A Kingdom of Images: French Prints in the Age of Louis XIV, 1660-1715

Once considered the golden age of French printmaking, Louis XIV's reign saw Paris become a powerhouse of print production. During this time, the king aimed to make fine and decorative arts into signs of French taste and skill and, by extension, into markers of his imperialist glory. Prints were ideal for achieving these goals
reproducible and transportable, they fueled the sophisticated propaganda machine circulating images of Louis as both a man of war and a man of culture.

This richly illustrated catalogue features more than one hundred prints from the Getty Research Institute and the Biblioth que nationale de France in Paris, whose print collection Louis XIV established in 1667. An esteemed international group of contributors investigates the ways that cultural policies affected printmaking
explains what constitutes a print
describes how one became a printmaker
studies how prints were collected
and considers their reception in the ensuing centuries.

A Kingdom of Images is published to coincide with an exhibition on view at the Getty Research Institute from June 18 through September 6, 2015, and at the Biblioth que nationale de France in Paris from November 2, 2015, through January 31, 2016.