Details

Related name

• Henriet, Israel̈, 1608?-1661 [Browse]

Notes

• Etched and engraved throughout. The title is taken from the title-plate (plate [1]).
• : Israel̈ Silvestre came to Paris while still a teenager, around 1635, and was taught draughtsmanship and etching by his uncle, the publisher Israel̈ Henriet (1608?-1661). He may well have produced some unsigned plates for his uncle and others between around 1635 and 1638, but his first signed plates date from the period after his first visit to Italy, which took place between 1638 and 1641 (see Faucheux 234 for some plates published in Lyon 'vers 1640'). In 1642 he etched, and his uncle published, a four-plate panorama of Rome after a drawing by L. de Lincler (see No. 3030). Around 1643 he travelled to Italy again and, following this trip, he published several series of views of Rome and other cities (see Nos 3015, 3020, 3023 and 3037-3039). Further suites followed a third visit in 1653 (see No. 3031). However, although his Italian views were highly accomplished, it was for his plates of French cities, especially Paris, that he became famous and is best known today (see Silvestre, Vues). His suites of picturesque views were mostly published between around 1645 and 1660, and Grivel suggests that in all cases Henriet was the publisher (see Grivel, Le commerce de l'estampe p.375). This is largely true, although a few suites were handled by other Parisian printsellers at an early date (see, for example, No. 3039 and the Veües de differents lieux ..., which was originally published by Antoine De Fer (probably during the early 1650s), then by Jean II Le Blond (1670s-1690s?), and finally by Etienne Gantrel (1690s-1709?; see Faucheux 21, 354, and the Bodleian copy at Ashm. 1762(203-208)). Silvestre appears to have been so well-known by the early 1650s that his suites from this period sometimes bear no imprint other than his own statement of responsibility as artist and 'factor'; either the public was expected to know that his work was on sale at Henriet's shop or, perhaps more likely, he was using a number of Parisian outlets at this time. On Henriet's death on 25 April 1661, Silvestre inherited the business, and continued to publish his own works, from the same address in the 'Rue de l'Arbre Sec, proche la Croix du Trahoir'. In many cases the suites were identified as published only by 'Israel', so it was not necessary for Silvestre to alter any of the coppers to reflect his ownership. During the 1650s and 1660s Silvestre collaborated with a number of other important artist and engravers, including Stefano Della Bella, who drew several title-plates for his suites, Gabriel and Nicolas Perelle, and Jean Marot. He also had a number of pupils, including Louis Meunier (see No. 2111), François Noblesse (1652-1730), and his son Louis de Silvestre (1675-1760). However, in 1662 Silvestre began to work for Louis XIV and was formally appointed Graveur Ordinaire du Roi in 1663, from which point he began to etch and publish rather different kinds of plates. The small-scale popular views seem to have been abandoned, and he was required to produce rather more grandiose works for the 'Cabinet du Roi', including Course de testes et de bagues (1662; Faucheux 205), and Les plaisirs de l'jsle enchantée, ou Les festes, et diuertissements du Roy à Versailles ... (1664; Faucheux 273 bis; Berlin Kat. 3001; see Nos 518D-518F, 518K, 518L, 518N and 518O). In 1665 Silvestre was ordered to make drawings of the fortifications captured by French forces in Lorraine and the Ardennes, and seems to have become very much in demand as a draughtsman, and to have spent less time in etching and publishing his works. In 1666 he was appointed drawing master at the Grand Ecurie, and was elected to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculture in 1670. From 1673 he acted as drawing master to the Dauphin. Although he seems to have produced fewer plates from the early 1670s, and virtually none between about 1688 and 1691, the printselling business apparently continued, and many of the early suites of views were probably keptn in print until his death on 11 October 1691. However, from around 1663 Silvestre did sell or transfer some of his plates to other publishers, and one finds later states of his suites with the names and addresses of Jacques Van Merlen, Jan Van der Bruggen, and other Parisian publishers replacing Silvestre's imprint (see Nos 3016, 3021 and 3027).! %tFollowing his death, Silvestre stock was