Pierre-François Basan (23 October 1723,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

- 12 February 1797, Paris) was a French engraver, editor, and print seller.

Biography

His father, Claude-Pierre Basan, was a wine merchant and his mother, Nicole née Charpizaux, was a cousin of the engraver,

Étienne Fessard Étienne Fessard, a French engraving, engraver, was born in Paris in 1714. He was a pupil of Edme Jeaurat, and proved an artist of sufficient merit to be accepted for candidacy (''agréé'') at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (175 ...

, who gave him his first drawing lessons. Later, he studied with Jean Daullé. From 1747, he worked for the print publisher, then, from 1750 to 1754, he was engaged in several large projects, including illustrations for the ''

Histoire Naturelle The ''Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi'' (; ) is an encyclopaedic collection of 36 large (quarto) volumes written between 1749–1804, initially by the Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, Comte ...

'', by the

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. In 1751, he married Marie Drouet, the orphaned daughter of a hatter from

Angers Angers (, , ;) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Duchy of Anjou, Anjou until the French Revolution. The i ...

. They had three children. After 1754, he devoted himself almost entirely to the publishing and sale of prints; establishing a European-wide commercial network which operated until 1788. He focused on the younger generation of engravers, rather than the most famous ones. From 1761 to 1779, he published a series of 650 engravings in six volumes called ''L’Œuvre de Basan''. It consists of his inventory or ''fonds'' of engravings after the

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, either by his own hand or produced under his direction. In 1786, he bought seventy-six original brass plates by

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

, from the estate of the collector,

Claude-Henri Watelet Claude-Henri Watelet (28 August 1718 – 12 January 1786) was a rich French '' fermier-général'' who was an amateur painter, a well-respected etcher, a writer on the arts and a connoisseur of gardens. Watelet's inherited privilege of farming ...

, and issued them in a deluxe volume. It was reissued for over a century. Though Basan made minimal changes to Rembrandt's copperplates, his son Henri-Louis made significant changes, such as altering the old man's face in ''A scholar in his study (Faust)'' to make him appear younger. Together with Noël Le Mire, from 1767 to 1771 he published an edition of the ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

'' by

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

, in four volumes, which included a biography of the author by

Claude-Pierre Goujet Claude-Pierre Goujet (19 October 1697 – 1 February 1767), France, French abbé and ''littérateur'', was born in Paris. He studied at the College of the Society of Jesus, Jesuits, and at the Collège Mazarin, but he nevertheless became a stron ...

, with illustrations by many of France's most notable engravers. Pierre-Philippe Choffard exécutent les frontispices, in
Internet Archive
' He also published two volumes (in ''quarto'' format) of prints after paintings from private collections, the ''Cabinet Choiseul'' (1771) and the ''Cabinet Poullain'' (1781). The knowledge he acquired in the course of his business made him a much sought-after expert for estate sales, auctions, and the writing of catalogues. In 1767, he published one of the first ''Dictionary of Engravers'', which was revised and reissued in 1789, the year he retired from business; his wife, Marie, having died the year before. His two sons, Antoine-Simon-Ferdinand and Henri-Louis succeeded him and kept his company operating until 1809.

Notable engravings

*''The Gothic Songster''; after A. Both. *An ''Ecce Homo''; after

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

. *''Christ breaking the Bread''; after

Carlo Dolci Carlo (or Carlino) Dolci (25 May 1616 – 17 January 1686) was an Italian Baroque painter, active mainly in Florence, known for highly finished religious pictures, often repeated in many versions. Biography He was born in Florence, on his mother' ...

. *''St. Maurice''; after

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Early l ...

. *''Bacchus and Ariadne''; after

Jordaens Jacques (Jacob) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678Jacques Jordaens
in the Netherlands Institute for Ar ...

. *''Christophe Lemenu de St. Philibert''; after Le Fèvre. *''Louis XV, with Diogenes''; after Le Moine. *''The Female Gardener''; after Frans Mieris. *''The Card-players''; after

Teniers Teniers is a Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the List of langua ...

. *''An Incantation''; after the same. *''Carle Vanloo''. *''Armand Gaston de Eohan, called the Cardinal de Soubise''.

References

External links

Biography and data
@ ''Les Marques de Collections de Dessins & d'Estampes'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Basan, Pierre Francois 1723 births 1797 deaths Engravers from Paris 18th-century French engravers

Biography

Notable engravings

References

Further reading

External links