Engravings

Louis-Pierre Baltard (1764-1846 )

The Ultimes are prints made from the original etching plates in the Chalcographie collection at the Musée du Louvre before they were put into storage for preservation reasons.

For reasons of preservation, it was decided to stop printing plates engraved before 1848. Before they left the Ateliers to go into the Louvre's reserves, some were printed one last time. These are the last ones. Each print is dated, numbered and stamped, and is sold with a certificate of authenticity, in a limited edition of 10.

This view of the Salle de l'Institut in the Louvre is one of a series of 215 plates for Paris and its monuments, measured, drawn and engraved by Louis Pierre Baltard. All are accompanied by historical descriptions.

Louis Pierre Baltard (1764-1846), an architect for the City of Paris and professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, began his work Paris et ses monuments (Paris and its Monuments) in order to use engravings to make Parisian architecture better known to people far from the capital and to foreign nations. Published in two volumes - the first on the Louvre and the Institut, the second on the châteaux of Ecouen, Saint-Cloud and Fontainebleau - Paris et ses monuments is a monumental work. Baltard himself had to take architectural and topographical readings, make numerous preparatory drawings, and use a wide variety of techniques to produce his work. The precision of his measurements makes it a valuable documentary source.
Here he presents an imaginary view of the Salle de l'Institut (now the Salle des Cariatide), the headquarters of the Institut de France, by grouping and accumulating architectural elements in a small space, which gives the print a decorative aspect.