Portrait D'homme 

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux made this etching, entitled "Portrait D'homme," in 1867. Carpeaux was a French sculptor and painter during the Second Empire, a period of rapid modernization and social change. The image presents a bearded man, perhaps an artist or intellectual, rendered with loose, energetic lines that capture a sense of immediacy and character. We can think about this image in the context of the rise of printmaking as a popular and democratic art form in 19th-century France. Prints allowed artists to reach a wider audience beyond the traditional Salon system. This was an important challenge to the art establishment, where the Académie des Beaux-Arts held considerable sway over artistic taste and careers. Carpeaux's etching embodies a spirit of artistic experimentation and independence. To understand it fully, art historians consult a wide range of sources, from exhibition reviews to artists' letters, to reconstruct the cultural and institutional context in which the work was made.