View of the Port of St.Paul, Paris (1784): Artwork and History

View of the Port of St.Paul, Paris (1784) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Charles-Melchior Descourtis (French, 1753-1820) after Pierre Antoine de Machy (French, 1723-1807).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Gouache views of Paris were very popular in the 1780s, and color prints emulating them became highly marketable. This rare proof is one of the most expensive of such views offered at the height of the market, in 1784.

Object facts

• Title: View of the Port of St.Paul, Paris
• Date: 1784
• Artist attribution: Charles-Melchior Descourtis (French, 1753-1820) after Pierre Antoine de Machy (French, 1723-1807)
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Etching and engraving printed in color from at least four plates on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: sheet: 47 × 65.2 cm (18 9/16 × 25 11/16 in.); Image/Plate: 40.4 × 61.4 cm (15 15/16 × 24 3/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1929.218

Collection credit

Given in memory of William McCallin McKee

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.