Pautre, Jean

(1618 - 1682)

Jean le Pautre (1618-1682), French designer and engraver. He was apprenticed to a carpenter and builder and in addition to learning mechanical and constructive work developed considerable facility with the pencil. His designs, which were innumerable in quantity and exuberant in fancy, consisted mainly of ceilings, friezes, chimney-pieces, doorways and mural decorations; he also devised fire-dogs, sideboards, cabinets, console tables, mirrors and other pieces of furniture; he was long employed at the Gobelins. His work is often excessively flamboyant and over-elaborate; he revelled in amorini and swags, arabesques and cartouches. His chimney-pieces, however, were frequently simple and elegant. His engraved plates, almost entirely original, are something like 1500 in number and include a portrait of himself. He became a member of the academy of Paris in 1677.