Portrait of François Dumont
Medium
Etching and engraving; third state of three (Bocher)
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 1/2 × 4 7/16 in. (14 × 11.3 cm) Plate: 6 5/8 × 4 3/4 in. (16.9 × 12 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.2025
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate etching and engraving, *Portrait of François Dumont* (1788), showcases a masterful collaboration between designer Charles Nicolas Cochin II engraver Augustin de Saint-A—two luminaries of late 18th-century Frenchmaking. Cochin, a key figure bridging Rococo elegance and Neoclassicism, likely provided the refined drawing, while Saint-A executed the intricate lines. The subject, François Dumont, was a prominent portrait painter, the intellectual vibrancy of pre-Revolutionary Paris. Printed in the third and final state (as catalogued by Bocher), this small-scale work (plate: 6 5/8 × 4 3/4 in.) exemplifies the era's reproductive print techniques. Etching allowed for soft, tonal modeling in Dumont's face and attire, while fine engraving added precise details like ruffles and hair, ensuring clarity in multiple impressions. Such prints democratized access to elite portraits, circulating images of artists and aristocrats amid Enlightenment salons. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917), it reflects printmaking's role in preserving cultural memory just before the French Revolution upended artistic traditions. A gem for admirers of technical finesse and historical portraiture!
About the Artist
Augustin de Saint-Aubin|Charles Nicolas Cochin II · 1736–1807
Comment on works: Illustrator; Engraver