Art Institute of Chicago

Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse Du Barry, and her servant Zamor

Jean-Baptiste-André Gautier D'Agoty

Date

1771

Medium

Color aquatint, hand applied opaque white and embossing on laid paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The artists of the Gautier D’Agosty family experimented with several approaches to color printing. In the attempt to make what they called “printed paintings”, they sometimes even varnished their final results. This aquatint is not only printed in full color from multiple plates, but the lace bordering Madam du Barry’s negligée has been deeply embossed in a painterly impasto manner. The accompanying poem suggest fawningly that this royal mistress in her boudoir is indistinguishable from Venus, the goddess of love.

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