Claude Du Bosc

Nothing known of Du Bosc's early life and work; it has been usually thought that Du Bosc was born in France c. 1682,[1] and was likely a pupil of Bernard Picart.[4] The earliest secure mentions of Du Bosc date to c. 1712–1713, when he produced engravings for Gaspard Duchange's 1714 publication of Recueil de cent estampes représentant différentes nations du Levant;[5] at the same time, Du Bosc was also an assistant of Picart in engraving a set of The Labours of Hercules after Louis Chéron.[6] Later c. 1712,[7] he moved to England with Charles Dupuis[lower-alpha 1] to assist Nicholas Dorigny in engraving the Raphael Cartoons at Hampton Court, where he lived for some time.[10] Before the work was half complete, Du Bosc and Dupuis fell out with Dorigny; Dupuis returned to Paris, and Du Bosc set up as an engraver on his own account. He prepared a set of engravings done by himself from the cartoons, but Dorigny's engravings, being superior, held the day.[11]

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.[12] He sent to Paris for two more engravers, Bernard Baron and Beauvais, to assist him on the work, which was completed in 1717.[13]

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.[14] From Vertue's notebooks, it is known that in c. 1726, Du Bosc also sat for another portrait, painted by John Smibert.[15]

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.[16][17]^: 324 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,[18][19] after Poussin; The Temple of Solomon, after Parmentière; a portrait of Bonaventura Giffard,[20] and numerous book illustrations, including numerous plates for Rapin's History of England (1743).[14] By 1743, Du Bosc was said by Vertue to be an associate of the Rose and Crown Club;[21] 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.[22]^: 126

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";[23] Strutt's point has been long reiterated.[24]