[GAUTIER-D'AGOTY, Jacques Fabien]. Hermaphrodite. Two colour-printed mezzotint plates. [1749].

Set of two colour-printed mezzotint depicting a hermaphrodite. Among one of the most spectacular prints in Gautier d'Agoty's work.

The two plates (1. side view, 2. front view) were originally intended to accompany a one-page booklet entitled: "Hermaphrodite. Dissertation au sujet de la fameuse hermaphrodite qui a paru aux yeux du public depuis environ trois mois, faite par le sieur Mertrud, chirurgien du Roi," Paris, Berryer éditeur, 1749.

These two large color engraved plates depict the sexual organs of the hermaphrodite Michel Anne Drouart, whose characteristics, examined by various scholars, were the subject of much controversy in Paris, then in England and Italy, where Drouart made several tours: "The subject is alive, aged 16... His father and mother raised him as a girl."

The second plate, not mentioned by the bibliographers, is extremely rare. It is absent from copies of the BIUS, and major Anglo-Saxon specialist libraries. (A copy can be found in Sweden at the Hagströmer Library. An other one sold by Christies, Paris, 2016).