General Hoche French Revolution Aquatint Portrait Levachez 1800 Framed

An original French Revolution portrait of Hoche, 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 8 de la Rép. (1799-1800).

The lettering reads HOCHE GÉNÉRAL DES ARMÉES DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE DANS LE NORD, ET ENSUITE DANS L'OUEST, Né à Versailles, le 24 Juin 1758. The vignette shows a military encampment with tents, cannon and cavalry.

Lazare Hoche rose from the ranks to become one of the Republic's most gifted generals, commanding on the northern frontier and pacifying the Vendée in the west. He died in 1797 aged only 29.

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 bearing to the reverse the trade label of Samuel Jennings, 16 Duke Street, Manchester Square, London - "To Her Majesty the Queen & the Royal Family, Estab'd 1824". 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.