Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1803
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
de Lespinasse is a 1803 ink by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This tiny print shows a woman’s face in soft black and white. Mezzotint lets Saint-Mémin blur edges so the skin looks smooth and the lace collar crisp. He used angled lines called cross-hatching to shade the cheeks. The plate is only two inches tall—old printmakers had to carve every dot by hand. Look for his self-portrait next time you’re at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (French pronunciation: ; 1770–1852) was a French portrait painter and museum director.
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