Jean-Baptiste Le Prince

These portraits were based on drawings Le Prince made during his extensive travels in Russia. Back in France, he started publishing prints in 1768 using a particular method of aquatint that allowed him to attain a painterly fluidity while retaining a high degree of control. Printed in brown ink, the plates replicated the visual qualities of pen and wash, catering to an expanding market for drawings. Le Prince was closely associated with Saint-Non (at left), but the two printmakers developed different techniques for etching tone.

Le Prince became famous for his prints and genre paintings of Russian exotica. His taste for strong tonal contrasts and orientalist subjects earned him the nickname of “the Rembrandt of our time.”