Etching. Sheet size: 11 x 15.4 cm.

Literature R.-D. vol. 11, p. 15. 2. I.F.F. 5.

Provenance: Edward Bouverie (1767 – Northampton – 1858) (Lugt, 326)

Vey fine and strong impression. With a very subtle, even and mellow plate tone. Small margins all around.

All of Biard’s prints are very rare, but this is a particular rarity within his oeuvre.

“Pierre Biard II, a sculptor from a renowned family of sculptors, made twenty-six etchings. Some of these reproduce Renaissance painting and sculpture by Michelangelo, Raphael, and others, and may have been done as study pieces while Biard was in Italy. Others reflect the renewed interest in the mannierist styles of Rosso and Primaticcio at Fontainbleau. The rest are mythological and highly personal – even eccentric – allegorial subjects of his own invention. Biard was most likely trained by his father, Pierre Biard the elder, one of the most important sculptors in late sixteenth-century France, who had studied in Italy among followers of Michelangelo and Giovanni da Bologna. Like his father he was named sculptor to the king, and was responsible form many marble and bronze pieces adorning Parisian places and gardens. ...“ (Welsh Reed, p. 242).