sold, but much of it was ultimately purchased by his son-in-law De Logny, who seems not to have republished the plates himself (see Grivel, Le commerce de l'estampe p.376). Shortly after Silvestre's death however Pierre II Mariette published several of the suites with his own imprint, suggesting either that he had managed to buy some of the coppers at the original sale, or that De Logny had sold or leased the plates to Mariette in order to generate some income from them. Mariette continued to publish some suites until his own death in 1716. A few plates also seem to have come into the hands of the Amsterdam publisher Nicolaes Visscher, who republished them, probably both in Paris and Amsterdam, between 1691 and his own death in 1709 (see the Notes to Nos 3031 and 3033). After Mariette's death no trace of most of the plates has been found until the mid eighteenth century. At this time a few were purchased by the architect, draughtsman and publisher Gabriel Pierre Martin Dumont (1720-1791; see Nos 937-939), who added his own imprint to some of the plates, and republished them from around 1760, often identifying them as 'partie de l'Oeuvre d'Architecture de M{PN}r{PF}. Dumont'; some of the plates were also combined with Dumont's own designs in his published works (see, for example, Nos 937 and 938). At around the same period some others of Silvestre's plates were reprinted by 'Daumont'. Despite the similarity of name and date, this was not G.P.M. Dumont but Jean François Daumont and his heirs, whose business flourished in Paris between around 1740 and 1820 (although Daumont himself seems to have ceased trading around 1775; see Prèaud; Berlin Kat. 456 and 1602; Millard I, p.133; and No. 2882 above). In most cases, Dumont and Daumont's publications are the last places in which the original copper-plates can be found. However, almost from the beginning of Silvestre's career his views were copied by numerous artists and engravers, in Paris, Rome and elsewhere in Europe. The scale and subject-matter of the smaller views made them ideal for illustrating guidebooks, and such works as Saugrain's Les curiositez de Paris (first published in 1716; see Nos 2904 and 2905) included copies of Silvestre views. Piranesi also copied at least two of Silvestre's plates of Rome, almost certainly as student pieces when he was learning his trade (see the Notes to No. 2549).! %tIn all, Silvestre produced more than a thousand plates, and the best description of these is still Faucheux's bibliography, published over the course of three years in the Bulletins de la Societé d'Archéologie Lorraine (VI-VIII, 1856-1858), and as a separate volume in 1857 (the serial publication of the bibliography has led to a number of anomalies, with the earlier entries in the Bulletins sometimes being corrected in later descriptions). Faucheux's text lists all the suites, and all the individual views and other etchings on which Silvestre worked as artist and/or engraver. The suites are listed first, followed by a topographical listing which includes all the views, whether identified as belonging to a suite or not. Faucheux clearly spent many years studying the images, and was able to tell, by an analysis of the style, which plates were truly by Silvestre and which were drawn and/or etched by his collaborators. He has attempted to describe each suite in its earliest form, and to note later states. A good many of the views have not been tied up into suites, although they were undoubtedly intended to be issued with other associated plates. One of the reasons for this is that, as one would expect, Silvestre tailored his publications to the requirements of the market, and often added and subtracted plates from his suites, combined two or more series together, and re-used title-plates to cover quite different groups of images from those originally intended.! %tA number of large collections of these views exist, with the plates gathered from a great many different suites and either bound up as suites or, more often, in random or geographical sequence. The BAL copy is one such random volume, consisting of 119 leaves of plates, all but one attributable to Silvestre, the first 51 being mounted on blanks (the non-Silvestre plate is the title to Stefano Della Bella's Diverses paisages ([1643?]; q.v. in the Supplement)). The binding of this copy probably dates from the mid eighteenth century, while the states of the plates are generally early (from Silvestre's lifetime), with a few later examples