Studio: international art (28.1903)

Le B'Ions Three-Co lour Prints

were already eagerly look-
ing out for them. This is
a most surprising scarcity,
but I believe I can ex-
plain it.

There are no doubt
numerous copies still in
private possession, especi-
ally in England in country
houses, etc., where they
are taken for oil paintings,
and probably hung in
frames on the wall. These
colour-prints were meant
to imitate oil paintings,
and indeed to replace
them. Very many of them
were varnished over, and

" VENUS" FROM THE THREE-COLOUR PRINT BY T. C LE BLON t0 SUTe

closely resemble oil paint-
ings, especially at a dis-

of Egypt); Prince Eugene of Savoy, done in tance. It may well repay owners of pictures

December, 1710 (these two were done in Holland); on the subjects named in the list above to

Madonna with St. Anne, after Maratti ; An inspect them more closely, since, if they discover

Ariadne; also the anatomies of Andre's book. one of them to be a Le Blon print, they will have

These were done in London, where he also very discovered something which recently fetched about

probably printed an Herodias, after G. Reni, and ^250 at a sale—at least ten times the value that

A Woman taking hold of her Chemise. an ordinary copy by a professional copyist would

His first plate in Paris was a small Madonna, have realised !

after Maratti, of which Gautier (a rival) says " it The way to examine the picture is to look at

was so poor that it could not be published"; the lighter parts—for instance, the high lights in

certainly no copy is known as yet. the flesh tints — through a pocket lens. If you

Finally, he may have pulled some impressions of detect miniature crosses and dots in blue, red, or

the anatomy done at Paris, and the completion yellow—just as one detects black crosses and dots

of which was interrupted by his death. This in an ordinary mezzotint—then you will have found

would raise the number of Le Blon prints to fifty, a Le Blon print, for of course brush work on canvas

at the least! in oils presents nothing of an appearance like this.

About the quantity of proofs Le Blon pulled in Perhaps this hint may lead to the discovery of

Holland I know nothing. As to his English plates, some Le Blon prints of which no copy has as yet

twenty-five of them alone were utilised for 9,000 been found.

impressions, about 1,000 of which were sold before The best and most valued plates are George I.,

the "Picture Office" became bankrupt. As to his Prince Frederick, van Salisch, Rebecca at the Well,

Parisian work, an author (Bailly), writing about The Sudarium, Narcissus (two copies known; we

1750, says copies were to be found in every little reproduce it by means of the photo-mechanical

booth ! We cannot be far out in estimating that three—i.e. really four—colour process), the Three

of all the fifty plates taken together at least 10,000 Children of Charles I., and the Venus. None of

prints were pulled. these can be called common (of sixteen only

Now I have applied to every public print collec- one copy a-piece is known); but I have been able

tion of importance in Europe and the United States to find sixteen copies of the Pleury (including un-

—about sixty in all—and have not been able to finished proofs); seven copies of the St. Catherine

find as many as one hundred still extant of these ten and twelve of the Sunflower Vandyke : six of the

thousand, though only a century and a half have Louis X V.; three each of the Children of Charles I.,

elapsed since they were issued, and though we know George I., van Salisch, Carofidolet, Spenser, and the

that as early as 1780 the public print-rooms, etc., Windsor Vandyke. It may also interest readers
268