Portrait of Edouard Dagoty

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

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.

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