Malesherbes Louis XVI Defender French Revolution Aquatint Levachez Framed

An original French Revolution portrait of Malesherbes, 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 9 de la Rép. (1800-01).

The lettering reads C.F. LAMOIGNON MALESHERBES, CI-DEVANT MINISTRE D'ÉTAT, Jugé à mort en prairial, l'an 2. The vignette shows him at his writing desk as men enter his house.

Chrétien-Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, statesman and protector of the Encyclopédie, came out of retirement to defend Louis XVI at his trial. He was guillotined in 1794.

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, with foxing to the lower margin; 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.