Hermaphrodite Anatomy

This captivating anatomy mezzotint engraving was by Jacques Fabien Gautier D’Agoty. This engraving came from part of a collection of plates that were originally published to different works of his including: Exposition anatomique de la structure du corps humain, Anatomie de la tete, Anatomie générale des viscères, and Myologie complette en couleur et grandeur naturelle. The works were published in Paris in the 1700s.

Jacques Fabien Gautier D’Agoty (1716-1785) was a French painter, engraver, printer, and anatomist. He worked as an assistant to Jacob Christoph Le Blon who had invented a three color printing process using red, yellow, and blue plates. After Le Blon’s death, Gautier earned a royal privilege and funding and then perfected up the process and earned the title of “inventor of color printing.” The final product of his printing process was spectacular, rich with color and detail. He used a gloss type finish which gave the effect of viewing an oil painting rather than a printed image.

Provenance: These engravings came from the collection of Richard Harris, that specialized in collecting art int he theme of “Death” and was exhibited in Chicago Cultural Center: https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/rhac/about.