Guillaume Vallet

Guillaume Vallet was a printmaker active during the mid-17th century, documented across two decades between 1645 and 1665. His known output consists primarily of reproductive engravings, specialized portraits, and frontispieces.

Five of Guillaume Vallet’s prints are represented in major museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These surviving works establish his importance as an engraver engaged with key compositions of the Baroque period. A substantial portion of his documented work involves reproducing celebrated Italian paintings. This includes two specific works executed after Guido Reni: The Virgin looking up to the left, in bust length in an oval frame, after Reni and The Virgin seated with the infant Christ on her lap, the young Saint John the Baptist kneeling on Christ's cradle and caressing his foot, a lamb at right, after Reni.

Vallet also executed detailed allegorical scenes and commissioned works. Notable among these are the intricate study Allegory with Time, Pallas Athene, and various muses, after frescoes in the Barberini Palace (?), the publication element Frontispiece of Fasti Senenses, and the specific subject Portrait of Pierre du Laurens. The collection of preserved Guillaume Vallet prints provides important documentation of mid-century artistic subjects. Today, many of these historical works are available as high-quality prints through the public domain.