JEAN MATHIEU
1749 Paris – 1815 Fontainebleau
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Le Serment d’Amour [The Vow of Love] - 1786
Engraving after Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, 1732-1806). Size of sheet: 58.7 x 45.5 cm. Lettered: ‘Le Serment d’Amour/Gravé par J.Mathieu d’aprés le Tableau d’H. Fragonard P.du Roi/A Paris chez l’Auteur Cloître St Benoit, Maison de Mer. Demarteau.’
Portalis-Berladi III:69; Le Blanc 15; Nevill p.141 (III/III) (Plate XXVIII).
Magnificent impression with margins on papier vélin.
Comparative impressions: British Museum – inv.no. 1871,0812.3726; Metropolitan Museum of Art – inv.no. 41.140.9.
Jean Mathieu after Fragonard: The Vow of Love
The original painting is now at the Villa Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard in Grasse. The present impression is printed on wove paper (papier vélin) newly introduced in 1780s and impressions on this type of paper were offered at twice the price of impressions on ordinary paper (papier de France).
A pupil of Joseph de Longueil, Mathieu devoted himself to printmaking, and produced a number of successful engravings. His best work is considered to be Le Serment d’Amour, which forms a pendant with La Bonne Mere, engraved by N. de Launay.