Engravings (pair Of)

Pair of original prints: '' Pastorale '' and '' Family scene '' framed under glass. After the painter Jacques Stella and engraved by one of his nieces Claudine Stella. Signed lower left: J. Stella p. Then bottom center: C. Stella sculp. cum pinxit regis. Old and posterior frames with wear: Oak baguette frame with gilded Marie-Louise and protective glass. Dimensions at sight: 33 cm X 26.5 cm. Note: wetness on one engraving and foxing on the other. The pastoral scene represents the harvest season where several characters carry out the work in the fields. The interior scene shows the life of a family in the evening by the fireside. Each is full of rich details of peasant life. Jacques Stella is a painter and a French art collector, born in Lyon in 1596 (baptism on September 29) and died in Paris on April 29, 1657. Painter of history, mainly of religious subjects, and water engraver- strong, he was honored with a patent of "ordinary painter to the king" in 1635. First training in Lyon, then the Court of Cosimo II de Medici in Florence where he met Jacques Callot. Goes to Rome where he remains there for 10 years, acquiring notoriety thanks to paintings and small engravings. Works in particular for Pope Urban VIII. In Rome, he was influenced by classicism and more particularly by the art of Nicolas Poussin, with whom he became intimate. Returned to Lyon in 1634, then Paris a year later. He is presented by Cardinal Richelieu to King Louis XIII who appoints him painter to the King by giving him a pension of 1000 pounds. He stayed at the Louvre and carried out several orders; he thus decorated the Saint Louis chapel of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the company of Poussin and Simon Vouet. At the end of his life he devoted himself more and more to drawing and taught engraving to his three nieces. An exhibition was dedicated to him at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Lyon. Delivery: 10 € for metropolitan France.