Detail from Le Concert (The Concert) by L. Provost, after an engraving by Antoine-Jean Duclos, based on a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, 19th century. Dayton C. Miller Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
after an engraving by Antoine-Jean Duclos, 1742-1795, based on a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, engraver and illustrator, 1736-1807
In this image, a concert takes place in an oval interior that has four blue-curtained windows. The curtains are closed at the left, opened half-way in the two center windows, and are raised to the top of the right window. It is a crowded scene. A woman is seated at a white and gilded harpsichord in the center of the room, and she is surrounded by other musicians. Among the other instruments represented here, from the left, are: double bass, violin, harp, cello and flute, with another violin in the background. The audience is seated to the left and right, and the detailed clothing and facial features of each figure are beautifully drawn. An illusionistic ceiling is painted with clouds and putti. The etching is hand-painted in watercolor in blues, yellows, oranges, flesh-colors, and greens. This etching was included in The Pipers: An Exhibition of Engravings, Watercolors and Lithographs from the Dayton C. Miller Collection, Library of Congress, March 1977.
About the Artists
L. Provost, engraver, 19th-century
There is very little biographical information on L. Provost, the engraver of Le Concert (The Concert). In Bénézit, it is only stated that he was a 19th-century French engraver and that he made engravings after works by Augustin de Saint-Aubin.
Antoine-Jean Duclos, engraver, 1742-1795
Antoine-Jean Duclos was a French engraver who was born in Paris in 1742, and he died in 1795. He was a student of Augustin de Saint-Aubin, and only entered works in the Salon of 1795. Besides the work of Saint-Aubin, he engraved copies of works after Rubens and Boucher. His engraving of Le Concert after Saint-Aubin is mentioned specifically in Bénézit, which was the source for the biographical information given here on Duclos.
Augustin de Saint-Aubin, engraver and illustrator, 1736-1807
Augustin de Saint-Aubin was a French engraver and illustrator who was born in Paris in 1736. He died in the same city in 1807. He was a prolific artist, producing over three thousand works. Both of his brothers, Charles and Gabriel, were artists. He studied first with Gabriel, then studied under Fernand and Laurent Cars. His first entry in the Salon of 1752 was an etching. He provided illustrations for several books, among them the Decameron by Boccaccio. Saint-Aubin made many portrait drawings, and he made engravings after portraits by Charles-Nicolas Cochin the younger (1715-1790). In 1773, he exhibited his drawing, Le Concert, on which this etching by Provost was based. In 1776, he was named Engraver to the King's Library. Saint-Aubin made reproductive engravings after the paintings of Veronese and Rubens, and after his own works, but he also produced original portrait engravings, such as a portrait of Mme de Pompadour and other notable personages. The biographical information provided here on Saint-Aubin was derived from his entry in Bénézit.