Hubert-François Gravelot

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Book illustration by Hubert-François Gravelot for Samuel Richardson's " Pamela "

Hubert-François Gravelot (actually Bourguignon , born March 26, 1699 in Paris , † April 19, 1773 ibid) was a French painter, draftsman and engraver . He is one of the most important French book illustrators of the Rococo and influenced contemporary painting there during his stay in England between 1732 and 1746.

Life

Gravelot was born in 1699 as the son of the Parisian master tailor Hubert Bourguignon and was the brother of the cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville . He enjoyed his training at the Collège des Quatre Nations and became interested in drawing from an early age. A trip to Rome initiated by the father already failed in Lyon . Again at the end of his father's endeavors, Gravelot took on several years of activity as a map-maker for the governor of Santo Domingo . From 1729 he learned first with Jean Restout , later with François Boucher .

From 1732 he emigrated to England, possibly for financial reasons, and worked there as an illustrator for the French bookseller Claude Dubosc after the death of Bernard Picart in 1733 . He soon became successful, producing caricatures, monument engravings and illustrations for other London publishers. In 1744 he illustrated Thomas Hanmer's complete edition of Shakespeare's works . He also gained a reputation as a painter and taught as a professor at St. Martin's Lane Academy . Here he exerted artistic influence on William Hogarth , Thomas Gainsborough , Joseph Highmore and Francis Hayman , with whom he became friends, and thus did not have an insignificant influence on the English painting of that time.

In 1746 he returned to Paris, where he was literally overwhelmed with orders, so that he had to have most of his drawings carried out by other engravers. In 1764 he illustrated the Nouvelle Hëloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Théâtre by Pierre Corneille , in 1765 the Contes moreaux by Jean-François Marmontel , 1768 editions of works by Voltaire and Racine , 1771 Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso . From 1764 he worked on the illustrations for his own Almanach iconologique , which was only completed posthumously by Charles-Nicolas Cochin in 1780 . When he died, his work as an illustrator comprised almost 2,000 sheets. In addition, he had worked in many other fields and made numerous book decorations, vignettes, title pages, costume pictures and much more.

Gravelot was married twice. His first wife Marie-Anna Luneau died in 1759, and in 1770 he married Jeanne Ménétrier.

  • Book illustration, engraving from 1742

  • Etching with studies of the head and a shotgun shooter

literature

  • Jean-Gérald Castex: Hubert-François Gravelot in General Artist Lexicon , Verlag KG Saur, Munich / Leipzig, ISBN 3-598-22757-4

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Ernest Halliday: A Shakespeare Companion 1550-1950. Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. London 1952. Article Sir Thomas Hanmer , p. 261.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gravelot, Hubert-François
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bourguignon, Hubert-François (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter, draftsman and engraver
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1699
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1773
Place of death Paris