Portrait of Fénélon
Medium
Etching and engraving; third state of three (Bocher)
Dimensions
Plate: 8 11/16 × 6 3/4 in. (22 × 17.2 cm) Sheet: 6 15/16 × 5 7/8 in. (17.6 × 15 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.756–1474
Tags
Art Historical Context
This elegant portrait, created in 1803 by the French printmaker Augustin de Saint-Aubin, depicts François Fénélon, the influential 17th-century archbishop, theologian, and author of the celebrated novel *Télémaque*. Though Fénélon had passed away nearly a century earlier, Saint-Aubin’s work reflects the enduring fascination with Enlightenment-era figures during the Napoleonic period, when such images served both as tributes to intellectual heritage and as vehicles for moral and cultural reflection. Executed as an etching and engraving in the third and final state, the print demonstrates the r...
About the Artist
Augustin de Saint-Aubin · 1736–1807
Comment on works: Illustrator; Engraver