Samuel Bernard (artist)

"Samuel-Jacques Bernard" redirects here. For his grandson, see Samuel-Jacques Bernard (1686-1753).

Samuel Bernard, also known as Jacques-Samuel Bernard^[1] was a French miniature painter and engraver.

Portrait by Louis Ferdinand Elle the Elder, 1681

Life

Born to a Protestant family in Paris in 1615,^[2] he was the son of Noel Bernard, a painter. He was a pupil of both Simon Vouet and of Louis du Guernier, and began his artistic career painting frescos. Bernard moved on to painting miniatures before finally devoting himself entirely to engraving.^[3] Some still lifes, painted in the early 1660s, are also known.^[2]

He joined the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture on its foundation in 1648 and became a professor there in 1655. He was expelled on religious grounds in 1681, but restored to his post following his recantation of Protestantism four years later.^[2]

He died in Paris in 1687.^[3] The financier Samuel Bernard was his son.^[2]

Works

He engraved plates, both in line and in mezzotint. They include:^[3]

Line engravings

• Charles Louis, Duke of Bavaria; after van Dyck.
• Louis du Guernier, miniature painter.
• Philip, Count of Bethune.
• Anne Tristan de la Beaume de Luze, Archbishop of Paris; after De Troy.
• The Apparition of St. Peter and St. Paul to Attila; after Raphael. His best work.
• The Young Astyanax discovered by Ulysses in the Tomb of Hector; after Bourdon.
• The Crucifixion; after Ph. de Champagne.
• The Virgin Mary, with the dead Christ; after the same.
• The Ascension; after the same.
• An allegorical subject of Concord.
• The Flight into Egypt; after Guido.

Mezzotints

• The Portrait of Louis XIV; oval.
• Sebastian, le Prestre de Vauban; after F. de Troy.
• The Nativity; after Rembrandt.
• A Herdsman driving Cattle.
• An Ox Market; after B. Castiglione.
• The Kepose; called La Zingara; after Correggio.