PIERRE LÉLU

1741 - Paris - 1810

St Luke – c.1780

Etching. Size of sheet: 22.1 x 22.4 cm. Signed on the plate ‘P.Lélu’.

I.F.F. 30; Baudicour 1:6 (p.239).

Splendid tonal impression with narrow margins around the clearly impressed platemark. Perfectly preserved.

Comparative impressions: Bibliotheque Nationale de France – notice ref. FRBNF16885605.

Pierre Lélu: St Luke

From the suite of four plates ‘Les Quatre Evangélistes sur les Nuages, Dans Des Ronds’. Baudicour describes the suite as très-belles pièces a l’eau-forte… ells sont de la plus grande rarité [very beautiful pieces in etching… they are of the greatest rarity].

Lelu studied painting under François Boucher and Gabriel François Doyen. He made three trips to Italy and also travelled to Spain and Portugal. In 1778, he was admitted to the Academy in Marseilles. Lelu executed about a hundred etchings and aquatints. Many of his etchings are after his own drawings. Our etching is after his drawing that is now in the Yale University Art Gallery (inv.no. 2019.2.17.1-.4).

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