Eugène Patrin
(1742-1815)
Eugène Melchior Louis Patrin, French geologist and mineralogist, was born in Lyon, France in 1742. After completion of his schooling in Chemistry and Physics he spent ten years touring Germany, Hungary, Poland and Russia collecting minerals and building a personal mineral collection of around 2,000 specimens, the majority of which were said to be of great beauty. He later served as Librarian at the Paris School of Mines, making the acquaintance of the famous naturalist Georges Buffon, whom he impressed with his knowledge of mineralogy. Buffon engaged him to write the text for the mineralogy section (five volumes) of a massive Histoire Naturelle published in 1801.
All of the plates for Patrin's five mineralogy volumes were painted by the Parisian natural history artist and engraver Jacques-Eustache Deseve, with the help of engravers Gérard-René Le Villain (1740-ca.1810), Jean-Gabriel Caquet (1749-1802), J.-A. Pierron (ca.1760-ca.1820) and P. Jourdan. The plates are reproduced here from a copy in the Mineralogical Record Library. Deseve later executed many of the original paintings used to produce engravings for a massive book on zoology (the first ever to have color-printed plates) by François Dufart in 1806: Nouveau museum d'histoire naturelle, Tome premier. Regne animal. Deseve also worked with Buffon to illustrate other volumes of the great Histoire Naturelle, especially the volumes requiring animal illustrations.
W.E.W.
Reference:
Michaud, J. F. (Ed.)(1854) Biographie Universelle, Ancienne et Moderne. Paris.
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Click on thumbnail picture to see larger image.
Number of artworks found: 16 | Artworks being viewed: 9 to 16
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Calcite in Hexagonal Prisms from the Harz Mountains, Germany
Hand-colored engraving, highlighted with silver paint which is now tarnished (1801), 4 inches, painted by Jacques Deseve and engraved by Gérard-René Le Villain , probably from a specimen in the collection of Eugène Patrin; published in Patrin's Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux. |
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Aragonite from Aragon, Spain
Hand-colored engraving (1801), 4 inches, painted by Jacques Deseve and engraved by J.-A. Pierron, from specimens in the collection of Claude Lelievre; published in Patrin's Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux. |
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Calcite from the Dauria Region, Russia
Hand-colored engraving, highlighted with metallic gold paint (1801), 2.5 inches, painted by Jacques Deseve and engraved by P. Jourdan, probably from a specimen in the collection of Eugène Patrin; published in Patrin's Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux. |
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Fluorite on Quartz (locality unspecified)
Hand-colored engraving (1801), 2.5 inches, painted by Jacques Deseve and engraved by Gérard-René Le Villain , from a specimen in the collection of Alexandre Besson; published in Patrin's Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux. |
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"Sand Calcite" Crystals from Fontainbleau, France
Uncolored engraving (1801), 4 inches, drawn by Jacques Deseve and engraved by P. Jourdan, probably from a specimen in the collection of Eugène Patrin; published in Patrin's Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux. |
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Dendritic Native Bismuth in Limonite from Schneeberg, Saxony
Hand-colored engraving, highlighted with silver paint which is now tarnished (1801),4 inches, painted by Jacques Deseve and engraved by P. Jourdan, from a specimen in the collection of Alexandre Besson; published in Patrin's Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux. |
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Native Copper on Matrix from Siberia
Hand-colored engraving, highlighted with metallic gold paint (1801), 4 inches, painted by Jacques Deseve and engraved by Gérard-René Le Villain , probably from a specimen in the collection of Eugène Patrin; published in Patrin's Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux. |
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Dendritic Native Silver in Agate from Peru
Hand-colored engraving, highlighted with silver paint which is now tarnished (1801), 4 inches, painted by Jacques Deseve and engraved by P. Jourdan, from a specimen in the collection of Claude Lelievre; published in Patrin's Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux. |
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