Michel le Tellier, Le Chancelier

 

Robert Nanteuil

 

1661  

engraving 

12 15/16 x 9 15/16" platemark 

in plate, lower left: "Nanteuil ad viuum" 

not applicable 

text in oval frame: "Michael Le Tellier Regi A Sanctoribvs Consiliis Secretis Et Mandatis" and, in lower right "Pingebat et Sculpebat 1661. cum Privil. Regis" 

Robert-Dumesnil: 135 i/ii; Petitjean/Wickert: 114 i/ii collector's stamp in purple in on verso, Lugt 2770b, Cortland Field Bishop. 

heavy, antique-white laid with large heraldic watermark 

i/ii, before the dash after 'Regis'; described as 'Rarissime' (extremely rare) by C/P 

 

CKCS109 

SOLD

This extremely rare first state engraving is by French printmaker Robert Nanteuil (1623-1678). The subject is Michel le Tellier (1603-1685), War Minister and Chancellor of France under Louis XIV, Nanteuil's protector, of whom Nateuil did 10 portraits.

This impression has a pencil annotation on the verso "Carpenters Sale 1867" indicating it was part of the estate of William H. Carpenter (1792-1866), curator of prints and drawings at the British Museum, whose collection was sold by Sotheby's in February of 1867. It appears to have been purchased by Junius S. Morgan (a notation on the original mat to such). On February 18, 1916 Morgan sold a collection of Nanteuil engraved portraits through the American Art Association in New York.

This impression appears to have been purchased by AAA's owner, Cortland Field Bishop, whose purple collector's stamp (Lugt 2770b) is on the verso in the lower right corner. Bishop's collection was sold in New York in 3 sales: 1935 at Anderson Galleries and two sessions at Kende Galleries on 11/30 and 12/6 1945. It was probably purchased by artist John Kelly, from whose estate this is offered.