Standing Male, Anterior - Outermost Muscles, plate III from the cours complet d'anatomie peint et gravé en couleurs naturelles [Complete Course of Anatomy, Printed and Engraved in Natural Colors]

This print by Gautier-Dagoty represents a milestone in both printmaking and medical illustration. In the first part of the eighteenth century, medical illustrations were printed in black and white and colors had to be applied by hand. In 1741, Jacob Christoph LeBlon devised a three-color printing technique based on Newton’s color theory that stated that all colors can be created by mixing red, blue, and green. Gautier-Dagoty’s father, Jacques- Fabien Gautier (1711-85), was trained by LeBlon and the color mezzotint process was used by the Gautier family for more than twenty-five years. In addition to being an unusual instance of mezzotint in France rather than England, this print is a representative of one of the first anatomical atlases in color created by the Gautier-Dagoty family.