This is a 17th century portrait engraving of Jean-Baptiste Racine by Gerard Edelinck (1640-1707), published in Charles Perrault's 'Les Hommes Illustres' in Paris in 1696. Jean Racine (1639-1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille. Racine's works were primarily tragedies. He wrote Phèdre, Andromaque, and Athalie. He did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther for young readers. His writing is renowned for its elegance, purity, speed, and fury. The American poet Robert Lowell described his style as a "diamond-edge" and the "glory of its hard, electric rage". Racine's works often displayed his psychological insight, the passion of his characters, and the stark reality of his plots and stage descriptions. In 1672, he was elected to the Académie Française, and two years later he achieved the title of "treasurer of France", and later the honorary title of an "ordinary gentleman of the king" to King Louis XIV, and subsequently a secretary of the king . This beautiful engraved portrait is printed on chain-linked, laid paper with wide margins. The sheet measures 17.13" high by 10.75" wide. There is a small spot in the lower margin and a few tiny faint spots in the margins, but the print is otherwise in very good condition. The original descriptive text pages, 81 & 82, are included. Provenance: This engraving was owned by Arthur Pomeroy, 1st Baron Harberton and the Viscount Harberton (1723-1798). He was an Irish politician, who represented County Kildare in the Irish House of Commons and then the Irish House of Lords as Baron Harberton in the Peerage of Ireland. He was an ancestor of General George Colley (1835–81).