Description
329 prints designed by Jean Pillement
and etched by various printmakers. The etchings of chinoiserie, flowers, and rustic scenes
were sources for designs on Worcester porcelain. The collection represents perhaps
one-quarter of Pillement's printed designs.
Background
Jean Pillement, also known as Jean II Pillement and Jean-Baptiste Pillement, was the
grandson of Jean Ier Pillement and son of Paul Pillement (b.1694), both painters. Pillement,
the oldest of five children, was born in Lyon in 1728, studied in Paris with Daniel Sarrabat
(1666-1748), a former student of Jean I Pillement. For a short time, Pillement worked at the
Gobelins factory designing textile ornaments before beginning a lifetime of extensive travel
around Europe. He visited Poland, where he became Painter to the King of Poland, Stanislas
Auguste, and was much appreciated in London and Lisbon, where he visited several times. He
spent time in France, Spain, Italy, Austria, England, and Portugal before retiring to Lyon,
where he died, very poor, in 1808.