"BELIERS ANTIQUES DE BRONSE", qui se voyaient au Palais de Vice-Roi.
Palermo, Sicily.
JEAN-PIERRE-LOUIS-LAURENT HOUËL
(Rouen 28 June 1735- Paris 14 November 1813)
Original aquatint on copperplate, printed in sanguine on strong French laid paper.
Aquatinte originale sur cuivre, imprimée à la sanguine sur papier vergé forte datable deuxième moitié 18ème siècle.
Drawn and etched after nature by Jean-Pierre Houël, painter of the French King; of Beaux-Arts of Paris.
Dessiné et gravé d'après nature par Jean-Pierre Houël, peintre du Roi; de l'académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Plate n:38 of the famous "Voyage Pittoresque des Iles de Sicile, de Malte et de Lipari" published in Paris in 1782.
Planche n:38 du célèbre "Voyage Pittoresque des Iles de Sicile, de Malte et de Lipari" imprimé à Paris en 1782.
Size/Format: 260mm by 375mm [copperplate/cuivre]
350mm by 540mm [sheet/feuille]
CONDITION:
Superb impression, strong sanguine ink, full editorial margins.
Très belle impression, encre sanguine très vive, toutes marges.
JEAN HOUËL:
Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houël
(Rouen 28 June 1735-Paris 14 November 1813)
Was a French painter, engraver and draftsman.
During his long life Houël witnessed the reign of Louis XV, the French Revolution, and the period of Napoleon's First Empire. He was born at Rouen into a family of prosperous artisans, who sent him to the city's drawing academy when he was fifteen.
Here he was exposed to the art of early Dutch and Flemish painters, which was to have a defining impact on his chosen specialty of landscape painting.
In 1758 Houël published a book of landscape engravings, and in 1768 he painted six views of the Duc de Choiseul's country estate, the Château de Chanteloup. The following year his influential patrons secured a place for him at the French academy in Rome.
Here, captivated with Italian customs, landscapes, and ancient sites, he traveled throughout southern Italy, making gouache, drawings, which he presented at the Paris Salons of the early 1770s, exhibits that drew the attention of a wide public.
He spent the years 1776 to 1779 traveling in Sicily, Lipari, and Malta, after which, based on his journey, he published a series of four volumes of lavishly illustrated travel book (1782-1787).
Houël's main intention was to illustrate local topography, but his delicate applications of watercolour also magnificently captured the effects of light and atmosphere.
To help finance these projects, he sold his preliminary drawings in Paris in 1780.
Louis XVI purchased 46, and Catherine II of Russia, more than 500, of which 260 are preserved at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. In his later years Houël published two illustrated treatises on elephants.
Drawings of other animals suggest he was preparing to publish further zoological works; however, his death at the age of seventy-eight cut short his plans.