Self - Portrait
| Reference: | s42135 |
| Author | Pierre BREBIETTE |
| Year: | 1637 ca. |
| Measures: | 161 x 114 mm |
| Reference: | s42135 |
| Author | Pierre BREBIETTE |
| Year: | 1637 ca. |
| Measures: | 161 x 114 mm |
Description
Etching, 1637-38, inscribed: lower left, P Brebiette / IN.; on frame, PETRUS BREBIETTE PICTOR REGIS; on the banderole, animum pictura pascit inani; in lower margin, Fidelissimae coniugis Ludovicae de neu - Germain posteritatis memoria Consolatur . / le Blond exc.
A fine impression, printed with tone on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the platemark, very good condition.
“An anthology of about seventyfive of Brebiette's prints was published by Augustin Quesnel with a title page dated 1638. The plates were earlier productions, but Brebiette made three new prints: the title page, a dedication, and this author's portrait. The date of its execution is quite precise, on account of its dedication to the memory of Louise de Neufgermain, the artist's wife, who died in October 1637 Brebiette's portrait is enclosed in an ornate oval frame supported by two putti, who grasp the ends of a strip of fabric laced through holes on the frame. The drapery that serves as a backdrop bears the conventional marks of mourning that symbolize tears. The artist depicts himself wearing a loosely wrapped turban, resting his head on his left hand, holding a framed oval miniature portrait of his wife in his right hand. His brow is furrowed, his eyes sad, his expression melancholy. Jacques Thuillier speaks of Brebiette's romanticism, characterized by his breaks with convention and the imaginative and improvisatory nature of his prints. This self - portrait is unusually personal and informal to serve as a fron tispiece to a published set of prints. It continues a tradition of mannerist portraits that includes Jacques Callot's Italian poet Giovanni Domenico Peri (1619, Lieure 305), and Egidius Sadeler's engraving after Bartolommaeus Spranger's self - portrait with an homage to a dead wife (1600, Hollstein 332). It also partakes of the immediacy and scrutiny of Rembrandt's lifelong series of self – portraits”. (cf. Sue Welsh Reed, French Prints from the Age of the Musketeers, p. 115, n. 49).
Bibliografia
Le Blanc, n. 129; Reed, n. 49; Inventaire du Fonds Français: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Estampes n. 215.
Pierre BREBIETTE (Nantes 1598 – Roma 1650 circa)
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Relatively little is known about Pierre Brebiette's early life and artistic formation. His father was a clerk of the court in the jurisdiction of Varennes near Brie-Comte-Robert, and the artist owned property in Coulommiers. He could have learned from observing the ongoing decoration of the palace of Fontainebleau. By January 1617 he was living in Rome, where he remained until 1625. In Italy Brebiette was closely associated with the painter-etcher Claude Vignon and the print publisher and paintings dealer Francois Langlois, called Ciartres; they remained friends for life. He was married in Paris in January 1626 to Louise, the daughter of the poet Louis de Neufgermain, whose patron was Gaston d'Orleans, younger brother of Louis XIII. Vignon witnessed the marriage, became a godparent to their son in 1631, and helped to value Brebiette's artistic estate at the time of his death in 1650. Although one painting has been identified, Brebiette was primarily a graphic artist, and a number of fine drawings and nearly 300 prints by him are known. His etched oeuvre includes genre, mythological, and religious subjects. Brebiette was likely to have been introduced to etching in Rome; his work reflects the style and techniques of Italian etchers there: Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630), Orazio Borgianni (about 1578-1616), and Ottavio Leoni (1578-1630). In Italy some of Brebiette's prints reproduced paintings by such Renaissance masters as Andrea del Sarto and Paolo Veronese, and more recent Roman painters including Cesare d'Arpino. Others developed themes derived from ancient pagan subjects. By 1624 he had mastered the medium, and after his return to Paris he was in demand as an etcher, receiving commissions for religious subjects and book illustrations. Few of Brebiette's prints bear dates; they range from 1624 to 1640. The majority were designed and executed in a spirited personal style that combines mannerist grace with Northern realism an whismsical humor. Since he was one of the early seventeenth century's most original printmakers, it is surprising that no catalogue raisonné of Brebiette's has been published.
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Pierre BREBIETTE (Nantes 1598 – Roma 1650 circa)
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Relatively little is known about Pierre Brebiette's early life and artistic formation. His father was a clerk of the court in the jurisdiction of Varennes near Brie-Comte-Robert, and the artist owned property in Coulommiers. He could have learned from observing the ongoing decoration of the palace of Fontainebleau. By January 1617 he was living in Rome, where he remained until 1625. In Italy Brebiette was closely associated with the painter-etcher Claude Vignon and the print publisher and paintings dealer Francois Langlois, called Ciartres; they remained friends for life. He was married in Paris in January 1626 to Louise, the daughter of the poet Louis de Neufgermain, whose patron was Gaston d'Orleans, younger brother of Louis XIII. Vignon witnessed the marriage, became a godparent to their son in 1631, and helped to value Brebiette's artistic estate at the time of his death in 1650. Although one painting has been identified, Brebiette was primarily a graphic artist, and a number of fine drawings and nearly 300 prints by him are known. His etched oeuvre includes genre, mythological, and religious subjects. Brebiette was likely to have been introduced to etching in Rome; his work reflects the style and techniques of Italian etchers there: Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630), Orazio Borgianni (about 1578-1616), and Ottavio Leoni (1578-1630). In Italy some of Brebiette's prints reproduced paintings by such Renaissance masters as Andrea del Sarto and Paolo Veronese, and more recent Roman painters including Cesare d'Arpino. Others developed themes derived from ancient pagan subjects. By 1624 he had mastered the medium, and after his return to Paris he was in demand as an etcher, receiving commissions for religious subjects and book illustrations. Few of Brebiette's prints bear dates; they range from 1624 to 1640. The majority were designed and executed in a spirited personal style that combines mannerist grace with Northern realism an whismsical humor. Since he was one of the early seventeenth century's most original printmakers, it is surprising that no catalogue raisonné of Brebiette's has been published.
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