[BOUTET (Claude)]:

Traite de Mignature, Pour Apprendre aisement a Peindre sans Maistre, Avec le Secret de fair les plus belles Couleurs, l'Or bruny, & Or en Coquelle. Quatrieme Edition. Reveue, corrigee & augmentee par l'Auteur.

A Paris, Chez Christope Ballard..., 1697. 12mo (in 6s), 157 x 90 mms., pp. [xiv], 166 [167 - 1766 contents], woodcut of pantograph on page 8, contemporary calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments, morocco label; lacks leaves before title-page and after end of text, some minor marginal worming, joints cracked, top and base of spine worn, corners worn. A fair copy. First published in 1673 or 1674, Traite de Mignature proved to be very popular with aspiring artists, because of its detailed instructions on preparing paints and pigments. The first English translation appeared in 1729, The Art of Painting in Miniature. A diagram of a colour wheel was added to the edition published in 1708, making the work even more successful and useful. The attribution of the work to "Claude Boutet" was made by Joseph-Marie Quérard (1797-1865) in his his bibliographic dictionary, La France Litteraire (1826-1842), deriving from a pencil annotation of an edition of the work published in 1711. Otherwise, nothing seems to be known whatsoever about M. Boutet.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 7650

Catalogue: Painting

Keywords: painting technology prose

MONIER (Pierre):

The History of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Graving, And Of those who have Excell'd in them: In Three Books. Containing their Rise, Progress, Decay, and Revival; With an Account of the most considerable Productions of the best Artists in all Ages: And how to distinguish the true and regular Performances, from those that are otherwise.

London: Printed for T. Bennet..., D. Midwinter, and T. Leigh..., and R. Knaplock..., 1699 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 8vo, 178 x 111 mms., pp. [xxx], 192 [193 - 204 index, 205 - 208 adverts], late 18th century calf, with gilt key border on each cover, spine richly gilt, black morocco label; title-page with evidence of early binding in grey papers at inner margin, some words on title-page slightly obscured, lacks frontispiece, joints slightly cracked (but firm), top and base of spine chipped. Pierre Monier (1639 - 1703) attempts here a history of art from the invention of painting to Raphael, but he also considers ancillary aesthetic adventures as well as technology. Histoire des arts qui on rapport au dessin was first published in 1698 and derived from public lectures that Monier gave at the Academie Royale. Monier is almost certainly best-known for the altar-piece painted for Notre Dame, which represents "le Parlament assemblee pur juger un proces pour le Marquis de Lockmarier." Schlosser-Magnino, p. 498; UCBA p. 1397; Wing M 2419.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 7707

Catalogue: Painting

Keywords: painting technology prose

SMITH (John):

The Art of Painting in Oyl. Wherein is included each particular Circumstance relating to the best and most approved Rules for preparing, mixing, and working of Oyl Colours The whole Treatise being so full Compleat, and so exactly fitted to the meanest Capacity, that all Persons whatsoever, may be able by these Directions, to Paint in Oyl Colours all manner of Timber work; that require either Use, Beauty, or Preservation, from the Violence or Injury of the Weather. The Fifth Impression, with some Alterations, and many Matters added, which are not to be found in the former Editions. To which is added, The whole Art and Mystery of Colouring Maps, and other Prints, with Water-Colours.

London: Printed for A. Bettesworth..., F. Clay..., and E. Syman..., 1723. 12mo, pp. [viii], 108 [109 - 112 adverts], slightly later 18th century sheepskin; lower portion of spine defective with some loss of leather and cords exposed, front joint a little worn, later inscription in pencil on verso of front free end-paper, "William Wiles/ His Painting/ Book." In some editions of this work, Smith is identified as a clockmaker, and on the title-page here, "C. M." follows his name. This is probably John Smith (1647/8–1727?), a clockmaker and writer, who published his Horological Disquisitions concerning the Nature of Time in 1694. The earliest located edition of this is a "second impression" of 1687; at least a further eight editions followed, and the work is frequently cited in treatises or essays on oil painting. ESTC T228403 locates copies in the BL, the National Gallery, and Jesus College, Oxford; and LC in the USA.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 5916

Catalogue: Painting

Keywords: painting aesthetics prose

THRALE (Hester Lynch). PINE (Robert Edge).

An oil painting, probably made in the early 20th century, of Hester Lynch Thrale (1741 - 1821), after Robert Edge Pine (1730 - 1788). The original picture of Mrs. Thrale by Pine dating from 1781 was auctioned at Christie's South Kensington in December 2008.

c. 1910 The exterior dimensions are 760 x 620 mm, while the oval portrait itself is 560 x 460 mm. The original painting by Robert Edge Pine (1730-1788) was auctioned at Christie's South Kensington on December 2, 2008, as lot 59. It sold for £103,250, which was, quite literally, more than twenty times the auctioneer's estimate. One point of interest is that Christie's described their painting as showing Thrale as having grey eyes; and they are definitely grey in the Christie's portrait. In the present painting -- copy or otherwise -- Thrale's eyes are hazel. The Pine painting was engraved for the European Magazine in 1786 The online catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery, London, has no reproduction of the original Pine painting, and no reproduction of the present portrait. The NPG does, however, have a reproduction of the engraved portrait that appeared in the European Magazine in 1786, but they do not give Pine as the original artist; instead they attribute the original to Sir Joshua Reynolds (quite mistakenly, I believe). The extended lot description still available via the Christie's website has much to recommend it, and notably includes only one instance of the Pine painting being exhibited: it was portrait no. 29 in the Welsh National Portraits Exhibition (Cardiff: National Museum of Wales, 1957) (). Christie's also claims: "No early portraits of Hester exist". In the present portrait, it must be admitted, Thrale does not look aged. A comparison of the three portraits at stake is salutary, the three portraits being (1) the original portrait painted by Pine in 1781; (2) the engraving of it issued by European Magazine in 1786; and the present portrait of unknown date by an unknown painter, which shows striking similarities in composition. In both the 1781 and 1786 portraits, the pupils and irises in Thrale's eyes are depicted as high on the eyeball, with much white of the eye visible immediately below. This gives a subtle impression that the subject is below the viewer, is looking up at the viewer. The visual connotation is one of deference. In both the 1781 and 1786 portraits, Thrale looks directly at the viewer. Also in both, there is a marked tendency toward the curvilinear in the rendering of nearly all aspects of the facial features. The eyebrows are crescent moons, the eyes are wide and large, the smile is mild yet very much in shape an upward arc, and the chin, though narrow, is rounded. In the present undated portrait, the opposite prevails. The eyebrows veer toward the rectilinear; no white of the eye is visible below the iris; the smile is gone or at least much, much milder, to the point that there is little significant upturn at the corners of the mouth; the gaze is not at the viewer, and not up, but instead focussed to the left of the viewer, into the distance, in a far-away look of meditation, or perhaps artistic, writerly reverie. The 1781 and 1786 portraits present a pale figure with, possibly, some emotional frailty or vulnerability being foregrounded. The present undated portrait renders Thrale -- envisions Thrale -- as solid, colourful, independent. It is also, perhaps, the most flattering portrait of Thrale extant. Someday, presumably, someone will identify its painter. I have not.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 7080

Catalogue: Painting

Keywords: painting Samuel Johnson