from the first half of the eighteenth century. Many of the prints were evidently together some years before they were bound, however, since they have manuscript foliation top right, all in the same, probably early eighteenth century, hand. The highest legible number is '201' suggesting that these plates represent a selection from an earlier sammelband; the order has been altered for the present binding, and the earlier order appears to have been geographical, and not to have reflected a series of formal suites numbered in sequence. The watermarks in these plates vary considerably, although most or all are Parisian. It is thus clear that this copy was not printed as a collection, but gathered together from different sources after printing.
• The Bodleian also possesses three sammelbands of Silvestre's works: these consist of a combination of formal suites and series of topographically or thematically related images, bound up with suites and plates by Jean Marot and others (Ashm. 1760-1762, Radcl. d.13-14 and Radcl. e.35-37). These collections are related to the libraries of Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) and Dr John Radcliffe (1650-1714), although in fact many volumes with these shelfmarks come from other sources. However, in the case of the 'Ashmole' shelfmark no volumes were added to the collection after 1712. The 'Radcliffe' volumes in question actually originate from the library of the architect James Gibbs (q.v.), although, to judge by their bindings, they were probably made up some decades before his death in 1754. All of this suggests that large informal collections of such plates were being put together as early as 1712, and almost certainly a good deal earlier, probably during the period of Silvestre's activity as a printseller. Some such collections may have been gathered by Silvestre himself, although it seems more likely that other printsellers in Paris, and perhaps in other cities, were responsible for making up most of the copies which survive, during the last quarter of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century. Since, in the case of these larger collections, there is clearly no such thing as an 'ideal copy', the BAL volume has been analyzed according to Faucheux's bibliography, and other surviving copies, and an attempt has been made to reconstruct the suites from which the plates originate (see Nos 3015-3039 below).
• %TOf the 119 plates in the BAL volume it has proved possible to associate all but six with particular suites. These six 'left-over' plates are listed below, with the platemark dimensions and Faucheux references in parentheses. It should be noted that, in all cases, it is highly likely that these views do belong to particular suites, and what evidence can be gleaned about this is given below. The details are as follows, with the plates listed according to the folio numbers in the BAL copy:! Ff.%y73 %z'Veue et Perspectiue de Chasteau de Chilly appartenant a Madame la Mareschalle d'Effiat, a quatre lieues de Paris sur le chemin d'Orleans.' (Faucheux 194; 12.3 x 24.1 cm.). Unsigned. This could possibly be a part of the Veue ̈et perspectiue du Palais d'Orleans ... (1649; No. 3032)!! %y89 %z'Veue ̈d'vne partie du Chasteau neuf de Sainct Germain en Laye' signed 'ISiluestre sculp.' and 'Israel ex. cum priuil, Regis.' (Faucheux 292(8); 12.8 x 25.6 cm.). This almost certainly belongs with 'Veue ̈de l'entrée du vieux Chasteau de sainct Germain en Laye.' (Faucheux 292(7)), although where this pair belong is uncertain!! %y91 %z'Veue ̈de la Maison de Saint Cloud, apartenant a Monsieur Le Duc d'Orleans.' signed 'Israel siluestre delin. et sculp.' (Faucheux 289(3); 11.8 x 20.4 cm.). This almost certainly belongs with three other views of Saint Cloud (Faucheux 289(4-6)). All four were later reprinted by Jacques Van Merlen, and later still by Jan Van der Bruggen. They probably form part of a larger, unidentified suite of French views!! %y94 %z'Veue ̈de l'Eglise de Sainct Victor fondée par Louis le Gros Empereur et Roy de France.' signed 'Israel siluestre fecit' and 'Israel ex. cum priuil, Regis.' (Faucheux 155; 13.3 x 25.1 cm.). This plate was copied by Martin Zeiler for the first part of his Topographia Galliae (8 pts, Frankfurt, 1655-1661). It could possibly be part of the Veue ̈et perspectiue du Palais d'Orleans ... (1649; No. 3032)!! %y95 %z'Veue ̈du Chasteau de Chantilly a dix lieues de Paris.' signed 'Siluestre sculp.' and 'Israel excud. cum priuil. Regis.' (Faucheux 