1131 - Jonas Suyderhoef and Pierre Drevet, two engravings, Peace of Münster and Louis XV

Jonas Suyderhoef and Pierre Drevet, two engravings, Peace of Münster and Louis XV Two copper engravings on paper: 1) Jonas Suyderhoef after Gerard ter Borch, „The Ratification of the Peace of Münster“, lettered in the plate below at the left „G. ter Borch pinxit“ and at the right „Jonas Suyderhoef sculpsit“, beneath it the Latin caption. In the council chamber of Münster's town hall, the envoys crowd around a round table on which the treaty documents lie; in the foreground, a hand is placed on the book, some raise their oath hand, a chandelier hangs above the assembly, and in the background is the paneled wall. Age-appropriate condition, creased, upper and lower edge of the image with holes, horizontally creased at the centre, margins backed and partially torn. Image 44 x 58 cm (HxW), overall size 49 x 59.5 cm (HxW). 2) Pierre Drevet (1663 Loire-sur-Rhône – 1738 Paris) after Hyacinthe Rigaud, „Louis XV enthroned“, lettered in the plate below at the left „peint par Hyacinthe Rigaud“ and at the right „Gravé par Pierre Drevet“. The king sits at full length on the throne, the sceptre in his right hand, the coronation robe embroidered with lilies and trimmed with ermine spread out over the steps, behind him a heavy gathered curtain. Age-appropriate condition, rubbed, margins backed, with losses, in part larger restorations, torn at the centre, reinforced. Image 54 x 47.5 cm (HxW). Verso a green circular stamp with the letters AKM Gerard ter Borch was the only painter present at the Peace Congress of Westphalia in Münster from 1646 to 1648 and recorded the swearing of the Spanish-Dutch peace of 15 May 1648 in a small oil on copper which hangs today in the National Gallery in London. In the same year ter Borch commissioned the Haarlem engraver Jonas Suyderhoef to reproduce it at the size of the original; the print was distributed in a large edition and was better known in Europe than the painting itself. Hyacinthe Rigaud, the leading portraitist of the French court, created his third and last royal portrait between 1727 and 1730, showing Louis XV in coronation robes. Pierre Drevet, royal engraver since the portrait of Louis XIV of 1696, transferred several of these rulers' portraits into engraving and thus made them known throughout Europe.