Gilles Demarteau

His first known works date to the mid 1740s and consist of sheets of ornaments engraved with chisels for decoration rifles, pistols or snuff.

[7] The salon of the shop was decorated with paintings by François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste Huet and Jean-Honoré Fragonard and comprised a chimney piece, a fire screen with singeries, a now lost over-mantle including a large mirror surmounted by a floral painting and a second mirror hanging between two windows.

[8] Gilles Demarteau used in 1756 goldsmith's chasing tools and marking-wheels to shade the lines in a series of Trophies designed by Antoine Watteau.

François and Demarteau separated ways in 1757 over conflicts relating to who was entitled to call himself the inventor of the new technique.

Thanks to his superior drawing and engraving skills Demarteau was able to become the primary exponent of the crayon manner process in France.

In 4 April 1767, Demarteau presented his first two-colour plates to the Académie française which gave him its approval.

[3] The artists Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher and Jean-Baptiste Huet painted decorative murals in the salon of Gilles Antoine Demarteau's house in the rue de la Pelleterie.

[5] Gilles Demarteau was mainly a reproductive artist who worked in the new crayon manner style which he had helped to invent.

[11] Demarteau also engraved about 40 drawing manuals, which included plates after designs by Jean-Pierre Houël, Jean-Baptiste Huet and the sculptor Edmé Bouchardon.

[7] Around 1750-55 Demarteau published a pattern book with 19 plates devoted solely to firearms decorations.