Gabriel de Saint-Aubin

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, also Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin, (Paris, 14 April 1724 - Paris, 14 February 1780) was a French draftsman, printmaker, etcher and painter.

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, "Self-portrait in a medallion"

A Street Show in Paris by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, National Gallery, 1760

Biography

Society Taking a Promenade (c. 1760–61)

His brothers Charles Germain de Saint Aubin and Augustin de Saint-Aubin were also artists, as was his niece, Marie-Françoise, daughter of Charles. He was a student of Étienne Jeaurat and Hyacinthe Collin de Vermont. After three failures to win a Prix de Rome from 1752 to 1754, he left the Académie des Beaux-Arts and joined the Guild of Saint Luke.

A distinctive aspect of Saint-Aubin's art is its inordinate fondness for observation of society on the streets of the capital, which he sketched scenes or entertainment in his wanderings. As such, his engravings etchings and large watercolors are a valuable record of the Parisian artistic life in the eighteenth century. Gallery

Baby Angels sketch perhaps for ceiling mural Saint-Aubin

References

• E. and J. de Goncourt, The Art of the eighteenth century, the Saint-Aubin
• Catalogue of rare and valuable books composing the library of Mr. Hippolyte Destailleur ... Paris: D. Morgand, 1891. 8 °, 448 p.

Further reading

• Liedtke, Walter A. (1984). Flemish paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0870993569. (see index, v.1).