Pierre Gabriel Berthault Figurative Prints

Assassinat De Basseville à Rome is an original black and white etching realized by Pierre Gabriel Berthault, after Jacques François Joseph Swebach-Desfontaines in 1793. Title with caption on plate on the lower center: "Assassinat de Basseville, à Rome/ le 13 Janvier 1793, ou 23 Nivose An Ier de la République". Below the image on the lower margin, "Swebach Desfontaines onv. et del. / Berthault sculp." is etched on plate. This modern artwork is numbered "N. 76", because it is from the series Les Tableaux historiques de la Révolution française. As a matter of fact, Pierre-Gabriel Berthault is well-known for having engraved plates from this collection with the collaboration of the engraver Jean Duplessis-Bertaux. A work - hanging in the balance between news and history - with illustrations of salient or minimal events occurred during the French Revolution. As a celebration of the new ideals of brotherhood, justice, and equality, Les Tableaux immediately became a point of reference for journalism at the time. Of traditional cut, namely showing a view with many human figures, the engraving simplified the lines to be immediately readable for the general public. In our specific case, this original print represents the murder of Hugou de Bassville or Basseville (7 February, 1743 – 13 January, 1793), a French journalist and diplomatist, and protector of the radical Jacobins in Rome. In excellent conditions, except for a usual yellowing of the paper on the edges and a light trace of oxidations on the lower and right margins, beyond the marginal line of the matrix. Pierre-Gabriel Berthault (Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, 1737 - Paris, 1831) was a French master who made engravings from drawings by Jean-Claude Richard de Saint-Non (known as the Abbot of Saint-Non) and from paintings by Louis François Cassas. He depicted many views of Italy and created the collections Voyage à Naples and Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Palestine et de la basse-Egypte. Before the French Revolution, he was famous for being the author of the Vues intérieures de Paris and for tables with architectural elevations.