Auguste Rodin, French, 1840-1917
Victor Hugo, 1886
drypoint (state iii/vii)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection 1943.3.7406

"Unfinished" portraits having the look of a proof state became a "finished" genre in its own right, evoking the preliminary pencil sketch made in a private sitting. Rembrandt’s example was a necessary if not sufficient condition for promoting this fashion.