JACQUES CALLOT
Nancy,
Lorrain 1592 – 1635 Nancy
Callot
went to Italy when he was only sixteen, where
he trained and spent a decade as court etcher
to Cosimo de’ Medici in Florence. After his patron’s death in 1621 Callot returned permanently to his native Nancy in the Duchy of Lorraine.
Portrait
of Claude Deruet
with his young son Henri Nicolas
Lieure 1296 iii/v
297 x 174 mm
Original etching, 1632.
Third state of five, with the date added to
the inscription. Before the shading to the
tall chimney and the tower house.
Watermark:
Crowned fleur-de-lys, considered typical
of the best impressions of this plate.
Trimmed
to the plate, pale unobtrusive foxing, a
diagonal fold line at the left, some surface
dirt in the lettering.
£1500
Ex
collections: Edward Rudge 1846 (according
to a pencil inscription verso) and Harold
Wright (Ex Lugt)
The
artist Claude Deruet (1588-1660) with his
son, ‘framed’ before a distant view of his mansion La Roumaine, inside the ramparts of Nancy. The etching is dedicated to Deruet by his “faithful friend”.
Deruet
had also returned to Nancy from Italy, two
years prior to Callot, in 1619, being appointed
court painter and master of the revels in
succession to Jacques Bellange, with whom
he had originally trained.
Deruet and Callot
collaborated on the 1627 festival and ballet
in celebration of the visit of the Duchess
of Chevreuse to the Ducal court (the Combat à la
Barrière), which event Callot also recorded
in a series of etchings.
Deruet,
while in Rome, had received from the Pope
the Knighthood of the Order of Christ (also
known as the Order of Portugal) and Callot
depicts him wearing the order’s cross.
On
5 March 1632 the Duke of Lorrain accorded
Deruet the title of ‘gentleman’,
presumably hence the coat-of-arms above his
head. The portrait was probably made to celebrate
this elevation.
Unusually,
there is an extant preparatory pen drawing
by Callot for the etching, now in the Louvre.
Deruet
left Nancy in 1634 to work for Louis XIII
and Richelieu in France.
£1500
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