Mr. de Voltaire

Voltaire. Voltaire's image as an autonomous writer, nearly unique in the eighteenth century, is evident in a 1765 portrait drawing of him at work at his desk, at his estate of Ferney. It was reproduced in numerous engravings at the end and after his life — as in this engraving by G. W. Weise, from 1779, which appears from the BN-Éstampes (Collection Henin, 9655).