MAUCLERC
fl. 1785-1790 in Paris
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Quand L’Hymen dort, l’Amour veille [When Marriage Sleeps, Love Awakens] – 1790
Colour engraving, au pointillé after Jean Frédéric Schall (French, 1752-1825). Size of sheet: 37.7 x 54 cm. Lettered ‘Peint par Challe/Gravé par Maucler/Quand L’Hymen dort l’Amour veille/a Paris chez Vidal, Graveur, Rue de la Harpe n.181.’
Nevill p.121, Girodie No.151.
Excellent impression of this rare print on heavy laid paper with very large margins. Besides some slight yellowing of paper on the edges of the sheet, the print is in excellent condition.
Comparative impressions: Library of Congress – Inv.no. 2015647813, Harvard Art Museum – inv. No.2016.95.
£1,950.-
Mauclerc after Schall: Quand L'Hymen Dort, l'Amour Veille
The title of the work is taken from a famous 18th century poem “La Nuit de Paris. A Olympe” by Pierre-Joseph Bernard (1708-1775):
Tandis que l’enfant de Cypris/Inspire et féconde l’adresse/De ses nocturnes favoris,/Et, dans la nuit la plus épaisse,/Trompe les cocus de Paris;/Quand l’Hymen dort, quand L’Amour veille…
The original painting by Schall was sold in 2007 (see Sotheby’s, New York, sale on 8/07/2007, lot 258). Schall is a well-known artist, originally for his Piranesi-like architectural studies, but Mauclerc is sufficiently obscure so that his first name is not known. Nevertheless, the print itself is famous. It was published by Vidal, Parisian engraver and publisher who established his publishing house on Rue de la Harpe in 1785.
André Girodie, Un Peintre de Fêtes Galantes: Jean-Frédéric Schall, A. & F. Kahn, Strasbourg, 1927;
Maxime Preaud et al., Dictionnaire des editeurs d’estampes a Paris sous l’Ancien Regime, 1987.