Pierre-François Basan

Pierre-François Basan (23 October 1723 – 12 February 1797) was a French engraver.[1]

Bust of Pierre-François Basan, by Augustin Pajou, 1773 (20th century copy)

Ariadne and Bacchus Surprised, engraving by Pierre-François Basan after Luca Giordano's painting, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, 1750

Basan was born in Paris. He was a pupil of Etienne Fessard and Jean Daullé. He was principally occupied as a printseller, and published a 'Dictionnaire des Graveurs' in 1767. He engraved the following plates:

• The Gothic Songster; after A. Both.
• An Ecce Homo; after Caravaggio.
• Christ breaking the Bread; after Carlo Dolci.
• St. Maurice'; after Luca Giordano.
• Bacchus and Ariadne; after Jordaens.
• Christophe Lemenu de St. Philibert; after Le Fèvre.
• Louis XV, with Diogenes; after Le Moine.
• The Female Gardener; after Frans Mieris.
• The Card-players; after Teniers.
• An Incantation; after the same.
• Carle Vanloo.
• Armand Gaston de Eohan, called the Cardinal de Soubise.

He also executed several copies after the scarce etchings of Rembrandt.

References

1. Michaud, L. G.; Michaud, J. Fr., eds. (1843). "Basan, Pierre-François". Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne. tome III (nouvelle ed.). Paris: A. T. Desplaces. p. 208.

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bryan, Michael (1886). "Basan, Pierre Francois". In Graves, Robert Edmund (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (A–K). I (3rd ed.). London: George Bell & Sons.