1771

Portrait of Jean Restout (1692 - 1768)

French, 1722 - 1780

To qualify for full membership in the Royal Academy, printmakers were required to engrave one or two reception pieces, often reproducing the painted portraits of officers in the institution. When Pierre-Etienne Moitte submitted his engraved portrait of former Royal Academy Director Jean Restout as his reception piece in 1771, he turned over the engraved copper plate along with one hundred impressions of the print. The plate entered the Academy's archives and the prints were distributed among its members. Restout is shown with a chalk holder in his right hand and a portfolio resting on his knees to serve as an improvised drawing table.