Jacques Louis Copia

1764 Landau – 1799 Paris

The career of the engraver, Jacques Louis Copia, is characteristic of the social upheavals of the late 18th century and not free of conformism. Copia initially distinguished himself as a portrait engraver, taking portraits of Queen Marie Antoinette and other members of the French high nobility and also producing gallant depictions in keeping with contemporary taste. He became best known, however, for his masterfully executed reproductive engravings after works by Pierre Paul Prud’hon, with whom he enjoyed a long-lasting symbiotic collaboration that began shortly after 1789. Several patriotic compositions, such as La Constitution française and La Liberté, bear witness to Copia’s subsequent endeavours on behalf of the revolutionary cause.