Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1801
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Coulon is a 1801 ink by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
You see a man’s face in sharp black and white. His white wig is powdered smooth, his coat rich but plain. The artist used cross-hatching—tiny lines—to shade the skin and fabric until they look almost real. Mechanical presses pressed ink into paper here, not brushes. That’s why the shadows melt so softly around his nose and cheeks. It’s a quiet trick, but it made 1801 viewers feel like they could reach out and touch him. Look up Saint-Mémin, Charles B. J. Févret de next.
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (French pronunciation: ; 1770–1852) was a French portrait painter and museum director.
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