Portrait of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux

Pierre-Imbert Drevet, artist

1697–1739

Hyacinthe Rigaud, artist

1659–1743

Portrait of Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, 1723

Where object was made: France

Material/technique: engraving

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 475 x 332 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 572 x 410 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 18 11/16 x 13 1/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 22 1/2 x 16 1/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 25 x 20 in

Credit line: William Bridges Thayer Memorial

Accession number: 1928.7140

Not on display

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Civic Leader and Art Collector: Sallie Casey Thayer and an Art Museum for KU

Identified here by his Latin title, Episcopus, the subject of this portrait Bishop Bossuet was a famed orator known for his inspiring sermons. The French King Louis XIV brought Bossuet to the royal court at Versailles to instruct his eldest son. This engraving reproduces the painted portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud, the artist who set the style for royal and courtly portraits during the reign of Louis XIV. The portrait is in a style known as portrait d’apparat, pompous or parade portrait, in which the sitter’s accoutrements and emblems of station and office are on full display. In this case, the bishop’s winter vestments and other scholarly items indicate his learning, while the book he displays bears Bossuet’s coat of arms.
Rigaud worked closely with the Drevet family of engravers, the most talented of whom was Pierre-Imbert Drevet, engraver to the king. This engraved portrait is considered Drevet’s masterpiece and one of the greatest engraved portraits of 18th-century France. Note, for example, the incredible detail of the lace in the bishop’s gown. Sallie Casey Thayer, who collected many fashion illustrations, was probably drawn to this work for its attention to the detail of the bishop’s elaborate vestments. If the work had been collected as an exalted example of portrait engraving, it probably would not have been marked at the lower right with a perforating stamp reading “W.B. Thayer Library.”