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Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de BuffonLizard Le Dore1749-1804
1749-1804
About the Item
George-Louis Leclerec, Comte de Buffon.
HistoireNaturell, Generale et Particuliere avec la Description du Cabiner du Roi.
Paris, 1749
Drawings by Jacques E. DeSeve.
Engravings with later hand colouring.
“This edition was certainly the most ambitious and comprehensive... and ranks still as one of the most important…from the collector’s point of view.”
(S. Sitwell et al., Fine Bird Books NY, 1953. p 64.)
Although Buffon studied law at Dijon, he devoted the greater part of his life to science and philosophy. An eloquent writer, his exquisitely engraved Histoire Naturell exuded an aristocratic elegance and charm and had built up such impetus that volumes went on appearing for some years after his death in 1788.
A French poly math, Buffon was a prodigiously talented man whose interests and accomplishments ranged through mathematics, astronomy and all the sciences; his theories made him enemies as well as admirers. He was a member of the Royal Society in England and was appointed keeper of the Jardin du Roi, the precursor of the Paris Zoo. His Histoire Naturelle was a massive undertaking which covered the whole animal kingdom; in the text descriptions of the creatures were interspersed with philosophical discussions.
Buffon's artists had their own ways of showing animals off to best advantage and always endeavored to make them look clean, neat and innocent. Usually, they gave them only a few stage props for company. Whether the animal depicted is a monkey or camel, it is shown as if in a tableau revealed to our curious gaze. The animals do not seem like wild beasts roaming free in their native land, but like actors performing among stage props and painted scenery for our benefit. These engravings, most done by Seve, had a considerable effect on zoological art. On balance, their influence was beneficial rather than harmful, but they are still just elegant set pieces which tell us more about Buffon and his circle than about the animals themselves.
Reference: Buchanan. Nature Into Art. Mayflower. New York, 1979.
Sitwell. Fine Bird Books. NY. 1953
- Creator:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 - 1788, French)
- Creation Year:1749-1804
- Dimensions:Height: 15 in (38.1 cm)Width: 13 in (33.02 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:1740-1749
- Condition:Clean, crisp image. Beautiful hand-coloring. Framed to museum specifications using archival matting, backing, hinging. Glazed with ultra-violet filtering Plexiglas.
- Gallery Location:Florham Park, NJ
- Reference Number:
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French: 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent French scientists Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Georges Cuvier. Buffon published thirty-six quarto volumes of his "Histoire Naturelle" during his lifetime, with additional volumes based on his notes and further research being published in the two decades following his death. Ernst Mayr wrote that "Truly, Buffon was the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the 18th century". Buffon held the position of intendant (director) at the Jardin du Roi, now called the Jardin des Plantes.
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