|
Rousselet, Gilles
(b Paris, 1610; d Paris, 15 July 1686). French engraver and print-publisher. He was the son of a Parisian bookseller and first worked as an engraver for the print-publishers Jean Leblond (i) and Pierre Mariette (i); from 1650, however, he published all his prints himself. He worked for the Imprimerie Royale from 1642 until 1647; he was admitted (reçu) to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1663 and exhibited in the Salons of 1664 and 1673. As a Graveur du Roi, he was granted lodgings at the Gobelins and given the task of reproducing 14 of the paintings in the French royal collection, including Guido Reni’s Labours of Hercules, Raphael’s St Michael, the Evangelists by Valentin de Boullogne and the Finding of Moses by Nicolas Poussin. From 1678 Rousselet suffered from eye trouble; he died blind. His oeuvre comprises more than 400 prints, including religious subjects, allegories, portraits, frontispieces for books and coats of arms. Beginning by engraving after drawings by Jacques Stella, Claude Vignon, Laurent de La Hyre and Sébastien Bourdon, he went on to reproduce paintings by famous artists. He executed more than 90 plates after works by his friend Charles Le Brun. Rousselet’s style, which is often close to that of Cornelis Bloemaert ( fl 1603–84), is direct, broad and airy, evolving towards a more concise, supple and finely nuanced approach. His influence made itself felt in the early work of Robert Nanteuil, who held him in high esteem. Rousselet had two pupils, Charles Le Brun’s brother, Gabriel Le Brun (1625–60), and Etienne Picart. His son Jean Rousselet (1656–93) was a sculptor.
|
|
There are more than 45,000 articles in The Grove Dictionary of Art.
To access the rest of this article, including the bibliography, subscribe to
www.groveart.com.
To find out more about this subject, click on a related article below and
subscribe to www.groveart.com
|
