Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1805
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Silas Betton is a 1805 ink by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This engraving shows Silas Betton in profile, his face sharply lit against a dark background. The artist used tiny dots and fine lines to make the shadows smooth. It takes skill to get such soft tones with hard tools. Mezzotints look almost like photographs because of how light and dark mix. This one feels extra lifelike for its time. Betton was a New Hampshire politician, so this was likely a formal portrait. Check out another of Saint-Mémin’s engravings to see how he handled faces.
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (French pronunciation: ; 1770–1852) was a French portrait painter and museum director.
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