Jan Six

About this artwork

blad: hoogte 255 mm (binnen de plaatrand afgesneden) x breedte 200 mm (binnen de plaatrand afgesneden)

Art Historical Context

This etching titled *Jan Six* was created by the French printmaker Pierre François Basan (1733–1797). Working during the height of the Enlightenment, Basan specialized in reproductive prints that made celebrated paintings and drawings accessible to a wider audience through the medium of etching. The sheet measures 255 by 200 mm, trimmed within the plate mark, a format typical of eighteenth-century collector’s prints designed for portfolios or albums. Etching allowed Basan to translate the tonal subtleties and textures of an earlier work—most likely a seventeenth-century Dutch portrait—into fi...