Adele La Venitienne / Maîtresse de Teintoret

Aquatint engraving printed in colour à la poupée on wove paper. Very good condition apart from some overall light soiling and minor foxing. Trimmed close to plate mark on all sides. A striking beautifully coloured engraving after the renowned 16th-century Venetian Mannerist Tintoretto. A representation of the Italian painter's enigmatic mistress, this plate is part of a series of three aquatints Debucourt completed after paintings by Tintoretto, Rubens, and Raphael depicting their respective mistresses. This print is a stunning example of the single plate colour printing technique used in France beginning in the 18th century. The effect is achieved by inking a single plate with several different colours by using a rag stump, a process known as à la poupée. The outcome achieved by this laborious method of inking has a wonderful painterly effect and creates a delicacy of image, which is charming to behold. Although a painter by training, Philibert-Louis Debucourt is primarily renowned as one of the most innovative colour printmakers of the eighteenth century. Born in 1781, he studied with Joseph Marie Vien at the French Academy. After several years of exhibiting his paintings at the Salon, he turned to printmaking in 1781. During the mid 1780s, he began experimenting with the complicated multiple-plate colour printing process, a technique that was refined and revolutionized by Jean-François Janinet. Debucourt found success with his colour intaglio prints of Parisian high society, and he quickly earned a reputation as a skilled and prolific engraver. The bulk of his prints, however, were based on paintings by other artists and completed after the turn of the century. Despite his intense focus on printmaking, he continued to exhibit his paintings alongside his engravings at the Salon throughout his life. Cf. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, vol. 4, p. 323; cf. Regency to Empire: French Printmaking 1715-1814, p. 346; Fenaille, L'oeuvre gravé de P.-L. Debucourt (1755-1832), pp. 257-8.…