Claude Gellée, dit le Lorrain, and Richard Earlom (engraver). Liber Veritatis... The first complete edition

CLAUDE GELLÉE, DIT LE LORRAIN, AND RICHARD EARLOM (ENGRAVER)

LIBER VERITATIS; OR, A COLLECTION OF TWO HUNDRED PRINTS, AFTER THE ORIGINAL DESIGNS OF CLAUDE LE LORRAIN IN THE COLLECTION OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE... LONDON: JOHN BOYDELL [VOLUMES I-II], AND THOMAS DAVISON FOR HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. [VOLUME III], 1777-1819

3 volumes, small folio (16 1/4 x 10 3/4 in.; 413 x 773 mm). 2 mezzotint portraits of Claude and Earlom, 1 stipple-engraved portrait of John Boydell, 300 etchings with mezzotint, all printed in bistre, all by Earlom after Claude. Expertly bound to style in half russia over period marbled paper covered boards.

"The first complete edition, with the engravings [sic.] in the best and final state, embodying the important drawings from the great English collections of the period" (Abbey)

"This capital work, a landmark in the history of the reproduction of master drawings, is ... an important forerunner of later publications on [Art Collections]... It contains 300 etchings of drawings by Claude Lorrain, pastoral, mythological, and biblical subjects, and was called Liber Veritatis [Book of Truth] for the purpose of identifying Claude's genuine works from forgeries, or from drawings wrongly attributed to the master. They are all printed in a warm bistre colour to aid the resemblance ... The catalogues in each volume give a comprehensive description of each drawing, indicating also for whom they were executed, which pictures were painted from them, and the ownership at the date of publication of the book—in short, a real catalogue raisonné" (Abbey).

REFERENCE:

Abbey, Life 200; Lowndes II:1398