MBA004: Lot 18. LE PRINCE, Jean-Baptiste.

A fine example of these beautiful engravings, here in the rarer folio version, entirely uncut.

The painter and engraver Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (1734-1781) was a pupil of Boucher and Vien. He is credited with being the first artist to work in aquatint (in 1768), and the present publication contains more than 70 plates in that manner. The subjects represented are almost exclusively Russian: Le Prince spent indeed five years in Russia (1759-64), where, among other projects, he contributed to Chappe d’Auteroche’s ‘Voyage en Sibérie’.

The work was originally advertised to have more than 160 plates but although copies vary the most complete we have traced is 157 plates on 62 leaves.

Description

Folio. Title-page, 154 original subjects, printed on 59 leaves consisting of 80 etchings (on 29 leaves) and 74 aquatints (on 30 leaves); occasional light spotting and waterstaining. Uncut in modern calf antique, spine with raised bands gilt in compartments.

Provenance

Bibliography

Cohen, 625-27; Colas, 1850; Lipperheide, 1339; Solovev Kat. 105, 367 (150 rub., only 124 subjects in recent binding).