This engraving depicts Lecouvreur in the role of the tragic Cornelia in Pierre Corneille’s “The Death of Pompey” (1642). She is shown grieving the loss of her husband, her eyes filling with tears as she holds his ashes. Lecouvreur was best known for her natural style of acting, and she excelled in the kind of tragic roles depicted here. 

The engraver Drevet has added to the original portrait the oval frame that leans against the stone wall. The cracks in the frame and wall create a trompe l’oeil effect that alludes to the actors’ use of illusion. Yet the frame, bearing an inscription explaining that Lecouvreur had died in Paris at age 37, also functions to memorialize the actress who reached a tragic end only a year before this engraving was executed. Lecouvreur’s tearful upward glance, as she mourns her fictive husband, seems to portend her own death.

Cathy Keller-Brown