RIGAUD Jacques Recueil choisi des plus belles vues des palais, des châteaux et maisons royales de Paris et des environs

Berlin Kat. 2500 (104 plates only, lacking title). Bobins V, 1562; Cohen-de Ricci 895 (129 plates); Millard French 146 (124 plates only).

Exceptional copy, complete and richly coloured of Rigaud’s most important work, and among the most celebrated series of prints of the 18th century in France.

The magnificent views depict the grandeur of French royal palaces, chateaux and ornamental gardens and parks, and ‘are animated with figures … that suggest the influence of the work of his contemporary Watteau’ (Millard). Among those featured are palaces at Paris, Versailles Fontainebleau, Chantilly, Marly, Saint-Cloud, Chambord, Anet, Blois, Monceau, Clagny, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Vincennes, and Amboise. The present copy is the second issue, with the plates mostly numbered in series and published by Chéreau et Basan.

The son of an apothecary, the draughtsman and engraver Jacques Rigaud was born near Aix-en-Provence and began his career in Marseille, although little is known of his training and early life. He seems to have started his career under the protection and patronage of Nicolas Lamoignon, Marquis de Basville, a magistrate and governor of the Languedoc region. Rigaud’s earliest dated drawing is a large and panoramic View of Toulon During the Siege of 1707, executed when the artist was twenty-six years old; the drawing, which was also reproduced as an engraving, is today in the Musée du Vieux Toulon. Rigaud came to be best known as a printmaker, with around two hundred prints. Until 1720 he worked in Marseille and elsewhere in Provence, creating a number of engravings under the themes of Scènes de jeux et fêtes en Provence and Marines où sont représentés divers sujets des galères; the latter series was dedicated to Jean-Philippe d’Orléans, known as the Chevalier d’Orléans, who served as général des galères for his father, Philippe d’Orléans, Regent of France.

In 1720 Rigaud produced four remarkable views of Marseille during the plague of that year, but soon afterwards settled in Paris, where he worked as a draughtsman and printseller, with a shop on the rue Saint Jacques. Aptly described by the modern architectural and garden historian John Harris as ‘a most exquisite draughtsman’, Rigaud became known in particular for his drawings of views of Paris and other French cities, châteaux and gardens, most of which were published as sets of engravings, notably Les Promenades du Luxembourg, which appeared in 1729, and the magisterial series Recueil choisi des plus belles vues des palais, des châteaux et maisons royales de Paris et des environs, which he began the following year. Rigaud’s most important work, and among the most celebrated prints of the 18th century in France, the series of Maisons Royales de France was eventually completed by the artist’s nephew, Jean-Baptiste Rigaud.

In February 1733 Rigaud travelled to London, apparently at the invitation of the Royal Gardener, Charles Bridgeman. He worked in England for about a year and a half, mainly in London, where he produced views of the Royal residences and parks, including St. James’s Park, Hampton Court and Richmond. He also worked for a number of aristocratic and noble patrons, producing views of Stowe for Lord Cobham and the garden at Chiswick House for Lord Burlington, as well as views of Claremont for the Duke of Newcastle.

A magnificent copy of this extremely rare work.  Only one other coloured copy is recorded in RBH.

Provenance: Thomas de Schietere, seigneur de Lophem (inscription recording the volume’s descent to his daughter:) – Madame van Heuren (Maria Anna Jozefina de Schietere de Lophem (1764-1804; second wife of Joseph van Heuren ; by descent to;) — Baron Charles Gillès de Pélichy (1872-1958; Bruges (20th-century booklabel) – [sold Paris, Alde, 6 May 2011] – Norman Bobins.