THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE

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Marquis de Lafayette Prints Collection

The Marquis de Lafayette Prints Collection includes more than 650 digitized images drawn from the collections at Skillman Library and the Lafayette College Art Collection. Most of the images are contemporaneous with Lafayette’s life (1757-1834) and depict his involvement in the American and French Revolutions, French politics, and his Farewell Tour of America, 1824-25. Many of the images are portraits of Lafayette, based on paintings or other engravings of him. The prints are primarily lithographs, although the collection also includes stipple and line engravings, etchings, mezzotints, and aquatints. The prints are organized into series, reflecting as much as possible a chronological order based on Lafayette’s age in the portrait, rather than the date the likeness was printed. Many of the series are set up under the name of the artist on whose original painting the print was or appears to have been based. The Prints Collection is one of several collections at Lafayette College documenting the life and career of the man for whom it is named. Other materials include rare books, manuscripts, memorabilia, and paintings and sculpture.

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Marquis de Lafayette Prints Series 01 - Portraits: Before 1789

Series I includes portrait engravings of Lafayette which date prior to 1789. These prints are based on portraits or engravings by artists Michel Honoré Bounieu (1740-1814), Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), Jean Baptiste Le Paon (1736-1785), and L. Barre. Characteristics of this youthful rendering of Lafayette include a full, oval face, plain hair-dressing, and a simple military uniform usually without any military decoration.

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