A short history of engraving [and] etching : for the use of collectors and students; with full bibliography, classified list and index of engravers . with the later state, with its brilliantlyrealistic armour which puts even the penetrating visage of Charlesinto the shade. Of the Drevets (Pierre, his son Pierre Imbert, and nephewClaude) Pierre, the father, was by far the most powerful. Hisportrait of Rigaiid, whose work he largely reproduced (see Fig. 56),is one of his most vigorous plates, while the Boileau Despreaux (of1706) may be cited as a typical instance of his brilliance in render-ins;
A short history of engraving [and] etching : for the use of collectors and students; with full bibliography, classified list and index of engravers . with the later state, with its brilliantlyrealistic armour which puts even the penetrating visage of Charlesinto the shade. Of the Drevets (Pierre, his son Pierre Imbert, and nephewClaude) Pierre, the father, was by far the most powerful. Hisportrait of Rigaiid, whose work he largely reproduced (see Fig. 56),is one of his most vigorous plates, while the Boileau Despreaux (of1706) may be cited as a typical instance of his brilliance in render-ins; the tonic values of different colours and stuffs. In this latterquality he was even surpassed by his son, Pierre Imbert, but amidall the glister of silk and almost tangible softness of the fur in his 1 The student should examine early states of a work like this (of which the BritishMuseum has several impressions) as an example of the qualit) of the engraved linebefore the burr has been scraped away. PIERRE DREVET 149 Carditial Dubois (1724), there is a deadness and triviality in theessentials that sounds the knell of true portrait Fig. 56.—Pierre Drevet. Portrait ot Hyacinthe Rigaud (part). The development of an exaggerated fineness of technique led i^o THE CiREAT PORTRAIT ENGRAVERS riic ciiijravers logically to a corresponding reduction in the size of the plates as aof ininiaturc whole, and this, combined with the growing practice of illustration iniT^p-^,^ ? small books, led to the school of miniature portrait engravers of which P. savait. Etienne FiCQUET ^ (b. 1719), PiERRE Savart, and Grateloup,(jratelou|). were the chief exponents. With thern the art of portrait engravingwheeled back, with the added adornment of eighteenth century taste-fulness in small things, to the ground which had been trodden bythe Wierixes nearly two centuries before. Germany. The great French engravers of the best period were not without worthy rivals in other countries. Among th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecte, booksubjectetching
