Bacchus and Ariadne.

After the original by L. J.-F. Lagrenée.
Etching. 328 x 410.
Under the image, on the left: F. Lagrenée pinx.; on the right: Voyez l’ainé sculp.; in the center, on either side of the coat of arms: BACCHUS ET ARIANE. Ce tableau est au cabinet de Mr. Damery Chevalier de l’Ordre royal militaire de St Louis; below: A Paris chez Beauvarlet rue St Jacques vis-à-vis celle des Mathurins.
Inv. G 468.
Literature: Nagler, Bd. 21, p. 5, No. 16; Le Blanc, t. 4, p. 162, No. 40; Portalis et Béraldi, t. 3, p. 630, No. 4.
Lagrenée, Louis-Jean-François (1725 Paris – 1805, Paris) – French artist of the Rococo era. Pupil of Ch. van Loo. Older brother of Jean-Jacques Lagrenée. From 1755 – a member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, from 1762 – its professor. In 1760 he came to St. Petersburg, where he received the position of professor of historical painting at St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and the title of court painter. In 1763 he returned to France, in 1781 he was appointed director of the French Academy in Rome.
The addressee of the dedication – Damery, Jean Louis Antoine le Vaillant de (1723–1803) – officer of the French guard, knight of the Royal Military Order of Saint Louis; art collector. A close friend and patron of the artist J.-B. Greuze.