Georg Friedrich SCHMIDT

(1712 Wandlitz – 1775 Berlin)

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Le Turc Amoureux - 1736

After Nicolas Lancret.

Engraving on laid paper. Published by Nicolas de Larmessin III. Lettered: ‘N. Lancret pinxit G.F.Schmidt Sculp. Crepy Ex/ à Paris chez N de Larmessin graveur du Roy rue des Noyers a la 4e porte cocher à droit entrant par la rue St. Jacques A.P.D.R.'

Size of sheet: 26.5 x 37 cm.

Wessely 1887 (179, II/III); Crayen 1789 (96); Bocher 1877 (84).

Comparative impressions : British Museum – inv.no.1838,0208.80; Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Ville de Geneve – inv.no. E 2019-0777.

Fine impression with margins all around the plate. Straightened crease in the middle of the sheet, some pale foxing, otherwise in good condition.

Georg Friedrich Schmidt: Le Turc Amoureux

Interest in the East intensified in France after the visit of Mehemet-Effendi, the Ottoman ambassador, to Paris in 1721. This man in Eastern dress in theatrical pose is said to be a portrait of the actor Lekain, and the original Turc may be a figure on a decoration by Lancret for the hotel of M. de Boullogne, Place Vendome, now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. (See London, Wallace Collection, Wallace Collection Catalogues, Pictures and Drawings, 16th edition, 1968, p.168.) In around 1744, the Meissen factory created the model of the ‘Turc amoureux’ porcelain figurine based on the engraved print by Schmidt.

Georg Friedrich Schmidt: Le Turc Amoureux

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