The Snow (from Lithographies diverses')

Jean-Baptiste Isabey

The catalogue raisonné entry for this image translates to: "The Snow" The drawing is taken from inside an open shed. A woman seen from behind is putting her foot on the doorstep. A small flag-shaped sign is fixed to one of the hangar beams on which can be distinguished a cross."

An atmospheric lithograph by Isabey, one of a series that were done to show the versatility of the new medium. The viewer looks through a dark barn out to the light, a gentle snow storm, a technique that Whistler used to great success a half century later.

This image was the first in a series of 10 lithographs done for the 1818 publication "Diverse Essais Lithographiques de J.B. Isabey Publies a Paris en 1818". The publication was meant to display the diversity of lithography, a kind on notebook, printed by Godefroy Engelmann and published by Alphonse Giroux. All the stones were drawn by Isabey. Seven of the ten images have Isabey's individual embossed stamp with initials "J.I." Three lithographs, including this, were signed in the stone. Isabey went on to specialize in portraits and miniatures.

Godefroy (Gottfried) Engelmann (1788-1839) experimented with the new process of lithography from 1813 after reading the first published book about lithography Das Geheimniss des Steindrucks ,Tübingen, 1810 (The Secrets of Lithography) by Heinrich Rapp (1761-1832). Engelmann's first press was in Mulhouse, France his second opened at 18, Rue Cassette, Paris, on 15 June 1816. On 3 August he sent prints to the Acadamie Royale des Beaux-Arts, which appointed a commission to study lithography; 23 days later he deposited Le Chien de l'aveugle by Pierre-Antoine Mongin (1761-1827) at the dépôt légal (Paris, Bib. N.)

France's supremacy with lithography sprang largely from Engelmann's improvements, and the process came of age on 8 October 1817, when it was subjected to the same regulations as other graphic media.

Jean-Baptiste Isabey was born in Nancy, Meurhte-et-Moselle, France on April 11,1767, the son of a merchant. He studied with architecture and decoration with Girardet and landscape with Claudet in Nancy. At the age of 19, in 1786, he went up to Paris, with a letter of recommendation addressed to Dumont, the Lorraine artist and 'Premier peintre' to the Queen. He made his living painting the covers for snuff boxes and the ornamentation for buttons on formal clothing, responding to the demand of the times. Introduced at court in Versailles he became of pupil of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) in Paris in 1788. He went on to be one of the first painters to work in the relatively new medium of stone lithography, specializing in portraits.

In 1791 Isabey married Jeanne Laurice de Salienne. After a loss of patrons, a result of the French revolution, Isabey managed to rebuild himself a client base through his friendship with J-L David, exhibiting many miniatures at the Paris Salon in 1793.

During the Directory period he frequented drawing rooms of Mme Tallien, Mme de Stael and Mme Récamier, becoming a friend both of the young general Napolon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine – he was later to be appointed drawing master to Josephine's children Hortense and Eugène.

J-B Isabey received one of his first portrait commissions from Marie Antoinette (1774-1792) and enjoyed the patronage of both Napoleon I and Louis Philippe. Despite his original connections with the monarchy, Isabey created 228 portraits of deputies for a work on the Legislative Assembly during the French Revolution. Patronized by Napoleon and Joséphine, he arranged the ceremonies of their coronation and prepared 32 drawings, intended as an official commemoration of the event.

Jean-Baptiste Isabey died in Paris, France on April 18, 1855 after Napoleon III made him Commander of the Légion d'honneur. he was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery.