Jacques de Sève (
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
1742 – 1788) was a French
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...
.
Career
De Sève was commissioned by
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French Natural history, naturalist, mathematician, and cosmology, cosmologist. He held the position of ''intendant'' (director) at the ''Jardin du Roi'', now ca ...
to provide the
quadruped
Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion in which animals have four legs that are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four legs is said to be a quadruped (fr ...
illustrations for ''
Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière'' (1749-1778, in 36 volumes) (
François-Nicolas Martinet
François-Nicolas Martinet (1731 - c. 1800) was a French engineer, engraver and naturalist. Although trained as an engineer and draftsman, he began to produce engravings for books and it later became his primary profession.
Martinet's year of b ...
did the birds) and then Buffon's ''Recueil de Vingtquatre Plantes et Fleurs'' (1772). He also illustrated work by
Duhamel du Monceau,
Claude Perrault
Claude Perrault (; 25 September 1613 – 9 October 1688) was a French physician and amateur architect, best known for his participation in the design of the east façade of the Louvre in Paris.[Encyclopédie Méthodique
The ''Encyclopédie méthodique par ordre des matières'' () was published between 1782 and 1832 by the France, French publisher Charles Joseph Panckoucke, his son-in-law Henri Agasse, and the latter's wife, Thérèse-Charlotte Agasse. Arranged by ...]
. His illustrations are sometimes exact
anatomical
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
representations or show the animals against landscape backgrounds. They were engraved by
Louis Le Grand
Louis may refer to:
People
* Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name
* Louis (surname)
* Louis (singer), Serbian singer
Other uses
* Louis (coin), a French coin
* HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy
See also
* ...
.
His son,
Jacques Eustache also worked as an artist and engraver, contributing to the later ''
Suites à Buffon
Les ''Suites à Buffon'' is a French 19th-century scientific publication.
Les ''Suites à Buffon'' carries the complete title ''Suites à Buffon formant avec les œuvres de cet auteur un cours complet d'histoire naturelle embrassant les trois r ...
''. Together father and son produced thousands of illustrations.
References
*
Benezit, Emmanuel (1911–1923). ''
Dictionnaire de Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs'', vol. 12, p. 713
External links
* The Buffon project
''L'histoire naturelle''online (in French), edited by a history of science labs from CNRS (2006).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seve, Jacques de
French scientific illustrators
French naturalists
18th-century French illustrators