drawing book;
print
- Museum number
- 1983,1001.14.1-14
- Description
-
'Les principes du dessein, ou, Methode courte et facile pour aprendre cet art en peu de tems par Monsieur Gerard de Lairesse' (Amsterdan & Leipzig, Arkstée et Merkus) 1746; containing 120 whole-page engravings/etchings of body composition and proportion (plates 1-21), examples of male figures in various positions, including focus on muscles (plates 22-38), skull and skeleton (plates 39-40), the female figure (plates 41-61), 9 plates of the Nine Muses by Goltzius (plates 62-70), 10 plates after Bloemaert (plates 71-80), 20 plates of animals, usually seem from multiple angles, by Voerst after Savery (plates 81-100), 12 plates of birds (plates 101-113), 2 plates of insects and butterflies (plates 114-115), and 5 plates of fish (plates 116-120). Together with title-page showing image of a boy holding a dove in his left hand, being tought by a muse who points at a statue of mother nature to the left, preface, and 12 lessons on drawings with 11 plates within the text by Lairesse, and woodcut tailpieces. Title-page letterpress text printed in black and red. Bound in brown leather, with gold tooling on spine, marbled endpapers.
Etching and engraving
- Production date
- 1746
- Dimensions
-
Height: 400 millimetres (approx. sheet size of each page)
-
Width: 245 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- The first edition of this book, in Dutch, 'Grondlegginge Ter Teekenkonst' was published in 1701. The whole-page plates appear from the first French language edition in 1719 and were likely added by the publisher as plates that were available.
This book contains series of 9 plates showing the Nine Muses by Hendrik Goltzius, dated 1592. See 1854,0513.107-115 for the third state of these prints catalogued individually.
There are also 10 plates after Bloemaert by Passe or Swanenburg. See D,7.101, D,7.97, D,7.88, D,7.91, D,7.93-5, 1868,0612.2132, 1868,0612.2022 for other impressions of 9 of those plates catalogued individually.
The animal plates are by Voerst after Savery; many are also on another BM volume, see 1919,1216.59 for curator's comment on that volume and 1919,1216.89 for comment on the series.
Cataloguing supported by the Elizabeth Cayzer Charitable Trust
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Les principes du dessein
- Acquisition date
- 1983
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1983,1001.14.1-14
