Le Sacre - Portrait of King Louis XVI in Coronation Regalia

Louis XVI's reign spanned the tumultuous years of 1774-1792. This print--which proclaims the king Restorer of Liberty--was published shortly before Louis XVI was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death by guillotine. Bervic's meticulous reproduction of the opulent costume and elaborate setting of Callet's official state portrait of the king could not have been more ill-timed, yet the artist proved to be an enterprising printmaker. During the Revolution, he symbolically broke the plate in two, which seemed to help his flourishing career during the Republican period, and then, after the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, soldered the plate back together again, to pull impressions from the plate again, although the later edition is distinguished by a stark white line running through the middle of the print. This pristine impression is a rare early state, executed before Louis XVI's arrest.