LAFAYETTE.

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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 05 - Portraits: Weyler

The prints of Series V are based upon a pastel portrait executed by Jean-Baptiste Weyler (1747-1791) in October of 1790. This type shows Lafayette in the uniform of the National Guard, bust and head to the right, eyes looking directly at the viewer. He is bare-headed and only the ends of the ribbon to his queue show. He wears a white neck-cloth and lace jabot with his coat open and the upper portion of the waistcoat unbuttoned. Three medals are worn on the left lapel. Throughout this series, prints classed here exhibit a great deal of variation. Most portraits are to the left, and the uniform can be quite different. Several prints display Lafayette in a coat with a high double collar, broad lapels, a black neck-cloth, and without medals. This series is one of the largest of the portrait categories, containing more than 50 individual prints.

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