[Peint par Schenau de SAE de Saxe Gravé par J.G. Wille Graveur du Roi 1771]
[A Paris chez l'Auteur Quay des Augustins Par Son très humble et très Obeissant Serviteur Wille.]
Engraving, platemark 250 x 180mm (9¾ x 7"). Very scarce proof before all letters. Collector's stamp of Lewis Loyd bottom left.
Young schoolgirl holding a bird, seen through trompe l'oeil niche. After Johann Eleazar Schenau (also identified as Johann Elias Zeissig, 1737-1806), painter and etcher born in Saxony who trained in Dresden, went to Paris 1756-70. He returned to Dresden as a member of the Academy, professor there in 1774. Director of the Meissen drawing school together with G B Casanova 1776, on his own from 1795. Engraved by J.G. Wille, engraver and publisher who became Schenau's patron, buying several paintings from the artist including that from which this print derives (now in the Dresden collection). This impression was formerly in the collection of the banker and print collector Lewis Loyd (1811-91). Between 1840 and 1870 Loyd assembled a collection of prints distinguished by their fine condition and early states.
L.2802.
[Ref: 40288]  £150.00