Lot 276: STUDIO OF JEAN BERAIN I (1640-1711)

Design for a costume, possibly for the Carrousels of King Louis XIV, pen and brown ink, grey wash, over an etched outline-- 91/2 x 71/2in. (24 x 19cm.); and a group of six fashion plates See illustration (7) NOTES Jean Berain, architect, stage designer and engraver, was appointed dessinateur de la chambre et du cabinet du roi to King Louis XIV in 1674. In this capacity he designed the costumes and sets for the King's pageants, most notably the Carrousel decreed for the coming of age of the Dauphin in 1685. The Carrousel, a revival of the art of mediaeval tournaments intended to display the grandeur of the court and cement the position of the Dauphin as heir to the throne, consisted of gorgeously decorated tableaux de fˆte galantes with the competing factions dressed in elaborate costumes, all designed by Berain. The present sheet is almost certainly one of a series of of souvenirs of these costumes drawn over a standard engraved figure, produced in Berain's studio after the event. Another costume, apparently drawn over the same enraving, was in the Houthakker colection, Amsterdam, P. Fuhring, Design into art, Drawings for Architecture and Ornament, The Lodewijk Houthakker Collection, London, 1989, nos. 664, sold at Sotheby's, 13 April 1992, Lot 107.