JANINET Jean Francois 1752-1814.
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JANINET (Jean-François), aquatinte engraver and chemist, born in Paris in 1752, died in the same city on November 1, 1814 (French school). The interest that the amateurs show for the beautiful prints of François Janinet imposes us the obligation particularly to stop us with this artist. Janinet is an innovator in engraving printed in colours: he creates the process with the help of which, later, Debucourt will become famous. The black manner engraving, inaugurated towards 1610 by the prince Rupert, allowed to Leblond, of Frankfurt, to print some coloured prints using the superimposition of three plates, engraved with "cradle", or scraper, and which, coated with one of three primary colours : blue, yellow, red, gave by their mixture the intermediary tones, Jacques-Christophe Leblond thus executed, about 1719, the Portrait of the prince Eugene. After a stay in London, where he carried out different interesting works printed in colours, and published in 1730, a book headed Il Coloristo or the harmony of printing in colours , reduced to mechanic process , using easy and infallible advice, printed in English and in French, Janinet came to Paris, where he published a Portrait of Louis XV, of a large deserve. He had as a pupil Gautier Dagoty, who after the death of his Master, claimed himself the inventor of the process of impression with four plates, the first in black, giving the drawing and the shades. (see Letter on new art to print the pictures in four colors, 1749), method whose Leblond had asserted paternity before dying (1741). François of Nancy, in 1756, invented engraving of manner of pencil, which is obtained with a "roulette" . Demarteau carried this process to the perfection. Bonnet created engraving of manner of pastel. Jean-Baptiste le Prince, by his invention of engraving with washing, or aquatinte, in which a layer of resin filtered and cooked with furnace allows to regulate in this way the bite of etching. It was this process whose marvellous aquatintes of the Prince show all the flexibility, that Janinet employed for the preparation of his coloured plates. He engraved with an etched stroke, put his grain of aquatinte and superimposed his colors. The first application of the process appears to be a small piece of round form entitled the Operator, annotated: Engraved with the imitation of the washing, coloured, by F Janinet, the only one which found this manner: at the author, house of the Lucas abbot, street of the Plaster-St-Jacques. The baron Portalis and H. Béraldi place at the beginning of the career of the artist the pieces after pH Caresme: The crowned Shepherd, the crowned Shepherdess, Bacchanle enivrée, - the impatient Satyr, the systematic worship; and afterLouis Doublet: The Kiss of the love, - the Kiss of the Friendship, rare works. These engravings at least the first, had to appear little after September 1773. François Janinet, son of a engraver in semiprecious stones who lived street Germain, near the salt-loft, began probably to study the drawing with his father, then became student, and entered the school of the Royal Academy March 1772, like painter apprentice. In the month of septembre1773, the Academy's register mentions he moved to Lucas abbot's residence . Janinet had thus turned out engraver by himself . The beautiful Portrait of Marie-Antoinette, 1774, shows our artist in full possession of his talent. He was hardly 22 years old . The Success of Janinet appears to have been very large because his reproductions after the Masters more in vogue proliferated. He deploys the same skill in his landscapes after Hubert Robert in particular in: Remainders of the palate of the pope Jules II (1775), - Madama Villa, - Sachetta Villa, - Column and Garden of the Palate of Médicis. In 1777, he engraved after H. Fragonard: The Love, the Madness, it is also necessary to quote after the charming Charlier miniaturist: The Sleep of ARIANE, Venus in reflexion, Venus disarming Love after Charles Eisen son: Tarquin and Lucrèce. Baudouin: The Pleasant one neglected. after Freudeberg: Childish Fear, childish Confidence. Saint-Ouentin: The Pleasant country-woman. after Ant. Watteau: Actors, the comic Appointment. after P. A. WilIe son: The Wedding of village, the Meal of the harvesters. after Jean Houel: Animated landscape. after Bouchardon: Galalée on water. after Greuze: four plates: Heads of man, women and children. after Clerisseau: Remainders of an old temple close Pouzzoles. after Machy: Two aspects of Paris. after Wolff: The Fall of Staubbach in the valley of Lauterbrunnen. and still some portraits: Miss Duthé, after Lemoine whose proofs are so required today, Miss Bertin. modiste of Marie Antoinette regarded as one of his masterpieces, Henri IV Duke of Sully-. after Pourbus, - Loménie de Brienne.The well-informed amateur that was Basan was not remained indifferent in front of the remarkable result obtained by Janinet and he made him reproduce several watercolours of Adrian van Ostade which were decorating his cabinet of street Serpente: The Dutch Smoke den (1778), - rustic Barraque, the Flemish Thatched cottage, - the Dutch Fair (1779). Janinet carried out them with an etched stroke enhanced with flat tints giving the aspect of the master's watercolours . Janinet engraved for the same editor: Vestiges of a temple of Greece, after Pannini. The brothers Campion, engravers and merchants of prints, made him carry out, in collaboration with Guyot, Miss Guyot, Chapuy and themselves, the series of small round sights of monuments of Paris, after Durand's drawings: holy Genevieve, interior and outside, Our-Lady, idem, Saint Eustace, Saint-Sulpice, The Place Dauphine, The Collége of Four Nations, The Ambiguous Comic, - The Corn loft. - The Law court , The House of Mr. of Marigny, of Mr. Demonville, of Mr. Rousseau, of M of Holy-Foix, of Mr. of Sinety. In 1781, Janinet engraved a plate on the occasion of the Dauphin's birth , under the title of: Feelings of the Nation, after J.