Les Sabots, Nicolas Lavreince, Etching, Around 1770

Les Sabots
Nicolas Lavreince J
acques Couché
Etching Water
Around 1770

Les Sabots Dedicated to Monsieur the Count of Pons Saint Maurice
Knight of the king's orders and lieutenant general of his armies.
Paris at J. Couché Engraver rue Hyacinthe n°51
By his very humble and very obedient servant
Engraved by J. Couché

Similar copies in the collections of the Louvre and the Art Institute Chicago.

Size: 34 x 26 cm
Frame size: 47 x 38 cm

Niklas Lafrensen (Stockholm, 1737-1807)
Niklas known as Nicolas Lavreince, Lawreince or Lavrince miniaturist painter and watercolorist, son of Niklas Lagrensen, of whom he was also a student. On the death of his father in 1756 the young artist who had miniatures decided to seek his fortune by traveling. He lived in Paris and resided there for three years before visiting Germany and returning to Stockholm. He achieved real success there as a history painter, watercolorist and especially as a portrait painter. The memory of Paris undoubtedly haunted him, because he was back in 1771. The works of Watteau de Lille and those of Baudoin struck him and allowed him to find the form in which he was to find so many brilliant successes. His watercolors of crisp subjects found engravers like Delaunay, Janinet, Debucourt and Couché to popularize them. In 1773 he was recalled to Stockholm, where he was appointed member of the Academy and painter to the king. These honors did not prevent him from returning to Paris in 1774 and extending his stay there until 1791. This was his most brilliant period. The agitation which preceded the Revolution brought him back to Sweden and there he completed the series of compositions on the history of Sweden begun before 1771.

Jacques Couché (1759-?)
Student of Levasseur and Aliamet, engraver in the office of the Duke of Orléans in Paris between 1784 and 1808. We cite him as Young Martyr, Holy Family or even Picturesque Views, Animals. He was part of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He executed copper engravings for the Journey to Naples and Sicily of the Abbot of Saint-Non and for the Journey of Pallas to Southern Russia 1788-1793, as well as sheets after Fauvel, Fragonard, Lavreince and Chardin . In 1802 he also published a collection of landscapes engraved in pencil.