Personalities Picart, Bernard

Engraver and etcher. He studied with his father engraver, Etienne Picart, then at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with Benoît Audran and Sébastien Leclerc. In 1696 he moved to Antwerp, then spent a year in Amsterdam. At the end of 1698, he returned to Paris, where he mainly reproduced famous paintings. In 1711, he finally moved to Amsterdam, where his father soon moved. Made more than 1,300 engravings, including portraits, ornamental engravings. Book illustrations became the main activity during this period. His most famous work is the multi-volume publication "Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde" (1723-1743) (Ceremonies and religious rites of all peoples of the world). It was a large-scale attempt to describe the religious rituals and beliefs of the peoples of the world in all their diversity, objectively and as accurately as possible.

A catalog of B. Picard's works was published by his widow in 1734 in the book "Impostures innocentes, ou Recueil d'estampes d'après divers peintres illustres... gravées... par Bernard Picart, dessinateur et graveur" (Amsterdam: chez la veuve de Bernard Picart, 1734).