-B. Huet. exhibiting Marie-Antoinette sitting at the opposite of Louis XVl and holding the dauphin in her arms. About the same time, appeared the three Graces, after to Pellegrini, and the Toilet of Venus, after F Boucher (1783), proof of a very remarkable execution. Janinet always had felt attracted towards sciences; he added to his quality of engraver that of physicist; in his death certificate he is mentioned as engraver and chemist. The variety that one notices in his colourings indicates a researcher. The artist had higher aimings. In 1784, ballooning was very fashionable; Janinet himself dealed with balloon in a way enough serious to build an airship exceeding the dimension of what have been made before. He had joined for this work Miollan abbot. J G Wille tells in his memories, with the mocking good-naturedness which is usual for him, the sad result of this attempt. The balloon of 110 feet to the top, inflated with flammable gas, must, the 11 July 1784, leave from Luxembourg where it have been transported the day before. It has to be occupied by Janinet, Miollan abbot, the marquis of Arlande and a mechanic. But the fire has taken while the airship was inflated, the abbot and Janinet took the escape, protected by the guard because the public, which have paid three pounds , showed their dissatisfaction with this failure by throwing the barriers and the chairs in the fire, " so that it was a blazing fire. "., quoted Wille, and it lasted more than twenty-four hours. During some time the whole Paris got laughed at him; the songs, the caricatures ridiculed him cruelly. He took his revenge by producing new wonders. Janinet had found in NicoIas Lawreince the gouachist who could give to the coloured prints a great delicacy. The Comparison (1786), the difficult Consent (I787), Oh! let see me, - the Small consulting, - Oh! the pretty puppy, the discrete Pupil, Poor pussy, why am I not in your place, - Indiscretion are pictures whose good proofs are greatly disputed in the public sales: Levachez and Charnois when they braught out the weekly publishing of the Costumes and annals of the large Theatres of Paris. entrusted the illustration to Janinet. He published in particular: Mrs. Dugazon, in Nina or the Insane by Love,after Hoin, Miss Contat in the role of Suzanne from the Marriage of Barber, after Duplessi Bertaux, Miss Olivier, Chérubin, in the same part, MlleVestris, in the role of Gabrielle of Vergy, -Mrs. Saint,after Lemoine, - Mrs. Favart in the Three Sultana, Mrs. Dugazon in the role of Robert and a second once in that of Nina, Michu , in the role of Blaise, Miss Guimard , in the Ballet of Navigator, The Dancer, Gardel the young Miss Dove the elder, Sophie Arnould, in Iphigénie in Aulide, Tease, Rousseau, Adrienne Lecouvreur, Molé, Miss Renaud junior, Garrick, - Brizard, Préville, in the role of Rissole, - Benjamin Franklin (1789), -Janinet-. Janinet, reproductive engraver, could not escape to the fashion which substituted, during the Revolution, the insipid coldness of David's School for the spiritual grace of the minor artists of the 18th century. He became the translator of Le Barbier, Moitte, sculptor of the draughtsman Devarenne, after whom he carried out Projet of monument to be set up for the king. The last productions of Janinet are much the least interesting part of his works. In 1791, he appeared for the first time at the "salon" with Sight of the Field of Mars during the moment of the service of the civic oath and a antique frieze after Moitte. At the "salon" of 1793,he still exposed: Conspiracy of Catilina and the Death of Lucrèce, after Moitte. It is still necessary to quote after the same artist:Muses introduced to Minerve, Hercules introduced to Jupiler and Junon, the Virtue of Lucréce the Last moments of Démosthène, the Constancy of Coriolan. After Le Barbier the elder : Creation, - Adam and Eve, - the death of Abel, - the Death of Cain, - Combat of Horaces and Curiaces. Still let us quote:Freedom, Equality, two plates, a Collection of various muds, two books of four plates each one after A. Panier, Rosettes, two books of four plates, - a Navy acfter Alkins, Charlotte Corday ; he had married Marie-Madeleine-Francoise Poumentin, of which he had a girl, who was a painter and engraver and had, probably, assisted her father in his work. He died in the house carrying number 5 of the street Poliveau.
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E.BENEZIT : DICTIONNAIRE critique et documentaire des PEINTRES , SCULPTEURS , Dessinateurs et graveurs.LIBRAIRIE GRÜND.
Catherine de Vassent.
