Philibert Louis DEBUCOURT
1755 - Paris - 1832
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La Noce au Chateau [The Wedding at the Chateau] and Le Menuet de la mariée [The Bride's Minuet] - 1789 & 1786
A pair of etching and aquatint in wash-manner printed in black, blue, yellow, pink and orange-red inks. Size of sheet: c.45 x 34 cm.
Framed in the 19th century frame.
I.F.F. 6:17 & 5; Fenaille, 21 & 8 (III/IV), Salaman, 1913, pl.XVIII and XVII; Dodgson, 1924, pl.82 &74; Nevill, 1908, pl.XXIII; Nevill.
Provenance: with F.B. Daniell & Son, London; With Bernard Houthakker, Amsterdam; Probably H.E. ten Cate collection (Lugt 533b).
Exhibited: Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Tentoonstelling ban Oude Kunst, 1929, cat. no. 329 (lent by Bernard Houthakker).
Beautiful impression with margins all around on laid watermarked paper with slight discoloration of the sheet. Of distinguished provenance.
Comparative impressions: National Gallery of Art – inv.no. 1942.9.2262; Rijksmuseum – inv.no. RP-P-1962-299; Musée du Louvre – inv.no.6145LR/Recto; Cleveland Museum of Art; Rijksmuseum - inv. No. RP-P-1962-298; Musée du Louvre – inv.no. 6130 LR/ Recto; Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada – inv.no. 15294.
Philibert Louis Debucourt: La Noce au Chateau & Le Menuet de la mariée
This charming pair was designed and executed by Philibert-Louis Debucourt. He was one of the most talented artists among French colour-engravers of the XVIII century. As the only trained painter and academician among the colour printmakers, Debucourt designed his own compositions.
Le Menuet was was first announced in the Gazette de France on 16 October 1786 as a pendant to Descourtis’ Noce de Village, published a year earlier. La Noce was first announced in the Journal de Paris on 14 April 1789 as a pendant to Le Menuet de la Mariée.
Ralph Nevill, French Prints of the Eighteenth Century, 1908;
Campbell Dodgson, Old French Colour-Prints, 1924;
Malcolm C. Salaman, Debucourt: Masters of the Colour Prints, 1929;
John Ittmann et al., Regency to Empire: French Printmaking 1715-1814, 1985.