Charles Meryon ,“Portrait of Jean Besly”, 1861, after Jaspar Isaac

Charles Meryon (aka Charles Méryon) (1821–1868)

“Portrait of Jean Besly”, 1861, after the design (possibly an engraving?) by the printmaker, printer and publisher, Jaspar Isaac (fl.1585–1654) showing the historian, Jean Besly (1612-1647), from the Province of Poitou, at the age of 70 in 1642, signed in the plate with Charles Meryon’s monogram in the upper-left corner and with the date (1861) inscribed in the margin at lower centre, printed in Paris by Abraham Beillet (aka Beillet & Forestier) (fl.1850–1876) as an illustration to the first volume (of two) of Benjamin Fillon and Octave de Rochebrune’s “Poitou et Vendée, études historiques et artistiques”, published in 1861.

Etching with pale surface tone, printed on oriental paper with wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 30.8 x 23.2 cm; (platemark is too soft for accurate measurement [14.7 x 12 cm]); (image borderline) 11 x 8.9 cm.

Inscribed in plate within the image borderline: (upper left corner) [Charles Meryon’s monogram]; (square at upper right) “ÆT 70/ ANN 1642/ [coat-of-arms]”.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “d'après I. Isac”; (centre) “IEAN BESLY/ 1861”; (right) “Imp. A. Beillet Q. de la Tournelle, 35.”

State iv (of iv) with the addition of the artist’s monogram.

Delteil & Wright 82 (Loys Delteil & Harold JL Wright 1989, “Catalogue Raisonné of the Etchings of Charles Meryon”, San Francisco, Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, n.p., cat. no. 82 [4^th state]).

See also the descriptions of this print offered by The British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1876-0510-392; https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/377942.

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with wide margins. The sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or significant stains.

I am selling this seemingly raw etching by one the acknowledged masters of 19^th century French printmaking, Charles Meryon (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Meryon), after the design by the very fine engraver, Jaspar Isaacs (see for example, https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2020/05/jaspar-isaacs-engraving-descent-from.html), showing the historian Jean Besly in his 70^th year in 1642, for AU $291 in total (currently US $182.45/ EUR 175.28/ GBP 148.15 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU $291) as this is my currency.

If you are interested in this intriguing portrait by Meryon, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Thomas de Leu’s engraving, “Les Presens Rvstiqves”, c1614, after Anthoine Charon

Thomas de Leu (c1555-c1612) or (less likely) Jaspar Isaac (aka Gasper Isac; Jaspar Isac; Gaspard Isac; Jaspar Isacsz; Jasper de Isaac) (fl.1585–1654) or Léonard Gaultier (aka Léonard Gautier) (c1561–c1635)—note that all of these engravers supplied illustrations for the same publication in which this print was published, but Jaspar Isaac and Léonard Gaultier signed the engravings they worked on, and the style (to my eyes) leans more to Thomas de Leu than Léonard Gaultier (compare the engraving of Thomas de Leu [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1872-0511-1258] with an engraving by Léonard Gautier [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1871-0708-359]).

“Les Presens Rvstiqves” (The Rustic Present), c1614, after the design by Anthoine Charon (1521–1599)—the son-in-law of Jaspar Isaac—illustration to page 265 of Philostratus the Athenian’s (c170–245) et al., “Les Images Ou Tableaux De Platte Peinture Des Deus Philostrates Sophistes Grecs Et Les Statues De Callistrate Mis en Francois par Blaise de Vigenere Bourbonnois Enrichis d'Arguments et Annotations Reveus et corrigez sur l'original par un docte personnage de ce temps en la langue Grecque Et Representez En Taille Douce en cette nouvelle edition Avec des Epigrammes sur chacun d'iceux par Artus Thomas Sieur d'Embry”, published in Paris by Mathieu Guillemot (fl.1614–1652) in 1614.

This print and its context in the publication (1614) may be viewed online (or downloaded free-of-charge) at Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/lesimagesoutable00phil/page/262/mode/2up.

Engraving on laid paper with letterpress text recto and verso and a woodcut ornamental panel verso backed with a support sheet (with window cut in the support for viewing the verso panel).

Size: (sheet) 32.1 x 22.1 cm; (plate) 23.9 x 19.3 cm; (image borderline) 23.7 x 19.1 cm.

Letterpress French text: (upper centre margin) “LES PRESENS RVSTIQVES.”; (lower margin in two columns of six lines: “Estime qui voudra les choses magnifiques:/ Les beaux presens rustiques/ Contentent plus les coeurs,/ Que toutes ces grandeurs:/ Vne vaine peinture/ Est moins que la nature.// Tous ces dons enrichis d'or et d'orfebuerie,/ Ne sont que tromperie:/ S'ils ont  de la beauté,/ C'est en desloyauté:/ Rarement l'artifice/ Se trouue sans malice.”

