23. Gérard Edelinck (1640-1777)
after Theodorus Netscher (1661-1732)
The Comic Actor Raimond Poissin as Crispin

(click on image to print)
Edelinck: The Comic Actor

The Comic Actor Raimond Poissin as Crispin

Etching and engraving, 1682, 493 x 365 mm., LeBlanc 292, Robert-Dumesnil 299 iv/iv. Fine impression on thick laid paper with small margins outside the platemark and in excellent condition. Raimond Poissin (ca. 1630-1690), known on the stage as Belleroche and later as Crispin 1er, began his life’s work as a domestic servant. Fascinated by the theater, he left secure employment and joined a troupe of traveling actors who played in the French provinces. He was noticed by Louis XIV on his travels, who set up the troupe at the theater of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris to perform comic skits. Playing the role of Crispin, the mumbling servant, Poissin found his métier, his character and his success, and new plays featuring that character were written for him, while he adopted the name as his own stage name. We note that this print is sufficiently famous for reproductions of it to be widely offered for sale; this, however, is the original engraving and an outstanding, seventeenth-century theatrical portrait.

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