standalone artwork. Etching and engraving flourished in eighteenth-century France as accessible ...
About the Artist
Jacques Philippe Le Bas|J. B. Descamps · 1707–1783
Comment on works: Engraver