([transl.] “Esteem who will want magnificent things:/ The beautiful rustic present/ No longer satisfy hearts,/ That all these sizes:/ A vain painting/ Is less than nature./ All these gifts enriched with gold and goldsmith's work,/ Are only deception:/ If they are beautiful:/ It is in disloyalty;/ Rarely artifice/ Is found without malice.”)

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression. The sheet has age-toning (i.e. darkening) on the left side and there is an abraded area in the upper right margin where the page number should be. The verso of the sheet has been laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper with a “window” left to allow the woodcut panel printed verso to be seen.

I am selling this exceptionally fine engraving of what I would like to call a “fruitscape” showing in the foreground at left what I assume must be a date palm with a curious root system and a grapevine entwining its trunk, while in the middle distance arranged in mini-mounds are fruits such as pears, oranges, grapes and a few others that I am hesitant to propose, for the total cost of AU$232 (currently US$179.58/EUR150.51/GBP129.52 at the time of posting this print) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this strangely wonderful engraving with an equally interesting woodcut panel printed verso featuring mascarons, snails, monkeys, rabbits, snakes and rinceau ornamentation, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold 

Woodcut printed verso

Jaspar Isaac’s engraving, “The Descent from the Cross”, c.1631

Jaspar Isaac (aka Gasper Isac; Jaspar Isac; Gaspard Isac; Jaspar Isacsz; Jasper de Isaac) (fl.1585–1654), inscribed on plate as publisher.

“The Descent from the Cross” (La Descente de Croix), c.1631, plate 11 from “Biblia Sacra, Vulgatae Editionis” published by (widow) Claudius Rigaud and Claudius Obertand in 1631 in Lyon (see title page of this publication inscribed with “Jaspar Isac” as the engraver at the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.128102), possibly after Egbert van Panderen’s (c.1581–1637) engraving of the same design, “Kruisafneming” (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.collect.160326)—alternatively, Van Panderen’s engraving may be after Isaac’s engraving—after the design by Luca Cambiaso (aka Luca Cambiasi; Luca Cangiage; Luca Cangiano; Luca Cangiasi; Lucas Cangiasus; Luchetto da Genova) (1527–1585)—possibly the pen and wash drawing, “Descent from the Cross”, c.1570 (https://www.artsy.net/artwork/luca-cambiaso-descent-from-the-cross) which is loosely similar in composition.

Note: this print is not documented or held in any of the major Museum repositories allowing me to verify that all the above details are correct. My apologies if there are errors.

Engraving on fine laid paper with watermark (portion) trimmed close to the image borderline.

Size: (sheet) 32.1 x 20.2 cm; (image borderline) 29.5 x 19.9 cm.

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline at lower left corner: “Jaspar Isac ex’”.

Numbered on plate below the image borderline: (centre) “11”.

Lettered on plate below the image borderline in two columns, with four lines of Latin at left and four lines of French at right: “Sancta quibus cordi est pietas gressum properate,/ …/…/… pharusque meis,// Sus sus tost hastéz uous, ames toutes fidelles/ …/…/ … de mes yeux,”.

Condition: a strong impression trimmed with a narrow margin around the image borderline and a centre-fold. The sheet is slightly darkened by its considerable age and there are numerous small areas of restoration along with the remnants of mounting verso.

I am selling this superb engraving, showing Christ being extracted from the cross by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea and other assistants with Mary Magdalene seated and praying at the foot of the cross beside the crown of thorns in a basket, for AU$332 (currently US$213.59/EUR197.58/GBP174.98 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this very rare engraving—I have been unable to find another copy of it in any museum repository—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Jaspar Isaac’s engraving, “Ajax le Locrien, ou les Gyres”, c1609

Jaspar Isaac (aka Gasper Isac; Jaspar Isac; Gaspard Isac; Jaspar Isacsz; Jasper de Isaac) (fl.1585–1654)

Note: attribution of this engraving to Jaspar Isaac rather than the other engravers featured in the same publication—viz. Léonard Gaultier (1561–1635) and Thomas de Leu (1560–1620)—is based on the stylistic treatment of the portrayed subject (cf. “Evadne”, signed by Isaac that I have listed earlier and is currently available: https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2019/04/jaspar-isaacs-engraving-evadne-c1609.html).

“Ajax le Locrien, ou les Gyres”, c1609, after Antoine Caron (aka Antoine Charon) (1521–1599), illustration to Blaise de Vigenère’s (1523 –1596) translation of Lucius Flavius Philostratus (aka “the Athenian”) (c.170 – 247/250) and/or his son-in-law, Philostratus of Lemnos’ “Les images ou tableaux de platte peinture des deux Philostrates …”, first published in Paris in 1609 by Claude Cramoisy, followed by the edition by Abel l'Angelier's widow in 1614 or 1615. Also issued in 1637 by Mathieu Guillemot, Sebastien Cramoisy and C. Sonnius in Paris.

