Jean Baptiste Nini (1717-1786)
Portrait of Guy le Gentil, Marguis de Paroy (1750-1824)
Terra cotta medallion, (D. 6 1/4), signed and dated 1767

LTHOUGH there were many fine European eighteenth century portrait medallists, Nini stands alone as the master of the art in terra cotta. The salient features of his subjects are so painstakingly selected and precisely rendered that his portrait plaques seem almost to possess the breath of life. He is best known for his terra cotta portrait plaques of the most admired eighteenth-century American to have visited Paris, Benjamin Franklin.

Nini did many of the most important noble figures of his time, and aristocrats of the period often are best remembered because of his superb portrait medallions of them.

As a printmaker Guy de Paroy is perhaps only footnoteworthy, but he has been immortalized nonetheless by Nini.

$2,000

click image to enlarge