[GALERIE DU PALAIS ROYAL]. Galerie du Palais Royal engraved - Lot 102

[GALERIE DU PALAIS ROYAL]. Galerie du Palais Royal engraved after the paintings of the different schools that compose it. Paris, J. Couché, J. Bouilliard, Laporte, H. Perronneau, 1786 [&] 1808. 3 volumes, large folio (55 x 35 cm), red half-maroquin with corners, smooth spine decorated, gilt title and tomaison on spines (binding worn, rubbing; small worm gallery on inner edge of plates on about 2/3 of volume 2.). One of the finest collections of paintings in Europe. Superb work adorned with three false titles, three engraved titles, a dedication to the Duc d'Orléans surmounted by his coat of arms engraved on copper by H. Guttenberg after P. Choffard, and 369 prints on 352 plates engraved on copper by Couché, Varin, Prévost, Malaleuvre after Vinci, Raphaël, Poussin, Carrache, Van Dyck, Rubens, Breughel, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, etc. With a historical note by Croze Magnan and a table listing the prints by school (Florentine, Roman, Lombard; Venetian, Neapolitan, Flemish; Dutch, German, French). Originally the home of Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642), the Palais Royal was given to Louis XIV in his will. He in turn gave it to his only brother, Philippe de France, Duc d'Orléans, known as Monsieur (1640-1701), who passed it on to his son Philippe de France, Duc d'Orléans, known as le Régent (1674-1723). With its 485 paintings, the Galerie du Palais Royal was considered one of the finest collections of paintings in Europe at the time of the Regent. Originally built up by Cardinal de Richelieu when he lived in the palace, it was regularly expanded by the Regent. On the death of the prince, his son Louis (1703-1752) destroyed or sold many of the paintings. The collection remained intact during his son's lifetime, and in 1785, M. Couché, engraver to the cabinet of the Duc d'Orléans, undertook to have it engraved. But in 1790, when almost all the drawings had been completed and thirty issues published, his grandson Louis-Philippe d'Orléans duc de Chartres, known as Philippe d'Orléans, sold all the paintings in the gallery. "This setback did not stop the publisher. Deliveries continued with reasonable accuracy until the disasters of the Revolution slowed down publication and even caused it to be suspended: but such an interesting work should not remain imperfect for long. A large number of subscribers having expressed the wish that it be taken up again and made up, Sieur Couche, who had taken the wise precaution of obtaining almost all the drawings after the main paintings in the gallery before they were dispersed, joined forces, in 1806, with Sieurs Laporte and Bouquet to bring to completion an undertaking that was as useful to the arts as it was pleasing to amateurs." (Croze-Magnan, Notice, p. 4). Details of plates on request. (Cohen, 259, erroneously indicates 355 plates, the work is complete with 352).