Homme de qualité en habit d'épée

A print of a man, inscribed in ink, Homme de qualité en habit d'épée (Man of high rank with a sword)/1683, after Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean, 1683. Another version of this print, which is original and hand-coloured, appeared in Recueil des modes de la cour de France, a book published in 1684, which portrays the fashion of the nobility at the court of Louis XIV.

Shown is a man wearing a long coat decorated with many buttons. He has a lace cravat with a bow of a different material, possibly silk, and is wearing a curled periwig. At his waist is a fringed band with a small sword attached to it. He is holding a pair of gloves.

The original print was designed by Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean (1654-1695), to whom about 100 prints are attributed from the period 1678-1695. They mostly portray the dress of men and women of high rank, often at the court of France. His father, also named Jean Dieu, was a painter too. When his son was accepted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris he changed his name to Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean, after his patron saint, in order to distinguish himself from his father and from other artists named Dieu. Though De Saint-Jean initially was trained as a portrait painter he is mostly known for his fashion-plates.

Other copies of this print are held in Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collections. Lacma.org

Further reading
Colas, R., Bibliographie générale du Costume et de la Mode. Description des suites, recueils, séries, revues et livres Français et étrangers relatifs au costume civil, militaire et religieux, aux modes, aux coiffures et aux divers accessoires de l’habillement, avec une table méthodique et un index alphabétique, Paris 1933, entry 2629.

Ribeiro, A., Fashion and Fiction. Dress in Art and Literature in Stuart England, London 2005.

Vaast, C. and J. Dunford, 'Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean (1654-1695). Dessinateur de gravures des mode et peintre d’un portrait de Marin Marais', Musique Images Instruments vol. 10 (2008), pp. 172-181.