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![Histoire naturelle choix de dessíns : [manuscript] / par Meunier, J.G. Pretre & Vaillant](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Frail.huntington.org%2FIIIF3%2FImage%2F22APN4TOOQQ5%2Ffull%2F%5E360%2C%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=750&q=75)
Manuscripts
Approximately 1,078 drawings by three artists on 204 parchment leaves. Title page is drawn in red and blue letters within a painted border of butterflies on a gold ground. The first 2 and final 2 leaves are blank. The drawings represent a range of natural subjects: Insects such as butterflies, moths, beetles, flies and wasps; shells; sea life including fish, crustaceans, sharks, anemones and sea stars. Also includes studies of small mammals and reptiles. The drawings have been executed in what is known as "bodycolor," in opaque water-soluable pigments. Drawings such as these are often loosely termed "watercolors," but they are really a combination of transparent and opaque pigments, over a graphite underdrawing. The drawings are signed variously "Meunier", "J.G. Pretre" and "Vaillant". Some of the Meunier drawings are dated 1820 or 1821, some signed "Vaillant" are dated 1839. The artists have been tentatively identified as Jean Gabriel Prêtre (1768-1849) and Antoine Jean Baptist Vaillant (1817-1852). Meunier may be related to Jean Baptist Meunier (1821-1900) an illustrator, but has not been identified.
mssHM 1552