The Holy Family, with St. Charles Borromeo; after Scarsellino, ca. 1750

Étienne Fessard, a French engraver, was born in Paris in 1714. He was a pupil of Edme Jeaurat, and proved an artist of sufficient merit to be accepted for candidacy (agréé) at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (1753). A protegé of le comte de Caylus, whom he may have assisted in the development of skill in etching, Fessard received the appointment Engraver of the King's Library (graveur de la Bibliothèque du Roi) in 1756, with responsibility for the engravings of the royal collection of paintings and drawings, as a result of Caylus' influence. On his death in 1777, the position was given to his student Augustin de Saint-Aubin. Fessard executed a considerable number of plates, but his efforts to resume the engraving of the King's paintings did not obtain the support of the Acadmie royale and resulted in only two plates: "Feste Flamande" after Rubens and "L'Empire de Flore" after Poussin.[1]

Portraits

Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre

Subjects after various masters

The Virgin enthroned, with SS. Francis, John, and Catharine; after Correggio, ca. 1750

References

  1. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Estampes et des Photographies, Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIIe siècle, t. 9 (1962), pp. 22-112 (1260 nos.), in particular, no. 404 (pp. 88-92) and no. 1235 (p. 107).
  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Fessard, Etienne". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). Vol. I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.


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