Gabriel Huquier

Portrait in pastels by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau.

The entrepreneurial printseller Gabriel Huquier (1695–1772), established in rue Saint-Jacques, Paris, was a prominent engraver and designer of ornament in an advanced Rococo taste, a pivotal figure in the production of French 18th-century ornamental etchings and engravings[1] who was himself a collector of works of art,[2] whose collections were dispersed at three great auction sales, in Amsterdam, 1761, in Paris, 1771, and after his death, in Paris, 1772.[3] He was working from about 1731 until his apparent retirement in 1761. He engraved Watteau's designs, interpreting and adapting them so that he became the main source through whom Watteau's ornament was known in the 18th century[4] and went on to etch and engrave designs of Jacques de Lajoue, François Boucher, Gilles-Marie Oppenord,[5] Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, Alexis Peyrotte, Nicolas Pineau and many other contemporary painters and designers.

Legacy

His son Jacques (or James) Gabriel Huquier (1730–1805) known as Huquier fils, was also an engraver, as well as a portrait painter.

Works by Huquier are held in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Susan Miller, "Jean-Antoine Fraisse, 'Gravé par Huquier'" Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 31, (1996), pp. 127-130; Katie Scott, The Rococo Interior 1995247-52.
  2. ↑ Yves Bruand, "Un grand collectionneur, marchand et graveur du XVIIIe siècle, Gabriel Huquier (1695-1772)", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1950:99-114).
  3. ↑ Simon Jervis, "Huquier's 'Second Livre'" The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, 14, (1986:113-120).
  4. ↑ Martin Eidelberg, "Gabriel Huquier- Friend or Foe of Watteau?" The Print Collector's Newsletter 15 (1984) pp. 158-164
  5. ↑ Jean-François Bédard, "Prints by Gabriel Huquier after Oppenord's Decorated Ripa," Print Quarterly, XXIX, no. 1, 2012, pp. 37-43.
  6. ↑ Gabriel Huquier | People | Collection of Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum