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Premier livre de desseins au crayon


Livre de leçons d'ornemens dans le goût du crayon
Gilles Demarteau (French, 1722–1776)
After: Romain Girard (French, born about 1751)
1759
Place of Publication: Paris, France

Medium/Technique Bound set of 29 crayon-manner engravings
Dimensions Overall: 37.4 x 24.2 x 1.6 cm (14 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 5/8 in.)
Credit Line Ellen Page Hall Fund
Accession Number34.843
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrintsBound sets
Paris: Chez Demarteau et chez François [and others, after 1759]

Catalogue Raisonné Guilmard, p. 183; Berlin 433; Bibliothèque Nationale, Inventaire 18th cen., vol. 6, pp. 332-34, nos. 11-16
Description(Paris: Chez Demarteau et chez François [and others, after 1759]) Folio; 29 leaves; modern gilt-stamped brown morocco, marbled paper boards.

Designs for rocaille ornaments. A bound set of Demarteau's crayon-manner prints after the rocaille motifs of Romain Girard. Demarteau issued a total of six "livres," with six plates each (including the titles). The earlier sets were co-published by him and Jean-Charles François, his colleague in the discovery of crayon manner. The later ones were published by Demarteau and other print dealers. The MFA copy contains 29 of the 36 plates called for. All the plates have been trimmed and separately mounted on the volume leaves, so it is difficult to verify precisely in which livre each plate belongs. The only title pages included are for the first, third, and "autre" livres. Some of plates are printed in sanguine ink; the remaining are in black.

The order of plates is as follows:

Premier livre: title, 2, 4, 5, 6
[Deuxième(?) livre:] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Troisième livre: title, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Quatrième livre: title, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
"Autre suitte de leçons": title, 2, 3, 4, [5?], 6
Unnumbered plate

The dating of this series is stated unequivocally by the BN Inventaire (vol. 6, p. 332) to be 1759, which would either necessitate an earlier birthdate for Girard or a later date for the series. The online Catalogue collectif de France dates the series to about 1770.
ProvenanceGeorges Mathias, Paris, from whom purchased by MFA, October 4, 1934.