187(1); 13.4 x 24.1 cm.). This almost certainly belongs with 'Veue du Canal de Chilly du coste du jeu de paulme, a dix lieues̈ de Paris' (Faucheux 187(2)), and both may perhaps be part of the Veue ̈et perspectiue du Palais d'Orleans ... (1649; No. 3032)!! %y97 %z'Veue de Gondy maison de plaisance de Messire Jean François de Gondy Premier Archeuesque de Paris.' signed 'Israel ex. cum priuil. Regis' (Faucheux 221(1); 13.7 x 24.8 cm.). Faucheux notes that the landscape was drawn and etched by Herman Van Swanevelt. This plate may perhaps belong with Faucheux 289(7-9), all showing Saint Cloud (where the Maison Gondy is situated), as part of the Liure de diverses veues, perspectiues, et paysages ... (1651; No. 3025)! The BAL also possesses four other related plates, bound with L. Meunier's Veue ̈du palais, jardine, et fontaine darangouesse ... (1665; No. 2111). These are as follows:! Ff.%y2 %z'Veue ̈de la Maison de Saint Cloud ... ' being another copy of the plate at leaf 91 in the BAL's Silvestre volume, in the same state (see above)!! %y29 %z'Veue ̈du Palais d'Orleans, du costé du Jardin' signed 'Israel siluestre jnuen.' and 'Perrelle fecit.' (13.8 x 22.6 cm.). This plate is not listed by Faucheux, although it has the same caption as Faucheux 117(6-7). However it shows the same image as Faucheux 117(5), which is part of the Veue ̈et perspectiue du Palais d'Orleans ... (1649; No. 3032), but in reverse and with some minor alterations. Thee probability is that Faucheux 117(5) was etched first, and that the present plate is a simplified copy of it by Gabriel Perelle. It is probably thus part of a suite of miscellaneous views etched by Perelle, perhaps after various artists. This putative suite almost certainly includes the following view, and quite possibly that on leaf 31 as well!! %y30 %z'Veue ̈du Port de Saint Marc de Venise' signed 'Israel siluestre jnuent.' and 'Perrelle fecit.' (see Faucheux 67(3); 13.8 x 22.8 cm.). Faucheux treats this as plate 3 in a 'Suite de 12 pièces numérotées' (Faucheux 67), although this is almost certainly an error. The present plate is not numbered, and the form, size, imprint, signatures and lettering differ from the other views in this suite; also, the Bodleian copy of the suite at Ashm. 1762(104-115) has a different plate 3, being a 'Veüe et Perspectiue du Louure', which is signed as both drawn and engraved 'par Perelle', and is lettered, numbered and imprinted in much the same style as the other plates. Indeed, the form of the signatures suggests that Faucheux's suite 67 was etched throughout by Nicolas Perelle, while the present plate is by Gabriel Perelle. The Bodleian copy also has a plate 1 (which had not been seen by Faucheux), being a 'Veüe et Perspectiue de l'Escurial ... ' signed 'Perrelle fecit' and with Pierre Mariette's full imprint bottom centre; this may well be the correct plate 1, although the style of the image and lettering is again different, and it may be an interpolation (as plate 9 is in this copy). The present plate, although clearly seen by Faucheux, perhaps in a numbered state, is much more likely to belong to the same suite as the foregoing plate, which it matches stylistically in every way!! %y31 %z'Veue, ̈ et Perspectiue de Fresne, du costé du Jardin appartenant a M{PN}r{PF}. de Guenago' signed 'Perrelle fecit.' (not in Faucheux; 12.3 x 20.5 cm.). The chances are that this plate is part of the same (otherwise unrecorded) suite as the foregoing two, and that it was copied by Gabriel Perelle from an existing print. Faucheux does not include the plate, so the view copied was probably not by Silvestre (it is not the same image of Fresnes as Faucheux 219(1-2))! The description of the present suite, which is a fairly late example of Silvestre's small-scale French views, is largely based on Faucheux and a complete copy at the Bodleian (Radcl. d.14(90-102)). It is unusual in having parallel captions in French and Latin, and may have been produced in an attempt to broaden the appeal of Silvestre's views, to foreign travellers whose grasp of French was limited.

Binding note

C18th red morocco, gold-tooled. Imperfect: plates [3] and [12] only. Bound as part of a sammelband of plates by Silvestre, as leaves 98 and 107 respectively. The volume also includes the title-plate of Stefano Della Bella's Diverses paisages ([1643?]; q.v. in the Supplement). With the book-plate of Decimus Burton. Presented by Burton, July 1880.

OCLC

939438472

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