Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1800
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
J. B. Loir is a 1800 ink by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
You see a man in a dark coat and high collar, his face half-lit by light. This print is a mezzotint, a tricky technique where the artist roughens a metal plate. The plate holds ink only where the light hits the face—so shadows stay soft. The artist, Saint-Mémin, often made portraits like this in early 1800s America. He was French but worked in the U.S., where this style caught on fast. Look up Saint-Mémin, Charles B. J. Févret de
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (French pronunciation: ; 1770–1852) was a French portrait painter and museum director.
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