Engraving After Vernet Engraved By Balechou Around 1750

Etching and burin depicting the Storm (A ship hits a rock and falls into the waves, on the right in the foreground, two men strive to bring back a fainted woman.) Under an ancient arch built on the Rock, on the left of the groups, contemplate the disaster and the rescuers, while the thunderstorm rumbling and a lightning crisscrosses the sky, behind the lighthouse which stands at the bottom of the composition. an escutcheon with arms: dedicated to Monseigneur // michel Ferdinand of Albert d'Ally // duc de Chaulnes, Peer of France ... "above the dedication:" taken from the cabinet of Me Poulhanes Ecuyer, a merchant in Marseille. Good condition (slightly yellowed paper, kept its margins, no tearing, no restoration) Antique gilded wood frame Size of view: W: 58 cm X W: 51 cm Frame size: L: 66 cm X W: 59 cm Work of the middle of the 18th century engraver JJ Balechou after a painting by J. Vernet. that Jean Joseph Balechou born in Arles July 11, 1715 is the son of Jean Gatien Balechoi from Tours and Arlesienne Catherine Chauvin. He first studied painting with Arlesian Philippe Sauvan, a painter in Avignon. He then learned engraving in Avignon at Jean Michel Engraver stamps and Ex-Libris. The act of these three years of apprenticeship with Michel is dated October 3, 1734. He continued his career in Paris where he returned to the studio of Jacques Philippe Lebas and that of François Bernard Lépicié. His first works concern thirty or so engravings representing various ornaments, fireplaces, consoles, tables, etc., according to Thomas Lainée and René Viar, as well as genre scenes after Etienne Jeurat and Michel François d'André-Bardon. In 1735 he made an engraving of the painting by Philippe Sauvan depicting the Archbishop of Arles Mgr de Janson and two portraits of Voltaire after Jean Etienne Liotard around 1745 and Quentin de La Tour in 1748. He was received at the Royal Academy of painting and sculpture on March 29, 1749 thanks to the reproduction of the portrait of the King of Poland, Frederic-Auguste II of Saxony realized in 1715 by Hyacinthe Rigaud and destined for the gallery of Dresden. This portrait gives rise to a resounding trial. The artist being accused by Theodore de Leu, agent of the King of Poland to have kept more tests than the agreed number. The trial was long, but Balechou remained a member of the painting academy. The president of the Vaucluse society of the friends of the arts, Jules belleudy, showed in a study published in 1914, the little foundation of the reprobation due to this process. Following this trial Balechou returned to Avignon in 1753, where he continued to work. He paints Joseph Vernet's paintings, especially the bathers and the Storm whose paintings were held by a Marseillais merchant. He also engraves according to Joseph Vernet, the calm he dedicates to the Marquis de Marigny, general director of the King's buildings. The engraving of the storm is very appreciated, and in particular of the painter J. Vernet himself who writes to him "this print filled my waiting, your researches are infinite and ask for an exam and a lot of knowledge to understand all the beauty .. I am currently impatient that this print is spread in the world for your glory and mine "In 1763 Vernet offers Balechou to engrave marine" he is only a Balechou in France, I'm not happy with my other since I saw yours, if you want to take on this work, you will have a great advantage in my paintings, a great glory "He died in Avignon on August 8, 1764, poisoned said he, by a remedy he had unwisely prepared. In 1878 the Marquis de Chenevieres, director of the Beaux Arts, commissioned 2400 francs to the sculptor Arlesien Guillaume Dieudonne of a marble bust representing Balechou and currently to the Reattu museum.