Bernard Picart
1715
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
About the artist
1715
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Bernard Picart is a 1715 ink by Nicolaas Verkolje, a Baroque work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This black-and-white portrait shows a man with curly hair and a serious expression. He’s wearing a dark, ruffled shirt and sits at a desk with a half-finished sculpture in his hands. Behind him, shelves hold books with gold lettering on their spines. The artist used a technique called *mezzotint*, which creates smooth shading by roughening the metal plate. This allowed for detailed textures, like the folds in the man’s shirt or the grainy look of the paper on the desk. Next, check out the technique: engraving, cross-hatching to see how artists built up shadows and light in prints like this.
