Art Institute of Chicago

Portrait of Edouard Dagoty

Carlo Lasinio (Italian, 1759-1838)

Date

After 1783

Medium

Color mezzotint, with traces of scraping on ivory laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This portrait of Edouard Gautier D’Agoty attests to the successful self-promotion of his father, the printmaker Jacques Gautier D’Agoty, who added the more refined surname D’Agoty late in his career. The text on the ledge incorrectly notes that the sitter, Gautier D’Agoty’s third son, had invented the color mezzotint medium, when in actuality it was the elder Gautier D’Agoty who had learned the process from Jacob Christoph Le Blon. Gautier D’Agoty nevertheless justified his own role in the development of color mezzotints in the introduction to every publication after being granted control of the process by King Louis XV in 1742.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.