Nattier

#[61062] — Portrait of the engraver Bernard Picart in an interior. The artist is represented as dressed in a costly robe with a floral motive. He's leaning agains a table on which is a print that he himself made in 1709. This mezzotint is so amazingly detailed that all the inscriptions in it are readable from those reproduced in the print on the table to the titles of the books in the shelves in the background. On the table also the tools of the engraver. French-born Picart was an extremely refined engraver and his work has been much appreciated by his contemporaries. As demonstrated in this fine portrait he was on the one hand an erudite - among the titles of the books are 'Raphael et la Sveve' and 'COREGE' - and a wealthy artist. Lettered on the bottom: 'NEC VETERA ASPERNERE NEC INVIDEAS HODIERNIS. / BERNARDUS PICARTUS Delineator & Sculptor Stephani Picarti cui / Romano cognomen Filius natus Lutetiae 11 Junii anni MDCLXXIII a J. Marc / Nattier pictus anno MDCCIX & á N. Verkolje l. m. aere expressus Amstelodami MDCCXV'. This is an advanced state; for first state see at the Rijksmuseum cat. RP-P-1911-185. Inscription on the print on the table: 'CORNALINE connue sous le nom de cachet de Michel Ange. ' On the verso collector's mark not in Lugt. l Mezzotint on paper with some margin; plate mark: 332 x 242 total: 346 x 254; in outstanding conditions; Wurzbach 7 Nagler 7 unknown