View of the Louvre, Jacques Callot (1592 – 1635)

View of the Louvre (MEAUME 0713). Late impression. On the water, at lower left, beneath a boat, one reads: Callot fec.

Taken from the left bank of the Seine, this vast river view, animated by a teeming crowd and intense traffic, bears witness to Jacques Callot’s virtuosity in the art of the urban scene. He displays here his taste for panoramic compositions in which topographical accuracy is combined with a theatrical staging. At the center, the broad course of the river structures the space and organizes the movement of the figures: light boats on which the boatmen prepare to joust, merchant vessels, figures and riders bustling along the banks. All are captured with the keen sense of observation and narrative detail that characterizes Callot’s work. The monumental building stretching along the opposite bank is none other than the Louvre Palace, recognizable by its architectural scale and the regularity of its façades.

This engraving comes from the series Views of Paris, a group of plates that Callot produced in the late 1620s and early 1630s, probably at the request of Parisian patrons who were sensitive both to the topography of the capital and to the narrative talent of the Lorraine engraver. These views, which do not form a strictly homogeneous series but rather a coherent group by subject and execution, testify to Callot’s interest in animated urban landscapes.

The whole demonstrates Callot’s mastery of burin and etching: a network of fine, lively lines that gives the scene a continuous vibration. More than a simple urban view, the engraving offers a true dramaturgy of everyday life, in which each figure contributes to the life of a city both real and transfigured by the engraver’s eye.

Our engraving is framed with a mat and anti-reflective, UV-protective glass.
Dimensions of the engraving: 16 x 32.2 cm