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Claude Du Bosc (also spelled Dubosc and DuBosc; c. 1682–c. or after 1746) was a French engraver, publisher, and printseller who spent much of his career in London. Associated with French contemporaries such as the painter Antoine Watteau and the draftsman Hubert-François Gravelot, Du Bosc belonged to the first wave of skilled engravers to arrive in London during the early 18th century, playing a major part in improving the standard of English printmaking of that era.

Life

Nothing known of Du Bosc's early life and work; it has been usually thought since the late-19th century that Du Bosc was born in France c. 1682, likely of Protestant background. In Roger Portalis [fr] and Henri Béraldi's view, also from the late-19th century, Du Bosc studied engraving under Bernard Picart; an alternate point supposes him to be an associate of Gaspard Duchange. The earliest secure mentions of Du Bosc date to c. 1712–1713, when he produced two plates for Duchange's 1714 publication of Recueil de cent estampes représentant différentes nations du Levant after Jean Baptiste Vanmour. Also published by Duchange are two early prints by Du Bosc, Apollo Visiting Thetis and Leto and the Lycian peasants, both after Jean Jouvenet.

At some point c. 1712–1713, Du Bosc and Charles Dupuis moved to England, requested to assist Nicholas Dorigny in engraving the Raphael Cartoons at Hampton Court. As George Vertue's notebooks state, Du Bosc and Dupuis quarrelled with Dorigny and left his employ before the work was complete. Later in London, Du Bosc told Dupuis that he would stay for some time before moving to France; actually, Vertue recounts, Du Bosc had decided to settle in England, so he wanted Dupuis, a more capable and thus unlikely engraver to compete with, to depart alone to Paris.

In February 1714, Du Bosc undertook with Louis Du Guernier to engrave a series of plates illustrative of the battles of the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene. He sent to Paris for two more engravers, Bernard Baron and Beauvais, to assist him on the work, which was completed in 1717.

George Vertue states that towards the end of 1729 Baron and Du Bosc went over to Paris, Du Bosc wishing to arrange matters relating to the trade of print-selling, as he had now set up a shop, and that Vanloo then painted both their portraits, which they brought back to England. From Vertue's notebooks, it is known that in c. 1726, Du Bosc also sat for another portrait, painted by John Smibert.

In 1733, Dubosc published an English edition of Bernard Picart's Religious Ceremonies of All Nations, some of the plates being engraved by himself; he also invited a younger artist Hubert-François Gravelot for assistance. His other prints included Apollo and Thetis and The Vengeance of Latona, after Jouvenet; some of the Labours of Hercules and The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, after Louis Cheron; The Head of Pompey brought to Cæsar, after Bernard Picart; The Continence of Scipio, after Poussin; The Temple of Solomon, after Parmentière; a portrait of Bonaventura Giffard, and numerous book illustrations, including numerous plates for Rapin's History of England (1743). By 1743, Du Bosc was said by Vertue to be an associate of the Rose and Crown Club; according to Timothy Clayton's 2004 entry published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Du Bosc was last mentioned in the May 1746 issue of the British Magazine, as a publisher for a plan of the Battle of Culloden.

Later in the 18th century, Joseph Strutt described him as "an engraver of no great merit", adding that "his style of engraving is coarse and heavy; and the drawing of the naked parts of the figure in his plates is exceedingly defective"; Strutt's point has been long reiterated.

Gallery

• Turkish Girl Sewing, plate from the Nations du Levant, after Jean Baptiste Vanmour, Public Library, New York City
• Apollo Visiting Thetis, after Jean Jouvenet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
• The Conversion of the Proconsul Sergius Paulus, after Raphael, Wellcome Collection, London
• The Battle of Malplaquet, after Louis Laguerre, Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island
• The Coronation of King George I, after Louis Chéron, British Museum, London
• The Trial of the King, plate from The Reign of Charles I, after Peter Angelis, British Museum, London
• Susanna and the Elders, after Annibale Carracci, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Friendly as a Ballad Singer at the Country Wake, plate from the Humours of Hob series, after John Laguerre, British Museum, London
• Bonaventure Giffard, British Museum, London
• The Continence of Scipio, after Nicolas Poussin, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
• La Tourilere comédien, after Antoine Watteau, British Museum, London
• Monument to Queen Elizabeth I in the Westminster Abbey, after design by Hubert-François Gravelot, Wellcome Collection, London

