Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard, printmaker

According to Greek mythology, Oedipus became king of Thebes by correctly answering the riddle of the Sphinx, a monstrous creature who was tormenting the city. The moment of his triumph was depicted in 1808 in a painting by the French artist Ingres, and later painstakingly reproduced in this engraving. Gaillard used lightly engraved, densely packed short parallel marks to convey the deep shadows of the background and the smooth, sculptural solidity of the male nude. Working at a time when photography was on the rise and the role of reproductive engraving was waning, Gaillard breathed new life into that traditional medium by rejecting earlier conventions, creating a breathtakingly vivid style of his own.