Antoine Vitré

Little known today, Jean Morin was among the most influential printmakers in 17th-century France. He devised a unique method for portraiture, using a mixture of line and stipple to enhance tonal contrast and create a finely textured background for the etched features. He made about 50 prints after portraits by his father-in-law, Philippe de Champaigne. Antoine Vitré was a Parisian printer and bookseller who specialized in non-Roman alphabets. Unusually straightforward in his stance, the subject holds several products of his trade.