Jacques Lepautre

Jacques Lepautre or Le Pautre (c. 1653 – 1684) was a Parisian engraver active during the last quarter of the seventeenth century.

Jacques's oeuvre (body of work) is significantly smaller than that of his father's: according to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France’s Inventaire du fonds français entry on the Lepautre family, the BNF’s Cabinet des estampes et de la photographie possesses fifty-eight works attributed to Jacques Lepautre.

[2] Lepautre is primarily known for his engravings after drawings of ballet and mascarade costume designs by Jean Bérain.

[3] These prints, like those by contemporary printmakers like Jean Dolivar (1641-1692) and others, present single characters positioned in the foreground of a shallow space, posed to display elegant and often extravagant costumes.

Inscriptions on the surviving prints indicate that Lepautre’s works were issued not only from his father’s shop ("sous les Charniers St. Innocent") but also from Etienne Gantrel's L’Image St Maur and Nicolas Bonnart's L’Aigle Noir.