“Perhaps Gautier achieved nothing finer in his art than the molding in mezzotint of that first full-length female figure, surely one of the great plates of all anatomic illustration.  His pictures seem to be in the tradition of the early gravida illustrations of Berengario and Estienne - often attracting attention through sexual emphasis: often possessing a lively face with aquizzical expression, sometimes erotically inviting, at times serene, always with a romantic and elegant hair-style.  Such erotic figures may be contrasted in their romantic extravagance of feeling with the matter-of-fact plates of Smellie’s that were often torn out by 19th century bowdlerizers.”  - Franklin, Roberts & Tomlinson, Choulant.