Evidence of the artist's hand and his creative process is ever present in this focused self-portrait of a thoughtful man at work, a study of degrees of light and dark, rendered with an intuitive approach to the intaglio process. A variety of techniques enliven the surface, including roughened areas to create shadow, burnished areas to create highlights, and engraved lines for definition. Liotard, like his peer Casanova, travelled the courts of Europe. Specializing in portraiture, thought to be so direct as to be a "mirror of nature," he excelled in the kind of intimate view seen here.

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