Paris, Ruault, 1776.
2 parts in 2 volumes 8vo of : I/ (1) bl.l., 1 full-page engraved frontispiece, viii pp., 512 pp., (1) bl.l.. Gap in pagination from p. 501 to p. 505 but well complete. Small wormhole in margin of pp. 505 to 511; II/ (1) bl.l., (2) ll., 1 full-page engraved frontispiece, 720 pp., (2) ll. of approval, (1) bl.l. Some light foxing. Contemporary red morocco, triple gilt fillet around the covers with small corner fleurons, gilt coat of arms stamped in the center of the covers, ribbed spine adorned with gilt fleurons, green morocco lettering-pieces, gilt edges. A few very discreet wormholes on the spines. Contemporary binding.
193 x 122 mm.
First edition of this “portable directory” dedicated to painters and their schools of painting.
Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, II, 399 ; Cioranescu 48979 ; Cohen, 782-783 ; Brunet, VI, 1786 ; Cicognara, 2265.
Over 1,200 painters are featured in this important study, classified according to their school or origin: Roman, Florentine, Venetian, Lombard, German, Flemish, Dutch, Genoese, Neapolitan, Spanish and French. Biographies of François Boucher, Charles Le Brun, the Van-Eyck brothers, Leonardo da Vinci and others can be consulted.
The author’s aim with this work is “to make known the distinguished Artists of Painting, to indicate the genres they have adopted, & to give an account of public opinion on the rank assigned to them by universal esteem“, and to do so in the most concise and useful way possible.
“Papillon de la Ferté, intendant des Menus-plaisirs du roi, bought this position in 1777, and as such first had the administration of the royal singing school founded by Baron de Breteuil, then administered the Opera on behalf of the king, when the Paris city office ceased to have the business of this show.” (F-J. Fétis, Biographie universelle des musiciens, IV, 97).
The author, who held important positions at court, dominated administrative and artistic life before being guillotined in 1794.
Each volume features a handsome engraved frontispiece by Moreau le Jeune, designer to the king’s Menus-Plaisirs. The first is entitled “Le Génie de la Peinture, éclairé par la Vérité, écrit l’Histoire de ceux qui se sont distingués dans cet Art”, while the second is entitled “L’Immortalité des couronnes aux Génies qui ont animés les grands Peintres, dont les bustes sont placés dans son temple”.
A precious copy bound in contemporary red morocco with the arms of Emmanuel-Céleste-Augustin de Durfort, Duc de Duras (1741-1800), Maréchal de France.
“Emmanuel-Céleste-Augustin de Durfort, duc de Duras, known as the duc de Durfort, […] became a brigadier of infantry and peer of France; during the Revolution, he was appointed general-in-chief of the national guards of Guyenne in 1790, but of course had to flee and joined Condé’s army.” (Olivier, pl. 1793)
Provenance: “E.S.” unidentified stamp on title pages.
