At the same time that artists such as Vouet produced drawn portraits of the king and his court, prints depicting the monarch and fashionable members of his retinue became popular and were widely circulated and collected. Later in the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth, these prints would occasionally be embellished with watercolor as well as fabric swatches. This print had areas excised and backed with different fabrics to evoke the color and richness of court dress during the period.
Although most of the dressed prints in the library's collection were made between 1690 and 1710, the later date of the fabrics indicates that they were "dressed" some forty or fifty years later. The correct French term for the process is découpé. Its translation, literally "cut-out", gives some idea of what was involved. Portions of the print were cut out and faced from the reverse side with fabric corresponding to parts of the costume. What remained of the print was skillfully tinted with watercolor.
At the same time that artists such as Vouet produced drawn portraits of the king and his court, prints depicting the monarch and fashionable members of his retinue became popular and were widely circulated and collected. Later in the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth, these prints would occasionally be embellished with watercolor as well as fabric swatches. This print had areas excised and backed with different fabrics to evoke the color and richness of court dress during the period. -- Exhibition Label, From "Poussin, Claude, and French Drawing in the Classical Age"
Full-length portrait of Louis XIV, King of France, standing, facing left.