Portret van René Pucelle 1758 - 1806

Pierre Adrien Le Beau created this print of René Pucelle in Paris. The image and text are neatly arranged to convey the status of the Counselor to the Abbey of St. Leonard and Parliament member. Looking closely, we see that the visual codes of the time are hard at work: the oval frame, the ribbon at the top, the heraldic shield, and of course the mode of dress. These are all very conservative, meant less to critique the institutions of art than to display the sitter as someone well-placed within them. France in the 17th century was of course a deeply hierarchical society. To understand this image better, we would want to know more about Pucelle’s lineage and the institutions that shaped his career. Who was he? And how did images like this function to buttress social status? Such questions push us to look beyond the aesthetic qualities of the print and to consider the economic and political conditions that made it meaningful.