Jules Jacquemart’s etching of a rock crystal cup with a scalloped rim

Jules Jacquemart (aka Jules Ferdinand Jacquemart) (1837–80)

Plate 41: “Jatt de Crystal de Roche” [EL] or “Drageoir de Cristal de Roche” [BM], 1864, from the series “Gemmes et Joyaux de la Couronne au Musée du Louvre”, printed by Auguste Delâtre (1822–1907) and published by Henry Barbet de Jouy

Etching with plate/surface tone on laid paper with full margins (as published).

Size: (sheet) 54.5 x 37 cm; (plate) 38.8 x 28 cm; (image borderline) 34 x 26.6 cm

Inscribed within the image (lower centre) “Jules Jacquemart delin. & sculp.”

Lettered above the image (upper left corner) “PL. 41”; (upper centre) “MUSÉE DU LOUVRE.”

Lettered below the image (centre) “Imp. Delȃtre, Paris.”

To see the complete series see Elizabeth Legge gallery: http://www.leggeprints.com/jacquemart/index.htm

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

"A rock crystal cup with scalloped rim. 1864 Etching, with surface tone." (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3533107&partId=1&searchText=Jules+Jacquemart+crystal&page=1)

Gonse 146.II (Gonse, Louis, “Jules Jacquemart”, Gazette des Beaux-Arts)

Condition: large, superb impression in near pristine condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, folds or foxing, but there are a couple of small spots) with generous margins.

I am selling this remarkable illustration of a rock crystal cup from the Louvre collection for AU$118 (currently US$87.75/EUR82.62/GBP70.40 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. If you are interested in purchasing this large etching of the highest order of technical skill, 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

This is the third illustration by Jacquemart that I have posted of objects in the Louvre collection. This particular image is probably the ultimate display of virtuosity that one can find. It is a standalone visual statement of the remarkable skill of the top illustrators from the 19^th century.

Jacquemart is arguably the finest illustrator of still life objects in terms of using only line (i.e. without blocks of tone or colour) to render the subtle differences of surface texture, opacity and sheen separating crystal, stone and metal. Not only was Jacquemart able to convincingly represent each material, but he was also able to suggest the delicacy and the weight of each object.

To fully appreciate what makes an artist like Jacquemart a true master of his craft, one only has to examine the way that he has drawn the rim of this cup and see how he has phrased the strength of the line from strong and dark in the foreground to delicate and faint further back. Moreover, even within each scalloped curve, he has varied the strength of the line.

Jules Jacquemart’s etching of a crystal ewer

Jules Jacquemart (aka Jules Ferdinand Jacquemart) (1837–80)

“Plate 45: Aiguiere de Crystal de Roche”, 1865, from the series “Gemmes et Joyaux de la Couronne au Musée du Louvre”, printed by Auguste Delâtre (1822–1907) and published by Henry Barbet de Jouy.

Etching with plate/surface tone on laid paper with full margins (as published).

Size: (sheet) 54.5 x 37.1 cm; (plate) 430 x 29.7b cm; (image borderline) 39.8 x 27 cm

Inscribed within the image (lower centre) “Jules Jacquemart delin. et Sculpt.”

Lettered above the image (upper left corner) “PL. 45”; (upper centre) “MUSÉE DU LOUVRE.”

Lettered below the image (centre) “Imp. Delȃtre, Paris.”

To see the complete series see Elizabeth Legge gallery: http://www.leggeprints.com/jacquemart/index.htm

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

"A rock crystal vase decorated with foliated scrolls and a handle in the shape of a term bending backwards." (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3533121&partId=1&searchText=jacquemart+Aiguiere+&page=1)

Gonse 157.IV (Gonse, Louis, “Jules Jacquemart”, Gazette des Beaux-Arts)

Condition: large, flawless impression in near pristine condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, folds or foxing, but there are a couple of small spots) with generous margins.

I am selling this remarkable illustration of a crystal ewer from the Louvre collection for AU$118 (currently US$89.89/EUR82.26/GBP73.31 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. If you are interested in purchasing this large etching of the highest order of technical skill, 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

The Chalcographie de Louvre commissioned Jacquemart to execute this and the other illustrations for Henri Barbet de Jouy’s “Gemmes et Joyaux du Louvre” in two folio volumes (see FL Leipnik’s [1924] “A History of French Etching”, p. 118). The Chalcographie’s choice of Jacquemart as the reproductive illustrator is easy to understand, as through his career he had produced 400 plates recording collections of precious stones, medals, daggers, swords, bronze busts statuettes, ceramics and paintings. In short, Jacquemart had established his reputation based on his high level of technical skills even if his reproductive prints of other artists’ artworks were (to quote Leipnik) “scarcely above mediocrity” (p. 118).

Regarding Jacquemart’s technical skills, Leipnik offers the following insightful assessment of Jacquemart’s proficiencies:

“Jacquemart’s marvellous achievement is the still unrivalled reproduction of the surface texture of … the perfect suggestion of the dull glimmer of gold, of the pale sheen of silver, of the vibrating lustre of china, of the liquid fire and the prismatic rays of faceted stone and the grain of leather; and the inimitable rendering of the translucent, opalescent or opaque qualities of these various materials.” (ibid)

Jules Jacquemart’s etching of a goblet

Jules Jacquemart (aka Jules Ferdinand Jacquemart) (1837–80)

“Plate 53: Gobelet de Sardoine Oriental”, 1865, from the series “Gemmes et Joyaux de la Couronne au Musée du Louvre”, printed by Auguste Delâtre (1822–1907) and published by Henry Barbet de Jouy.

Etching with plate/surface tone on laid paper with full margins (as published).

Size: (sheet) 54.5 x 37.5 cm; (plate) 38.7 x 28.4 cm; (image borderline) 34.4 x 24.3 cm

Inscribed within the image (lower centre) “Jules Jacquemart delin. et Sculpt.”

Lettered above the image (upper left corner) “PL. 53”; (upper centre) “MUSÉE DU LOUVRE.”

Lettered below the image (centre) “Imp. Delȃtre, Paris.”

To see the complete series see Elizabeth Legge gallery: http://www.leggeprints.com/jacquemart/index.htm

Condition: large, flawless impression in near pristine condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, abrasions, folds or foxing, but there are a couple of small spots) with generous margins.

I am selling this remarkable illustration of a goblet from the Louvre collection for AU$118 (currently US$90.59/EUR82.84/GBP74.13 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world. If you are interested in purchasing this large etching of the highest order of technical skill, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Sometimes masterpieces of the highest order of technical skill are created with the very simple goal: to illustrate other artworks. Such is the case with this magnificent etching representing a gold and precious stone goblet from the Louvre Museum collection.

Jacquemart is the acknowledged master of the art of reproductive illustration and this perception of his skills is borne out by one of the great connoisseurs of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Henri Beraldi, who asserts that Jacquemart is “one of the most astonishing etchers of his time and of all times.” In FL Leipnik’s (1924) “A History of French Etching” Beraldi is purported to say that “Jacquemart was the creator of a new ‘genre,’ the rendering of objects of art.” (p. 117). Of course, Jacquemart was not the first to render still-life curios, but as Leipnik points out: “he was certainly the first to portray that aspect of the surface-texture of curios which one may be permitted to call the reflection of the soul of the inanimate object” (ibid).

Leipnik’s notion that Jacquemart could capture the aura of inanimate objects may be a little farfetched, nevertheless, there are very few etchers that have the supreme technical skills of Jacquemart to visually communicate the physical attributes of the different surfaces represented.