Condorcet French Revolution Philosopher Aquatint Portrait Levachez 1798 Framed

An original French Revolution portrait of Condorcet, the portrait roundel engraved in aquatint by Levachez and the narrative vignette beneath designed and etched by Duplessi-Bertaux, dated in the plate l'An 6 de la Rép. (1797-98).

The lettering reads CARITAT DE CONDORCET, DÉPUTÉ A LA CONVENTION NATIONALE, Mort le 28 mars 1794. The vignette shows him lying lifeless on a pallet as a group of men enter the room.

The Marquis de Condorcet, mathematician and philosopher of the Enlightenment, sat in the Convention and was associated with the Girondins. Proscribed in 1793, he went into hiding, was arrested in March 1794 and was found dead in his cell.

This plate comes from the celebrated series of revolutionary portraits issued with the Tableaux historiques de la Révolution française in Paris. Each plate follows the same format: a finely worked aquatint portrait by Charles-François-Gabriel Levachez in a circular medallion, above an etched vignette by Jean Duplessi-Bertaux showing a defining moment in the sitter's life, with the lettering beneath. The portraits were issued in instalments from the late 1790s and added to the Tableaux historiques in its 1802 edition; impressions are held by the Musée Carnavalet in Paris.

Framing and provenance: in an ebonised reeded frame with a paper-covered backing (no label visible); one of a group of matching frames, the others bearing the trade label of Samuel Jennings of London. The National Portrait Gallery's directory of British framemakers records Samuel Jennings, Carver, Gilder & Printseller at 16 Duke Street, Manchester Square, London from 1850 to 1885, so this print has been in an English collection since the Victorian period. Offered from a group of these portraits framed by Jennings.

Condition: age-toning and foxing to the paper consistent with age; please see all photographs, which form part of the description. Frame with wear commensurate with age. Hanging wire to the reverse. Not examined out of the frame.

Size: 28 x 22.5 cm framed.

Carefully packed and posted. Please ask if you would like any further photographs or measurements.