[Besançon]. Jean-Baptiste Lallemand. 5 views of Besançon engraved on copper, finely contemporary watercoloured . “Vue de la porte taillée à Besançon “, “Vue du pont de Besançon, Et de l’Arc de Triomphe nouvellement détruite ” [sic] and “Vue d’un ancien arc de triomphe, Et d’une Partie de l’Archeveché de Besançon ” engraved by Née; “Vue d’une partie de Besançon, Prise sur le bord du Doux ” by Niquet; “Vue de l’intendance de Besançon ” by Auvray. No place, around 1787. 240 x 181. Framed, XIX th blackened and gilded wood.
The engravings were first published in Description générale et particulière de la France, then under the title Voyage pittoresque de la France avec la description de toutes ses provinces, in Paris, by Lamy in 1787, plates 3, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Our etchings, unlike those presented in these books, have no legends, nor numbers, they are only titled, which suggests that they are in the first print.
Jean-Baptiste Lallemand (1716-1803), etchingsman and genre,, History, marines and french landscapes painter, practiced in Paris, in England, in Dijon, his birthplace, then in Rome (1747) where he worked for the Vatican, before returning to Paris. Lallemand painted all genres, but he excelled especially in landscapes and in the marines. Benezit cites, among other things, drawings he made for the Voyage pittoresque en France.
François-Denis Née (1732-1817) was a pupil of Jacques-Philippe Le Bas. He collaborated frequently with Masquelier (Métamorphoses d’Ovide, theEssai sur la Musique by Laporte and the Tableaux pittoresques de la Suisse). He is also involved in the major Franco-Chinese project entitled Les Conquêtes de l’Empereur de Chine, 12 large copper engravings made in Paris between 1772 and 1774 on behalf of the sovereign Qianlong. Among his works, Benezit cites the engravings of the Voyage pittoresque de la France.
Claude Niquet, called the elder (1770-after 1831), French draughtsman and engraver marked by neoclassical style. Perhaps the son of the Parisian print publisher Niquet, active in the years 1770. His first prints appeared at the Salon in 1787.
Pierre Laurent Auvray (1736- ?), student of Laurent Cars, worked in Paris and Basel and reproduced many subjects engraved after Fragonard, J. Bertaux, Ch. Monnet and others. He also made a number of illustrations for travel books.
Destailleur Provinces, XIII, 3143, 3144, 3147 and 3148; Benezit, I, 329 ; VI, 394-395 ; VII, 672, 728.
2 frames still have their bubble glass , the backs are period, without fastener, excepted one, remade, that, him, has got one.
Rare collection of these engraved views.
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