Portrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on Horseback 1763

Editor: This is Jean-Baptiste Joseph Delafosse’s "Portrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, on Horseback" from 1763. It looks like an engraving. It seems like a fairly standard aristocratic portrait of the time, but the details in the landscape are really intriguing to me. What strikes you about it? Curator: What immediately jumps out is the mode of production itself. This isn't some oil painting commissioned by the Duc; it’s an engraving. This implies a broader audience and potentially a different social function than a unique artwork. The labour involved in creating the plate, the distribution of the prints… it points to a calculated dissemination of an image. Editor: That’s an interesting point. So, the *reproducibility* of the image is key here? Curator: Exactly. Think about the materials: copper, ink, paper. These were increasingly accessible, facilitating a kind of visual propaganda, wouldn’t you say? How is this portrait performing labor, in your opinion? Editor: Visual propaganda? Perhaps. It feels…stately. But knowing it's a print makes me think about its accessibility to the middle class. It’s meant to be disseminated; is this accessible labor because anyone can have it? Is it meant to say anyone can obtain the look of the Duke even if you aren’t the Duke? Curator: Precisely! And what about the labor represented? We see the Duke, seemingly idle, but the engraver labored extensively. What does it say about art as labour vs nobility here? Editor: Hmmm. So it sort of turns the standard portrait on its head. What appears to be about nobility and leisure is in fact, when broken down materially, about labor and mass production! I never would have thought of that. Curator: It shifts our focus, doesn’t it? From simply *who* is represented to *how* and *why* that representation circulates within a specific material and social context.