Le Musée français
They show a diversity of styles of engraving, employing burin with and without the assistance of etching and stipple,[10] as was practiced at this period in order to represent narrative painting, portraiture and landscape—and also classical sculpture—prior to the invention of photography.
The commentary texts and essays were written by Simon-Célestin Croze-Magnan (until 1806), Toussaint-Bernard Émeric-David (between 1806-1812), Ennio Quirino Visconti (1806 until his death in 1818), François Guizot (between 1812 and 1824) and Charles le comte de Clarac (after 1818).
[13] Its appearance was welcomed in the official newspaper, Le Moniteur, as an important artistic achievement in its own right, more worthy of public attention than any similar work since the origin of the art of engraving, itself.
Laurent initially proposed his project in 1790 in a request for authorization to engrave the collections of paintings, classical sculpture and drawings of Louis XVI, without expense to the royal treasury.
[20] His idea was modelled on the celebrated Recueil Crozat of seventy years earlier;[21] but official policy now reserved this privilege for the retinue of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which was in turmoil due to events of the French Revolution.
Laurent, who was never associated with this institution, due to his activities in commerce, had the backing of the King's First Gentleman, Alexandre d'Aumont; and he claimed to have funding for the employment of thirty engravers and “a large number” draftsmen, along with a commercial network for international distribution.
[22] Despite political contention, his authorization was renewed by the regimes of the Convention, the Directorate and the Consulat; and it was defended legislatively by no less a voice than Sebastien Mercier against the proposal of a state monopoly for the engraving of the Museum's collections.
However, without a generally accepted, systematized record of the engravings, the identification of their impressions is not simple: the plates lack syndetic indications such as numbering, and have no labelling, apart from the titles of their subjects and their artists’ names.
[36] Ten years later, July 4, 1865, the printer Charles Chardon l’aîné filed in legal deposit, as was required by law, separately published new editions of Bervic’s engraving of “Laocoon”, Giraudet’s “Centaur,” J.J. Avril fils’ “Euterpe” after a drawing by Granger, Laugier’s “Le Tibre,” also after Granger, and Laugier’s “Vénus accroupie du Vatican”—all classical sculptures, the editions due to be released in Paris by the dealer Danlos l’aîné;[37] and in the following five years up to 1870, similar listings in La BIbliographie de la France announced publication of hundreds of re-editons of similar prints, without a single reference to the Musée français or the plates' origin in any larger, inclusive publication.
