Cahier de Principes de Desseins d’après nature, faits par Le Clerc.
Folio (32.5 x 25 cm). 12 cahiers, nos. 1 through 10, with two cahiers numbered three (“IIIe/“3e”) and two numbered eight (“VIIIe”/”Huitieme”) though differing in engraver, imprint, content and illustrations; two cahiers by Janinet (nos. 1 and 8) are dated 1773, all others are undated; other slight variations in titling and numbering style throughout the series depending on the engraver (e.g., Janinet preferring Roman numerals and Bonnet preferring Arabic numerals or ordinal numbers spelled out). Each cahier comprises six crayon-manner engraved plates, usually numbered, and printed in sanguine-colored ink including title page, for a total of 72 engraved plates. Occasional spotting, grease smudges and ink stains; several plates with small pin-prick holes, mostly unobtrusive, on the upper margin of most leaves, always beyond plate mark, probably made as the plates were sewn together or pinned up for display during drawing. The “Septieme cahier” with a 38mm tear on plate 3 touching the outer background of one illustration. Bound in contemporary mottled calf, some wear to boards, front hinge cracked, back hinge and corners refurbished; on the rear flyleaf, four small pencil and wash drawings of a bearded man and another of a blindfolded angel wielding a sword, and other doodles. Sammelband of 12 separately published fascicles of six engravings each, altogether 72 engraved plates. They were created after drawings by Pierre Thomas Le Clerc (c1740-c1799); seven of the cahiers were engraved by Janinet and printed by Le Père et Avaulez (nos. 1-3, 6, and 8-10), and five were engraved and printed by Bonnet (nos. 3 bis, 4, 5, 7, and 8 bis). The engravings, representing heads, hands, feet and limbs of men, women, children and toddlers, are executed in sanguine ink using the innovative “manière de crayon” chalk-manner engraving technique perfected by Bonnet. The illustrations of this remarkable anatomical ensemble were intended as teaching tools for draftsmen, painters, engravers, and art students. Each of the 12 cahiers provides numerous examples, on average four to six illustrations per plate, for drawing different parts of the human body for male, female, children and infants. Eyes, noses, ears, mouths and teeth are covered, as well as faces and heads (frontal and in profile), arms and hands in various poses (open, closed, clasping, gripping, praying, etc.), and legs and feet (standing flat, stretched, from below, wearing open footwear, etc.). A few plates provide schematic illustrations and technical instructions for drawing the head and its features, e.g., “l’ovale doit avoir la forme d’un oeuf” (in cahier no. 1 by Janinet); the bones and muscular structure of a man’s head, with abundant captions (in plate 2 of cahier no. 8 by Bonnet); and the iris of the eye from different angles (also in cahier no. 8 by Bonnet). Two cahiers (no. 3 by Bonnet and no. 10 by Janinet) are devoted exclusively to examples for drawing infants and children, including faces (frontal and in profile) and hands and feet. Several illustrations have accompanying explanatory text, thereby guiding the student towards a better understanding of the drawing process. The Bibliotheque Nationale de France catalogue entry notes (translated from the French): “This is a collection of plates containing drawing models, in fourteen notebooks, each six plates. Neither D. Guilmard, in ‘Les Ornamentistes’, nor Cohen mention this work, although it is quite important. The plates were distributed to students in the workshops, which explains why the complete collection is practically impossible to find. These plates are engraved in pencil, and printed in bright red, dark red or bistre red chalk. We note in these cahiers three publisher addresses, chronologically successive or simultaneous: Le Père et Avaulez (1773-1777), Mondhare et Jean (1773-1780), Les Campion Frères (from 1780).” (The BNF does not mention any cahiers engraved or printed by Bonnet, as in the present copy.) According to the BNF, subsequent editions of the cahiers from 1780 onwards were printed in black ink and not sanguine ink as originally, and new editions by Les Campion Frères were still being advertised for sale in the April 25, 1788 issue of the Gazette de France. Jean-François Janinet (1752-1814), who engraved seven of the 12 cahiers at the start of his prolific career, likely received drawing instruction from his father, a fine stone engraver in Paris. He refined his skills under Jean-Jacques Bachelier, who operated a private art school in Paris, before entering the prestigious Royal Academy School as a painting student in March 1772. Royal Academy records indicate a change of residence in September 1773, suggesting that Janinet embarked on independent training as an engraver. Janinet’s remarkable talent as an engraver is evident in these cahiers, which were probably all issued around 1773 when he was barely 22 years old. During this time, Janinet was experimenting with new color printing processes involving the use of multiple engraved, etched, and aquatint plates inked in various colors (e.g., red, blue, yellow or black), which he employed to great effect in works like the “Portrait de Marie-Antoinette” (1777) to simulate the appearance of pastel drawing. Louis-Marin Bonnet (1736-1793), the engraver and printer of five of the 12 cahiers, was a draftsman and engraver who, like his teacher Jean-Charles François, was a pioneer in the “manière de crayon” technique used in the present cahiers, which aimed to imitate the grainy effect of chalk, pastel, and charcoal drawings by engraving closely dotted lines with various pointed tools. This technique was especially popular in France from the mid-18th century until the invention of lithography in the 1790s. Holdings of loose plates at the BNF and elsewhere indicate that Bonnet also engraved and printed other pedagogically-oriented cahiers similar to the present series throughout the same time period, including Cahier de principes de dessin par différents maitres, Cahier de principes de paysage, and Cahier de fragmens et de principes de dessins de tous les genres...par J. B. Huet. Pierre Thomas Le Clerc (c1740-c1799), who created the designs for Janinet’s and Bonnet’s engravings, was a history painter and engraver. Born in Paris, he was the student of Jean-Louis-François Lagrenée and exhibited at the salon in 1795 and 1796. Though undocumented, he may have been a teacher in drawing academies in Paris. He is credited for several engravings over his decades-long career, including a scene of nymphs and satyrs (1763) and “Le Pacte National, Dédié aux Sociétés des Amis de la Constitution” (ca. 1791). Our copy is a genuine example, most probably a working copy belonging to a student or artist, with some oil and ink stains here and there, gathered by the original owner and bound in a full calf binding at the time. The owner even included some ink drawings and doodles on the rear free endpaper. The BNF catalogue entry mentions 14 fascicles, but only 12 are present here, each complete with its six plates, and two bearing the same number but by different engravers (Janinet or Bonnet) and with different imprints and illustrations. These fascicles, in individual form, are according to the BNF catalogue entry of extreme rarity. The BNF and the Institut National de l’Histoire de l’Art–Bibliotheque Jacques Doucet do not list complete copies in their holdings. No U.S. copies; some U.S. libraries record loose engravings.
* Benezit, vol. 2, p. 162 (Bonnet), and vol. 6, pp. 31-32 (Janinet), p. 518 (Le Clerc). See also: catalogue entry for BNF copy (https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb445698684).
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