Henri of Navarre, Four Moods

One king’s face in four imagined states.

Work: from Essays on Physiognomy
Maker: Johann Kaspar Lavater, engraved under Thomas Holloway
Date: c. 1789
Held by: Published London, c. 1789 · Wellcome Collection

Format

The full-resolution scan, colour-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.

Size

$29.00

The story

From the English edition of Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy, published in London under the direction of the engraver Thomas Holloway. Henri of Navarre, King of France, appears four times in imagined states: vexation mixed with disdain, terror and rage, fear, and a fourth of intoxication where, Lavater insists, even here we admire and respect him. The plate is one of sixteen such situations he drew for the king. Brown ink on foxed paper, the four heads float on the page like studies on a sketch sheet. Wellcome Collection.

See it on your wall

The plate, in the room it was made for

Henri of Navarre, Four Moods, printed large and framed — in the consulting room, the study, the library. Every edition ships ready to become the piece the room is built around.

Henri of Navarre, Four Moods framed on the wall

About this reproduction

A reproduction of from Essays on Physiognomy — Johann Kaspar Lavater, engraved under Thomas Holloway, c. 1789 — from the copy held by Published London, c. 1789 · Wellcome Collection. The source. The work is centuries out of copyright and in the public domain.
Printed faithful to that source scan. We do not re-colour it, complete it, or interpret it; the plate you receive is the plate as it survives.
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm. Framed editions sit in a box frame under acrylic, with no mount.
Colour-managed to the source; the tone of the paper and the ink is the engraver’s, not ours.
Ships in 5–10 business days.
If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.

Why our plates cost more than a poster: a poster is a mass run on wood-pulp stock, colour-corrected to whatever flattered the press that day. This is one sheet, pulled for you, at a size where the engraver’s hand is visible — the linework, the tonal work, the lettering — on a matte sheet that shows every line without glare.

From the same hand