Actions for The conference of Monsieur Le Brun : cheif [sic] painter to the French King, chancellor and director of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture; upon expression, general and particular. Translated from the French, and adorned with 43 copper-plates

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The conference of Monsieur Le Brun : cheif [sic] painter to the French King, chancellor and director of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture; upon expression, general and particular. Translated from the French, and adorned with 43 copper-plates

Author
Le Brun, Charles, 1619-1690
Uniform Title
Conférence de M. Le Brun sur l'expression générale et particulière. English
Published
London : Printed for John Smith at the Lion and Crown in Russel-street in Covent-Garden, Edward Cooper at the Three Pidgeons in Bedford-street, and David Mortier, bookseller in the Strand, at the Sign of Erasmus's Head, 1701.
Physical Description
16 unnumbered pages, 17 pages, 1 unnumbered page, 47 pages, 1 unnumbered page, 43 leaves of plates : illustrations ; 17 cm (12°)
12mo
Additional Creators
Smith, John, active 1682-1701, Cooper, Edward, -1725, and Mortier, David
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The characters of the passions done after the originalls of Monsr LeBrun
Note
Dedication signed by the translator: "J. Smith".
A variant lacks the article 'The' at the beginning of the title. This variant also contains a second set of XIX numbered plates entitled "The characters of the passions done after the originalls of Monsr LeBrun".
The first leaf is blank.
Signatures: [A]⁶ *⁶(-*1) 2*⁶ B-E⁶.
Rare Books copy: 12mo (155 × 85 mm), pp. [14], 17, [1], 47, [1]; without [A]6 (a blank?), as in the British Library copy; some plates loose; WANTING: Figs. 27–9 and 32; Fig. 33 bound in twice, along with an additional 23 clipped plates; some staining in places to the lower margin; contemporary polished calf, a little worn, spine defective at foot; inscribed: ‘Richard Elmer, his Book, cost 3s, Ian. 22, 1701’ to the front free endpaper; EXTRA -ILLUSTRATED: A KNOWN ARTIST’S COPY later in the possession of Stephen Elmer, with his ink ownership inscription (‘S. Elmer’) at head of title and etched armorial bookplate to front pastedown.
[Bookseller's notes]: "First edition in English—the VARIANT ISSUE without ‘The’ at the head of the title--of the Conférence sur l’expression (Amsterdam & Paris, 1698) by Le Brun, court painter to Louis XIV, who ‘dominated 17th-century French painting as no other artist’ (Grove Art). ‘In 1667 Le Brun inaugurated a series of Conférences of the Académie Royale, based on paintings in the royal collection … [The following year he] gave a lecture on physiognomy: as well as comparing the facial expressions of humans and animals, he used Descartes’s theory of the brain as the seat of the soul to show how human psychological characteristics were reflected in the expression, illustrating his discourse with numerous drawings’ (ibid.), which forms the basis of the present work. It is dedicated by the translator, John Smith, to the English court painter, Sir Godfrey Kneller. 'Although no edition of Le Brun’s Conférence sur l’expression was published during his lifetime, in the hundred and fifty years following his death [in 1690] a flood of varying editions ensured that the work became a common possession of everyone interested in drawing’ (Jennifer Montagu, The Expression of the Passions: the Origin and Influence of Charles Le Brun’s Conférence sur l’expression générale et particulière, Yale UP, 1994, p. 175)
[Continued]: -- This copy belonged to Stephen Elmer (1715 or 1717–1796). ‘His father painted murals for St Andrew’s Church, Farnham, and Elmer trained in his studio, depicting dead game, and in time became a successful painter of still lifes. He was a member of the Free Society of Artists in 1768, and exhibited 113 pictures up to 1772. In that year he was elected associate of the Royal Academy and contributed 117 paintings to its exhibitions over the next twenty-five years. His works, which were very popular, were painted in a bold, free manner, showing the influence of French and Dutch artists … He received many commissions from aristocratic patrons to paint prize game and was compared favourably to Stubbs. He also painted portraits including one of a local florist and gardener, John Cartwright, which was engraved by J. M. Ardell (1748). He occasionally painted genre pictures, such as The Miser (engraved by B. Granger), but by far his most ambitious picture is The Last Supper, formerly over the altar, now in the vestry of Farnham church’ (Oxford DNB).
[Continued]: -- It is not immediately clear from which edition the additional illustrations here come (although it was evidently an English one to judge from the captions) and would repay further research" -- [REFERENCES: Montagu B.2 (‘The engravings are reversed from B.1’, i.e. the first edition of 1698, with engravings by Picart). ESTC locates 11 copies overall: BL (2 copies); Christ Church, Jesus College, and Worcester College, Oxford; Royal Academy; Buffalo & Erie County Public Library; William & Mary; NYPL; Minnesota; Yale Center for British Art].
Source of Acquisition
Rare Books copy: Purchased from Simon Beattie; 2024.
Rare Books copy: Purchased in part with funds from the Paterno Family Librarian Endowment in Literature; 2024.
Reviewed/Cited In
ESTC, T116477
View MARC record | catkey: 42527110