Archive.org offers an online view (and free-of-charge download) of the 1637 edition (see this print on page 384):

https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008279552/page/n405/mode/2up/.

The mythological episode illustrated in this print matches the description offered by the Finnish Thesaurus and Ontology Service (finto):

‘… the return of Ajax the Lesser (the Locrian) after the fall of Troy > Ajax the Lesser shipwrecked; while he is scrambling ashore Neptune splits the rocks with his trident”

(http://finto.fi/ic/en/page/94K31).

I understand that the Neptune was unhappy with Ajax’s “sacrilegious behaviour”—to borrow a phrase from Wikipedia—and his fury extended beyond making Ajax fall; he also whipped up wild ocean currents—the gyres.

Engraving on laid paper with letterpress text verso, trimmed with a small margin and backed with a support sheet,

Size: (sheet) 26.2 x 21.3 cm; (plate) 23.6 x 19 (image borderline) 23.3 x 18.6 cm.

Condition: richly inked, near faultless early impression. There are past collectors’ pencil and pale ink notations in the lower margin recto and the letterpress text printed verso is partly visible recto. The sheet is laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper and is in excellent/museum-quality condition.

I am selling this superb engraving from c.1609 —a visually arresting late Renaissance masterpiece—for AU$320 (currently US$196.45/EUR180.94/GBP159.60 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this remarkable engraving with its fascinating treatment of lightning represented by castellated white lines—a visual device that I understand is symptomatic of artists who suffer from migraines—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Jaspar Isaac’s engraving, “Evadne”, c1609

Jaspar Isaac (aka Gasper Isac; Jaspar Isac; Gaspard Isac; Jaspar Isacsz; Jasper de Isaac) (fl.1585–1654)

“Evadne”, c1609, after Antoine Caron (aka Antoine Charon) (1521–1599), illustration to Blaise de Vigenère’s (1523 –1596) translation of Philostratus’ (170?–245 AD) “Les images ou tableaux de platte peinture des deux Philostrates …”, first published in Paris in 1609 by Claude Cramoisy and later republished in 1614/15, 1617 and 1637 (see the plates from the 1637 edition at http://jjgueron.free.fr/LIVRES-VIGENERE-1637-MINIATURES.htm and this plate at http://jjgueron.free.fr/LIVRES-VIGENERE-1637-P533-EVADNE.htm).

This plate is the illustration to the episode of Evadne’s throwing herself to her death onto the funeral pyre of her husband who was killed by a bolt of lightning during the siege of Thebes.

Note that Getty images attribute this engraving (“Evadne”) to Leonard Gaultier who also engraved plates in the same publication, but to my eyes the style of this image is much closer to Isaac than Gaultier and, importantly, the plate is signed to Isaac

(see https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/evadne-1615-a-daughter-of-iphis-and-wife-of-capaneus-with-news-photo/463922553).

Note: the 1637 edition of the publication in which this plate features (p. 553) is available online or may be downloaded free of charge from archive.org: https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008279552/page/n551.

Engraving with letterpress text (recto and verso) on fine laid paper backed with a support sheet with the verso of the support sheet cut with a “window” exposing an ornamental woodcut panel of scrolls, grotesques and animals (viz. hares, horses and snails).

Size: (sheet) 31.6 x 21.4 cm; (plate) 24 x 20 (image borderline) 23.2 x 19 cm; (verso woodcut) 3.9 x 16.7 cm.

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (lower left corner) “Iaspar Isac f.”

Letterpress text and numbered above the plate: (centre) “EVADNE.”; (right) “533”

Letterpress text below the plate: (centre) “DIALOGVE’.”; (five lines of text in two columns) “D. Euadné qui te faiet couir ur ce rocher [D. Euadne who makes you go on this rock] …/ …/ …/ …/ D. Qui causa tes ennuys er ta douleur extremes? [D, Which caused your troubles and your extreme pain/] // R. La mort de mon mary qui se ruina soy-mesme. [R. The death of my husband who ruined himself.] / …/ …/ …/ Voicy que par ma mort i'expieray son offence. [Here, by my death, I will express his offense.] / Yy iiij”

Condition: crisp impression of the full sheet as published. There are fractures to the edges of the sheet, a restored printer’s crease at the lower left and the lower left corner is chipped. The sheet has been laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper with a “window” cut into the support sheet (verso) to expose the woodcut printed on the back.

I am selling this graphically arresting engraving from c1609 for AU$320 (currently US$229.14/EUR203.55/GBP176.12 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this marvellous example of the stylistic attributes of late Mannerism featuring a highly stylised treatment of fire and swirling smoke, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

woodcut on verso of sheet