Edmond Jeaurat

(EDME JEAURAT)

French engraver, b. at Vermenton, near Auxerre, 1688; d. at Paris, 1738. He was the elder brother of Etienne Jeaurat, the painter, and the son of an engraver or worker in metal, who on a visit to Paris took his eldest boy with him, and apprenticed him to Bernard Picart. Here Edmond spent many years, and when he left his master's studio he wandered away to Holland, and for a few years studied the art of the Dutch painters, earning his living by engraving a few plates after the chief paintings in Amsterdam and The Hague. On returning to Paris he came into contact with his younger brother whom he had not seen for many years, and employed himself in engraving Etienne's paintings, quickly acquiring celerity in execution and a considerable notoriety for accurate and delightful work. He was employed by Monsieur de Crozat to engrave the pictures for his famous collection. In Paris he married the sister of the artist Le Clerc, and many of his engravings represented the religious pictures painted by his brother-in-law, La Clerc the younger. He had two sons, one Nicholas Henry, a painter, usually known as Jeaurat de Bertry or Berty, the other Sébastien, who devoted himself to science. There is a fine collection of his engravings in the British Museum, London, and they can also be studied in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. His finest work is probably "Achilles discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes", dated 1713, and there are also engravings by him from works by Poussin, Veronese, and Watteau.

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