Matthias Pfenninger after de Loutherbourg: Savage Soldier

Plate 5 from the suite ‘8 Etudes de Soldats aprés de Loutherburg’ [Eight Studies of Soldiers after de Loutherbourg]. The suite was designed by Loutherbourg during his Paris years. While himself an accomplished printmaker, Loutherbourg here turned the etching over to the Swiss Matthias Pfenninger, then studying in Paris. The images pay tribute to the 17th-century Italian printmaker, Salvator Rosa, whose quirky and flamboyant series of more than sixty small figural etchings depicting soldiers as well as male and female genre figures were imitated by many eighteenth century painters in France.

Loutherbourg received his first drawing lessons from his father, a miniaturist. At the age of 15, he arrived in Paris and continued his training in the studio of Carle van Loo (French, 1705-1765) and then in the studio of battle scenes painter Francesco Casanova (Italian, 1727-1803). Loutherbourg became a successful and celebrated painter. In 1771, he was invited by David Garrick (English, 1717-1779) to move to London to work on the theatre decorations at the Drury Lane Theatre.

Roger Portalis, Henri Beraldi, Les graveurs du dix-huitieme siècle, 1882;

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