Robert Nanteuil (c. 1623-1678)
After Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674)
Portrait of Victor Bouthillier (1596-1670)
1651, engraving on paper, first state of three [?]
12 15/16 x 9 7/8 in. (32.9 x 25.1 cm) (image size)
Gift of Mrs. Frederick Paul Keppel (C00.0802.034)

This portrait of Victor Bouthillier, Archbishop of Tours, was made by Nanteuil directly after the portrait that Champaigne painted. The painter’s propensity to highlight his sitters’ psychology resonated with Nanteuil’s own artistic sensibility, although the latter’s portraits tend to convey less restraint. The sitter’s face, illuminated brightly from the right, stands out, while the smoothness of the skin is rendered through a slight stippling made with the tip of the burin. As such, the engraved portrait is indeed an interpretation rather than a copy of the painting, for the use of color for modeling cannot be reproduced with the burin but must be reinvented with it.