Maxim Gauci

Maxim Gauci (1774–1854), born in Malta, was an early exponent of lithography for botanical illustration.[1]

In 1808 he was a miniature painter in Paris, as Maxime Gauci.[2] He was father of William Gauci, another printer, and the landscape painter Paul Gauci.[1]

Works

His firm completed works that included Nathaniel Wallich’s Plantae Asiaticae Rariores and James Bateman’s Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala (1837-43), boasting the largest lithographic plates ever produced. Wilfrid Blunt had nothing but praise for Gauci, calling him “a master of the process, he ranged his tone from the palest of silvery greys to the richest velvet black; his outline is never mechanical or obtrusive.”[3]

He also produced the lithography for John Forbes Royle, Illustrations of the botany and other branches of the natural history of the Himalayan Mountains, and of the flora of Cashmere. Vol.II – Plates, London: Wm.H. Allen & Co., 1840.

Many of Gauci's portraits are in the National Portrait Gallery, London. See here.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Raymond Lister (1984). Prints and printmaking: a dictionary and handbook of the art in nineteenth-century Britain. Methuen. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-413-40130-4.
  2. ↑ Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure, et lithographie des artistes vivants exposés au Grand palais des Champs-Élysées. 1808. p. 36.
  3. ↑ Grosvenor Prints
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