Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJean-Baptiste Le Prince
French painter
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Metz, Grand Est, France
About Jean-Baptiste Le Prince
- Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (September 17, 1734 – September 30, 1781) was an important French etcher and painter.
- Le Prince first studied painting techniques in his native Metz.
- He then travelled to Paris around 1750 and became a leading student of the great painter, François Boucher (1703–1770).
- Le Prince's early paintings in both theme and style are comparable to his master's rococo techniques.
- In 1758 Le Prince journeyed to Russia to work for Catherine the Great at the Imperial Palace, St.
- Petersburg.
- He remained in Russia for five years and also travelled extensively throughout Finland, Lithuania and even Siberia.
- When Le Prince returned to Paris in December, 1763, he brought with him an extensive collection of drawings which he employed as the basis for a number of fine paintings and etchings.
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- Le Prince was elected a full member of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture in 1765.
- Le Prince's graphic art of Russia and its peoples is significant in that he based his compositions entirely upon his own designs, lending a much more realistic portrayal to his views than other eighteenth century contemporaries.
- He is also credited with being the first artist (in 1768) to introduce aquatint into his etched and engraved plates.
- He may even have been the inventor of aquatint, the tonal graphic art that would later be so skillfully used by such masters as Goya, Louis-Philibert Debucourt, Delacroix and Thomas Rowlandson.
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