Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1801
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
St. Guily is a 1801 ink by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This tiny engraving shows Paul Revere’s face in profile, dark against light paper. The lines blur softly around his nose and chin, making the face feel real. That’s the trick here: the artist used cross-hatching, a technique where parallel lines crowd close to create shadows and smooth out edges. Revere’s coat collar presses against his neck in sharp contrast. Saint-Mémin made many early American portraits this way. He worked fast, traveling from town to town to draw and then engrave plates for printing. Small prints like this one let regular people own a likeness of leaders or themselves. Check Saint-Mémin’s other portraits next.
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (French pronunciation: ; 1770–1852) was a French portrait painter and museum director.
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