APS is pleased to announce its third Distinguished Scholar Lecture. This year, Rémi Mathis, Curator in the Department of Prints and Photographs at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and Editor in Chief of the journal Nouvelles de l’estampe, will deliver a talk about 17th-century French prints. The talk will be video recorded and posted online for viewing by APS members and the general public.

Friday, January 26, 2018
Martin E. Segal Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
3 PM, Reception to Follow
Seating is limited, and we encourage you to RSVP to reserve your spot.
Please use this link.

François de la Pointe, Title page for 1678 prints, Engravings cut, pasted and illuminated, BnF, département des Estampes, Qb-1-fol (1678)

By the middle of 17th century, Paris was the foremost European printmaking center. Printmakers from the Low Countries settled there to sell to a large market supported by the central political, economical, and cultural power—King Louis XIV and his minister Colbert. The government itself became a publisher through the Cabinet du Roy.

However, by focusing on the prestigious artistic production of artists such as Gérard Edelinck, Robert Nanteuil or Girard Audran, we tend to forget that prints were produced for a wide variety of reasons. Prints could of course be hung on a wall and looked at with respect. But they were also modified by all kinds of people to meet the needs of a society and satisfy their craving for images. The French Kings’ collection of engravings, started as the Cabinet des estampes under Louis XIV in 1667, became the core of the Bibliothèque nationale’s extensive collection today. Using examples from this national treasure, this talk will show that a print is not always an end in itself but rather the beginning of a process we have to follow to understand its real meaning at the time when it was made.

Seating is limited, and we encourage you to RSVP to reserve your spot. Please use this link.