Personalities Beauvarlet, Jacques Firmin

Engraver and publisher of prints. He was a native of Abbeville, the birthplace of such famous engravers as F. de Poilly, R. Hecquet, J. Daullé, J. Aliamet. He was born in the family of anupholstery fabric merchant. In 1750 he went to Paris, where he first studied with Robert Hecquet, then with Charles Dupuis and Laurent Cars. His engravings from the originals of Luca Giordano brought him in 1762 the popularity and approval of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, member of which he became in 1776.
Beauvarlet engraved with a chisel on the board not directly, but after making a drawing, and only then translated the drawing on a copper board. Contemporaries noted that because of this "the spirit of the original evaporates, leaving only the material. Sometimes it turned out that the image on the engraving did not always agree with the picture. "This is because Beauvarlet cared more about making the engraving beautiful than conveying the spirit of the work he was interpreting." He was criticized for doing "terribly polished work, brilliant and finished to the point of eye fatigue."
Among his students were later known engravers: J.-Ch. Levasseur, Pierre Maleuvre, brothers Jacques-Claude and Estash Danzel, Nicolas-Joseph and Francois Voyez, Louis Binet, Pierre Audouin. The works of the students he published were signed: "Beauvarlet excudit".
7 engravings of the series "History of Esther" from the originals of J.-F. de Troy were performed by J. F. Beauvarlet in 1777-1793. Their issue was regularly reported on the pages of "Journal de Paris". The originals, intended for reproduction in tapestries, were written by Jean-François de Troy in 1736-1742. Now they are stored in the Louvre (Paris).
About 140 works of J. F. Beauvarlet are known.