Portret van Clarisse Manson 1818

Jean Pierre Sudre made this print of Clarisse Manson, daughter of the artist André Manson, using lithography sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Lithography was a relatively new medium at this time. Its increasing use helped to democratize the production and consumption of art. Sudre here consciously references the visual codes of academic portraiture. See, for example, the oval frame around the sitter. But this print was not intended for elite display. Rather, it was made to be reproduced and distributed on a mass scale. Lithography allowed the artist to circumvent the traditional institutions of art, such as the Academy, and to appeal directly to a wider public. We can better understand this artwork by researching the history of printmaking in France and the rise of mass media in the 19th century. These sources help us to appreciate the changing role of the artist in society.