Abraham Bosse’s etching (with engraving), “Artist Copying a Portrait of Christ”, c1667

Abraham Bosse (c1604–1676)  

“Artist Copying a Portrait of Christ” (descriptive title only), c1667, Plate 34 from the series of 52 plates, “Différentes manières de dessiner et peindre” (Different ways to draw and paint), published in Charles Antoine Jombert's (1712–1784) drawing book, “Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre à dessiner sans maître” (New method to learn to draw without a master) (1736 & 1740). 

Etching on laid paper backed with a support sheet.

Size: (support sheet) 25.3 x 18.9 cm; (sheet) 18.3 x 13.6 cm; (plate) 14.8 x 9.5 cm; (image borderline) 13.5 x 9.2 cm.

Numbered in plate below the image borderline: (right) “34”.

State ii (of ii) with the addition of the plate number.

Blum 1103 (André Blum 1924, “L'Oeuvre gravé d'Abraham Bosse”); Duplessis 940 (Georges Duplessis 1859, “Catalogue de l'oeuvre de Abraham Bosse”); Lothe 1004 (José Lothe 2008, “L'Oeuvre gravé d'Abraham Bosse graveur parisien du XVIIe siècle”).

The British Museum offers a description of this print: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_2AA-a-53-31.

Condition: a well-printed early impression showing no sign of wear to the printing plate, laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or significant stains.

I am selling this historically important etching from a series of prints offering insights into the studio practices of artists and printmakers in the17th century—note that the portrayed right-handed artist is holding a quill-pen made from the flight feathers from the left wing of the goose/swan so that the curve of the pen “fits” and is weighted to his hand comfortably—for AU$254 (currently US$175.99/EUR176.81/GBP187.27 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 representation of an artist copying a portrait of Christ —note the diagrammatical lines tracing the artist’s points of focus and the “correction” in the angle of the Head of Christ being copied to allow for parallax error—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