Notes

References

1. ^ In a widely represented point, Cust 1888, p. 80, cited in Treydel 2001, p. 79, establishes c. 1682 and c. 1745 as respective datings of Du Bosc's birth and death. In a different point, Herold & Vuaflart 1929, p. 93, states that there are no actual datings for that. In light of the 1746 mention in the British Magazine, recent sources such as Clayton 2004, p. 17 and Gatrell 2013, p. 393, date Du Bosc's death c. or after 1746.
2. Roux & Pognon 1951, p. 360; Bellini 1995, p. 174; Gatrell 2013, p. 187.
3. Godfrey 1978, p. 32; Calloway 1981, p. 42.
4. Harris 1997, pp. 104–105; Tarantino 2016, pp. 191–192; Alexander 2022, p. 302.
5. Gouzi, Christine (22 June 2020). "Les graveurs français face au jansénisme au XVIIIe siècle". Encyclopédie d'histoire numérique de l'Europe (in French). Retrieved 6 February 2022. De plus, le graveur français d'origine protestante Claude Dubosc (1682-1745) avait émigré à Londres en 1712 : devenu libraire et marchand graveur en Angleterre, il était en relation avec Bernard Picart dont il éditait aussi les estampes
6. Portalis & Béraldi 1882, p. 26; Thieme 1914, p. 2; Herold & Vuaflart 1929, p. 93; Treydel 2001, p. 79.
7. Kacprzak, Dariusz, ed. (2003). Sztuka europejska XV-XVIII wieku: ze zbiorów Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi (exhibition catalogue) (in Polish). Łódź: Muzeum Sztuki. p. 159. ISBN 83-87937-29-0. OCLC 1019950422.
8. Clayton 2004, p. 17.
9. For Du Bosc's prints after Jean Jouvenet, see the following:
   • Schnapper, Antoine (1974). Jean Jouvenet (1644-1717) et la peinture d'histoire à Paris (in French). Paris: L. Laget. pp. 109, 140, 198, 206; under cat. nos. 69, 89. ISBN 2-85204-005-0. OCLC 1293402.
   • Schnapper, Antoine (2010). Gouzi, Christine (ed.). Jean Jouvenet, 1644-1717, et la peinture d'histoire à Paris (in French). Paris: Arthena. pp. 126, 153, 230, 255; under cat. nos. P. 92, P. 128. ISBN 978-2-903239-42-8. OCLC 699877579.
10. According to Uglow 1997, p. 52, cited in Grigson 2015, p. 78 n. 29, it was c. 1711 when Du Bosc set up a print shop in Covent Garden.
11. Vertue 1932, p. 11: "At Hampton Court(:) N. Dorigny.(,) Du Puis Sen.(,) C. Dubosch." See also Vertue 1934, p. 8; Wescher 1951, p. 182; Burke 1976, p. 177; Godfrey 1978, p. 32; Clayton 1997, pp. 19, 52; Clayton 2004, p. 17.
12. Clayton 1997, p. 51.
13. Vertue 1952, p. 188; Paulson 1974, p. 21.
14. Guilmard-Geddes, Laurence (1996). "Du Guernier". In Turner, Jane (ed.). The Dictionary of Art. Vol. 9. New York: Grove's Dictionaries. p. 379. ISBN 1-884446-00-0. OCLC 1033638391 – via the Internet Archive.
15. Cust 1888, p. 80; Clayton 1997, p. 56
16. Cust 1888, p. 80; Vertue 1934, p. 41; Clayton 2004, p. 18.
17. Vertue 1934, p. 28; Foote 1950, pp. 24, 90, 204–205; Smibert 1969, p. 82; Saunders 1995, pp. 54–55, 223; cat. no. 259.
18. Wescher 1951, p. 182; Godfrey 1978, p. 37.
19. Rorshach, Kimerly (1996). "Gravelot, Hubert-François". In Turner, Jane (ed.). The Dictionary of Art. Vol. 13. New York: Grove's Dictionaries. pp. 324–325. ISBN 1-884446-00-0. OCLC 1033667059 – via the Internet Archive.
20. Benard, Pierre Maurice (1810). Cabinet de M. Paignon Dijonval. Paris: De l'imprimerie de Madame Huzard. p. 274 – via Gallica: "7884. César detournant les yeux de dessus la tête de Pompée que lui présente un soldat: est. en h. Cl. Dubosc sc."{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
21. Blunt, Anthony (1966). The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin. A Critical Catalogue. London: Phaidon. p. 129, cat. no. 181. OCLC 1153562776 – via the Internet Archive.
22. Rosenberg, Pierre (1994). Nicolas Poussin, 1594–1665 (exhibition catalogue). Paris: Reunion des musees nationaux. pp. 290–291, under cat. no. 96. ISBN 2-7118-3027-6 – via the Internet Archive.
23. O'Donoghue, Freeman Marius (1908). Catalogue of engraved British portraits preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. Vol. 2. London: Trustees of the British Museum. p. 329. OCLC 1041770924 – via the Internet Archive.
24. Cust 1888, p. 80.
25. Vertue 1952, p. 35, cited in Bignamini 1988, pp. 53, 57 n. 25; Clayton 2004, p. 17.
26. "List of Books, &c. published May 1746". The British Magazine. May 1746. pp. 124–126 – via the Internet Archive, cited in Clayton 2004, p. 17: "…A Plan of the Dispofitions of both Armies in that ever memorable Battle and Defeat of the Rebels at Culloden. Du Bosc, 6 d."{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
27. Strutt 1785, p. 128.
28. Redgrave 1878, p. 131, cited in Treydel 2001, p. 79; Cust 1888, p. 80; Bryan 1903, p. 92.
29. Reproduced in Stein 1996, p. 428, fig. 14.
30. Clayton 2014, p. 141.
31. Clayton 1997, p. 70.
32. Reproduced in Clayton 1997, p. 92.
33. Listed as Roux & Pognon 1951, p. 361, cat. 7; reproduced in Rosenberg 1994, p. 291, fig. 96d.

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• 1680s births
• 1740s deaths
• 18th-century French engravers
• 18th-century French businesspeople
• English engravers