On November 13, 2023, La Poste issues a stamp bearing the image of Robert NANTEUIL, engraver, designer and virtuoso pastellist from the 17th century on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his birth.
Author of more than 200 engraved portraits, draftsman and virtuoso pastellist, Robert Nanteuil (1623-1678) left a brilliant gallery of the century of Louis XIV. He well deserved the nickname “Saint-Simon of engraving” in allusion to the famous memoirist. Among the Jesuits of Reims, his hometown, the study of Latin poets and the Fathers of the Church did not prevent the child from expressing an early gift for art. He was bullied by his teachers who broke his pencils. The budding artist therefore carved his first engravings on the trees, a Christ and a Virgin... On the contrary, the Benedictines with whom his education continued encouraged his vocation, revealing to him precious illuminated manuscripts. His first portrait was commissioned by the abbot himself.
After solid training with the Reims engraver Nicolas Regnesson and a philosophy thesis, Nanteuil set out. In Paris ! Around 1650, his reputation was such that Philippe de Champaigne and other renowned artists commissioned him to engrave their works. He can now devote himself solely to the art of portraiture. From Louis XIV (engraved eleven times) to Colbert and Turenne, from Anne of Austria to Miss de Scudéry, the court and the city pose for the fashionable artist. In 1658, Nanteuil was appointed ordinary draftsman and engraver to the king and received a pension.
His rigorous style is distinguished by the pulpiness of the flesh, the suppleness of the hair, the velvety texture of the fabrics. In engraving, to preserve the “breathing” of the paper, he uses contratails (crossed lines) sparingly. The fidelity of the representation is coupled with a psychological approach: “You have to have conversations with the people you paint, according to the mood and spirit in which you want to paint them. » Its effigies span the centuries. They live !
