Collection Guide
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Pillement (Jean) Etchings
P830005
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Jean Pillement etchings
Creator:
Pillement, Jean, 1728-1808
Creator:
Perrins, Charles William Dyson, 1864-1958
Identifier/Call Number: P830005
Physical Description:
329 prints
(3 boxes)
Date (inclusive): ca. 1755-1775
Abstract: 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.
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Language of Material: French
Language of Material: Collection material in French and English.
Title of suite or print. Etcher. Place, date: Publisher.
Number of plates (if suite). Measurements.
Bibliographic reference(s).
Notes.
Title of first print. Etcher. Place, date: Publisher.
Title of second print. Etcher. Place, date: Publisher.
Measurements.
Bibliographic reference(s).
Notes.
Titles are listed exactly as they are rendered on the prints. Supplied titles are in brackets.
Pillement is the designer, and all entries are etchings.
Publication information is taken directly from the prints; complete names are used when known. As part of their large collections
of plates after Pillement's designs, Leviez and Basan seem to have reissued prints published earlier, sometimes by others.
Thus, their names and place (Paris) appear in addition to the original issuing information. s.l. = sine loco (without place).
s.d. = sine datum (without date). s.n. = sine nomine (without name). All measurements are in centimeters. For suites of prints,
only one, usually the title page or the first print, has been measured. Pl. = platemark; Sh. = sheet. Guilmard = Désiré Guilmard.
Les maîtres ornemanistes, dessinateurs, peintres, architectes, sculpteurs et graveurs; écoles française, italienne, allemande,
et des Pays-Bas (flamande & hollandaise)
. Paris, 1880-81: E. Plon.
Guilmard p.190: Dagoty 1 refers to the first suite listed under Dagoty as engraver on page 190. Berlin Kat. = Staatliche Kunstbibliothek
(Berlin, Germany).
Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. Berlin; Leipzig: Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1939.
Berlin Kat. 449 Bd. 2: Canot 1 refers to the first suite listed under Canot as engraver in the second volume of the Pillement
listing at number 449.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Jean Pillement Collection was originally owned by Charles William Dyson Perrins (1864-1958), an English book collector.
Perrins had a strong interest in the Royal Worcester Porcelain Company, to whom he donated his fine collection of Worcester
porcelain; this collection of etchings of chinoiserie, flowers, and rustic scenes represents sources for designs on Worcester
porcelain. The collection contains perhaps one-quarter of Pillement's printed designs and includes the work of the following
etchers: François-Antoine Aveline (1718-1780 or 1718-1762), Peter-Paul Benazech (ca.1730-after 1783), Pierre-Charles Canot
(1710-1777), Edouard Gautier Dagoty, Louis Dagoty, Jeanne Deny (b.1749), William Elliot or Elliott (1727-1766), Hess, James
Mason (1710-ca.1780), Christopher Norton, Simon François Ravenet the elder (1706-1774), James Roberts the elder (1725 or 1726-1799),
William Sherlock (ca.1759-1806), and Thomas Vivares (b.1735). C. Leviez and Pierre-François Basan (1723-97) are frequently
listed as publishers; as part of their large collections, they seem to have reissued prints published earlier, sometimes by
others. Victor Marie Picot (1744-1802) and Jean Marie Delattre (1745-1840) also issued two prints.
The subjects of the sixteen suites of small etchings include chinoiserie fountains, tents, trophies, figures in landscapes
and rococo flowers and ribbons. These motifs, probably derived from works by Pillement in other media, could easily be used
as decorative sources for woven or printed textiles; painted, modeled, or lacquered paneling; engraving on silver; or painted
porcelain. Two suites are etched in red and black in the crayon manner, imitating chalk drawings.
The subjects of the sixteen suites of medium-sized etchings include fantastic and naturalistic flowers; chinoiserie genre
scenes (some of children playing games) and large single figures; and rustic European genre scenes, always outdoors and often
along the road or near tumble-down houses or bridges.
The large etchings include one suite of six Chinese genre scenes and twenty rococo genre scenes, each with its own title.
The genre scenes, often in pairs, depict the countryside or small villages, some with additional allegorical meaning related
to the seasons or times of day. Some represent indigenous peasants picturesquely going about their business, while some portray
gentlefolk who have appropriated rural costumes and landscapes for their own pleasures.
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.
Pillement painted and drew genre scenes, chinoiserie, flowers, landscapes, and marines subjects in many media, always in
a rococo style. He is known for his inventiveness and endless novelty in these genres, for the usefulness of his drawings
for manufacturers, and especially for his chinoiserie scenes, which he abandoned after 1775. Various engravers in Paris and
London - including Pillement's second wife, Anne Allen - etched suites and plates after his designs. Leviez published one
of two large collections of prints after Pillement's designs in 1767 (130 prints), and Basan and Poignant published the other
in 1772 (120 prints).
Acquired in 1983 through a dealer who acquired the collection from Charles William Dyson Perrins.
Jean Pillement etchings, ca. 1755-1775, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. P830005.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifap830005
Contact
Library Rights and Reproductions .
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Emmanuel Bénézit.
Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs de tous les temps et de tous les
pays, par un groupe d'écrivains spécialistes français et étrangers.
Nouv. éd. [Paris]: Gründ, 1948-55.
Georges Pillement.
Jean Pillement. Paris: J. Haumont, 1945.
Norman David Ziff.
Jean-Baptiste Pillement and the evolution of Chinoiserie as an ornament motif. Ph.D. dissertation, 1968.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art -- Chinese influences
Decoration and ornament -- Rococo
Decoration and ornament -- France
Etchings -- France -- 18th century
Genre (Art)
Prints -- France -- 18th century