Chauveau, François (1613-76; French)
Details of the decoration in the Grand Apartment of the Tuileries Palace (Ornemens…, 1710, plates 13-25)
13 engravings
Gift of George Collins Levey 1879
National Gallery of Victoria (p.183.119-1 to p.183.131-1)

= Levey gift, cat.nos.66-78

[photo: p.183.119-1]

Together, this series of engravings and the four plates of Lemoyne Lambris… des Tuileries {1879} NGV [PR] document elements of the decoration of the Grand Apartment of the Tuileries Palace carried out under Le Vau’s direction in the earlier 1660s (for further details, see Levey gift, introductory remarks to cat.39ff.).

Payments for both Chauveau and Lemoine’s engravings date from 1667 to 1671.

In 1710, both sets of engravings of the Tuileries Apartment were published together with Bérain Galerie d’Apollon [Ornemens, pls.2-12] {1879} NGV [PR]; for the title page, see Bérain & Scotin Ornemens de peinture… 1710 {1879} NGV [PR].

The individual engravings in the present group show the decorative details of doors (plates 13-21) and panels above doors (plates 22-25). They are essentially documentary, although the first in the series (reproduced here) offers an inventive view of a sequence of spaces visible beyond an open door.

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

The NGV catalogue lists and reproduces all 13 engravings

See also Suite et arrangement (1727), p.4; and http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb121977332 (with further references)