Jean-Baptiste Le Prince: The Young Shepherdess

Part of a six-plate series featuring northern women and their costumes ‘Suite de divers habillement des peoples du Nord’ [Suite of various clothing of the peoples of the North]. In the title print, the series is dedicated by Le Prince to Charles Nicolas Cochin, who since 1752 was the keeper of the king’s drawings and the secrétaire historiographe of the Academy.

When the series was featured the Mercure de France (October, 1764 issue, Vol. II), Le Prince published his letter he sent to Mr de La Place (Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture) where he writes that he is the first one who finds beauty in the simplicity of the way ordinary people live and dress in Russia.

The painter and engraver, Le Prince was a pupil of François Boucher and Joseph-Marie Vien. After spending five years in Russia (1759-64) where he worked for Catherine the Great at the Imperial Palace in St Petersburg, Le Prince returned to Paris bringing with him extensive collection of his drawings executed while travelling in Russia, Finland and Lithuania. These would serve as his own iconography for his printed russeries till the end of his life.

Mercure De France, Dédié au Roi, Octobre 1764, Second volume (retrieved from www.retronews.fr )

John Ittmann et al., Regency to Empire: French Printmaking 1715-1814, 1984;

Perrin Stein, Artists and Amateurs: Etching in 18th-century France, 2013.