COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING – “THE CHOCOLATE-GIRL” from the original pastel by Jean Etienne Liotard, and published in the mid 1800’s.  The means by which a copperplate is engraved gives it more detail and depth to the picture.  Copperplate engravings are seen as the most perfect means of reproducing a painting or other forms of visual art, thus giving it the most artistic value of any form of engraving.  This engraving is in very good condition.  The actual engraving measures 6 1/2” x 4 3/8”, and is matted to 16” x 20” for easy framing. 

     The technical materials, employed by different kinds of art, are to a great extent in accordance with the spirit of the times.  At a period when people are moved by grand ideas, when great subjects are to be treated on a large scale, to be exhibited before the people in halls of public buildings, painters are sure to resort to fresco-painting; whilst at time, where the inner life of man, when thoughts and feelings predominate, the deep, warm colour of oil-painting is likely to be preferred, which is best calculated to introduce us to the fullness and minute details of the occurrences of everyday life.  A time, however, without any appreciation of deeper thoughts and feelings; a time indifferent to anything that is great and noble and lofty; a time, in which all the charms and graces of life have vanished, or dissolved into a glittering show, into shallow pretensions of etiquette, into a display of fashionable affection and trickery, employing art merely to reflect the gloss and brilliancy of ephemeral productions: such a time is sure to prefer painting in pastel; and such a time is that of the 18^th century, which delighted in and cultivated pastel-painting.  The technical acquirements, easily learnt and easily applied, were calculated to suit a time so flippant and frivolous in its artistic tastes and tendencies, as well as in other things.  Neither the dryness of the material, nor its perishable nature prevented them from being employed, since art at that time was not a matter of deep thought or feeling, no more than the works of art at that time had any pretension to last for many generations.  Pastel, more than any other kind of drawing, suited the prominent and cherished virtue of the people of the 18^th century being that of shallow elegance and gracefulness.

    The Dresden Gallery possesses a curious collection of such pastels, being an interesting illustrated contribution to the history of the last century.  Dressed in flowery waistcoats, with shirt-frills peeping out of them, sweet and rosy, and not without noble assurance, the gentlemen of those days look down from under their periwigs, whilst the female beauties, who once flourished at the court of Augustus the strong appear in their puffed and ruffled elegance.  The best portraits in this collection are those painted by Raphael Mengs; they are more characteristic, have more expression, and fewer pretensions than all the rest.  There is also a portrait of Rosalba Carriera, once of great renown in her own native town of Venice.  The collection also contains a number of portraits by Jean Etienne Liotard, a fashionable painter of the last century.  He was a native of Geneva, and studied the art of portrait painting in Paris; then visited Rome, Constantinople, and Vienna, in all of which towns be had orders from persons of the highest ranks of society.  In Paris, where Liotard spent the latter part of his life, he assumed the costume of a Turk.  His own portrait, now in Florence, painted by himself, represents him in the costume of a Turk.  Such charlatanism was perfectly well calculated to make him popular in Paris.  Even Madame de Meintenon had her portrait by Liotard, but not being pleased with it, she sarcastically remarked that the artist’s beard was his best recommendation. It is true that the painter follow nature rather too closely; and there is, indeed, in all his works something forced, a mannerism and a want of artistic feeling.  A great favourite with the public is the so-called ‘chocolate-girl’, a picture which is constantly copied, representing a charming girl in the costume of a grisette of the last century. It is said to be the portrait of a servant-maid in a coffeehouse in Vienna, who afterwards became the wife of an Australian nobleman.

                                                                                                By Carl Clauss

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Antique prints, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated in the auction, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.

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