Antique Engraving by Marie Rosalie Bertaud after Joseph Vernet “Les Pecheurs A La Ligne"

"Les Pecheurs A La Ligne"
Marie Rosalie Bertaud (b.1738)
after Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789)
Line engraving (first state of two)
Published Paris
Circa 1770

Measures:-
34.8 cm × 43.1 cm 

Marie Rosalie Bertaud was a pioneering French female printmaker, who produced a number of highly accomplished engravings after works by Claude-Joseph Vernet.

This image has a group of five men and women line fishing, beside a rowing boat, along a stretch of rocky coastline, beneath a tower fortification. A three-masted sailing barque is in the water before them and various other figures are in the distance.

Lettered beneath with the title (center) "LES PECHEURS A LA LIGNE."; and with artists' details "J. Vernet Pinxit" (scratched faintly below image left); "M.R. Bertaud Sculp." (scratched faintly below image right) and with the dedication lines (either side of a heraldic plaque) "Madame de Montullé Baronne de St. Port, Dame de St. Assise &c. / Gravé d'apres le Tableau Original de même grandeur de Mr. Vernet Par sa très Humble Obeissante Servante Me. Re. Bertaud / Peintre du Roy. Tiré du Cabinet de Mr. de Montullé." and with the publication details "A Paris chez l'auteur rue St. Germain l'Auxerrois la premiere allée à droite en entrant par la Places des trois maries et chez Joullain Quay de la Mégisserie"

The image was also produced (in reverse) in a mezzotint entitled "Line Fishing on the Coast of Italy" published in London in 1772 by Robert Sayer.

Very scarce. Not in British Museum. For similar see Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953 (53.600.1529); Bibliothèque National (Paris). 

Literature:-
Arlaud Cat. no. 63, p. 20 (Docteur Pierre Arlaud "Catalogue Raisonné des Estampes Gravées d'après Joseph Vernet", Avignon, Imprimeries Rulliere-Libeccio, 1990).

Presented in attractive 'Country House' condition in a distressed antique 19th Century Hogarth style frame.