Le Petit Maitre

Le Petit Maitre   ( The Small Master ) is an engraving made by the Parisian artist  Louis-Marin Bonnet  and realized in the second half of 1700 in Paris.

Inside the matrix, the title is engraved on the lower center, whilst “ A Paris, chez Bonnet rue St. Jacques ” appears   on the lower right. The state of preservation is somewhat good, except for fungal foxing spread on the left margin and some stains, of which one is more visible on the higher left of the image. The higher, lower, and left margins are fringed and present tiny tears.

Louis-Marin Bonnet  lived from 1736 to 1793 in Paris. He was a painter and engraver, and as such he invented one of the first color-printing methods with many matrices, with a pastel-like effect. In 1769, he published a treatise titled  Le Pastel en gravure inventé, et execute par Louis Bonnet  about his new method. His workshop, in Rue St. Jacques since 1772, has produced many works of diverse quality: from nearly perfect printed reproductions of masterpieces in pastel colors to genre scenes and illustrations, like the one in this study, realized under his direction and always in line with the new technique of the pastel manner.

The work  Le Petit Maitre  is an amusing and typical 18 ^th -century illustration in costume, and probably the represented character is the protagonist of a 1734 comedy by Pierre de Marivaux. This excellent printing technique simulates perfectly the manner of the sanguine pencil.