MORIN, Jean
French engraver. Very little is known of his life beyond what may be learnt from his prints. His work consists mainly of reproductive portraits after Philippe de Champaigne and van Dyck, and landscapes after Jacques Fouquier. He is said to have started his career as a painter, but no painting by him is known. Six of his landscape prints are his own compositions.
He is chiefly remarkable for his technique, which, although it was developed out of that of the school of van Dyck, was largely his own invention. His plates were first etched and then finished in a mixture of line and stipple, with the latter dominating. This strikingly personal system produced very effective portraits in which the character of the sitter is well expressed. His best work was after Philippe de Champaigne, notably portraits of François Potier, Marquis de Gèvres, Arnaud d’Andilly, René de Longueil, Marquis de Maisons, Henri de Lorraine, Comte d’Harcourt and Antoine Vitré. His particular skill lay in producing contrasts of tone between the different parts of his plates, although this sometimes led to inharmonious juxtapositions. He employed an unusual printing procedure, each tirage being on a separate quire of paper and the quires being used in the same sequence for each of his portraits.
