Self-Portrait. 1778-1780

Jean-Etienne Liotard

1702 – Geneva – 1790

Roulette and engraving over mezzotint. Sheet size: 27.2 x 22.8 cm. Portalis and Béraldi II, p. 722. Tilanus 9.

Excellent impression with wide margins, flawlessly preserved and untouched.

Liotard is renowned as a pastel portraitist. He also made fifteen prints and was fond of depicting himself in exotic garb. This print is a small version of a larger one that reproduces a self-portrait exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1773 which is presently in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva (inv. 1925-5; Loche-Roethlisberger 281; de Herdt, 134). The print was used as an illustration in Liotard's Traité des principes et des règles de la peinture published in Geneva in 1781 when he was nearly 80. In this treaty Liotard discussed le dessin, le coloris, le jugement, l'invention, la composition, l'expression, le clair-obscur, l'harmonie, l'effet, le contraste, le saillant and la grace. The wide margins of this print suggest that it was singly issued and not used as a plate in the volume.

Bought within the art trade.