Portrait of Henri-Montan Berton

Unknown (French)

Dumont, François (1751-1831) (after a work of)

Item type:

print

Date of creation:

1807–1809

Technique / Medium:

engraving

Place of creation:

France

Description

Portrait of the French composer Henri-Montan Berton (1767–1844). The print is signed “St. Aubin sculp.t”, whereas virtually all of Saint-Aubin’s other portraits are inscribed “Aug. de St. Aubin”. It is listed in Bocher (no. 356), who says of it, “We are not convinced that this print is by Saint-Aubin, but we cannot prove that it is not.” On stylistic grounds alone it can probably be dismissed. Finally, the print itself contains evidence that it was only published in 1809, two years after Saint-Aubin’s death. Bocher lists six states of the print. The first state is unfinished, and before all letters. In the second state, an outer frame has been added around the portrait, presumably by another hand, consisting of thirty-six medallions, each medallion containing the name of one of Berton’s works, except for the medallions along the bottom of the frame, which are left blank. Two of the operas listed in this second state, Ninon and Françoise de Foix, were first performed in 1808 and 1809, respectively. In the third state all of the medallions along the bottom of the frame except for one have been filled in with the names of further works, including three that were published or first performed between 1813 and 1817. Thus, the portrait can be by Saint-Aubin only if he engraved it toward the end of his life, and the publisher waited at least two years to have the outer frame added and offer the print for sale.

The text under the portrait reads:
Tour à tour gracieux, doux, sublime, hardi, /
Il n'est pas de succès que son talent n'obtienne. /
Il a pris pour modèle et Gluck et Sacchini /
Instruit à leur école il a crée la sienne. /
Villiers

People as subjects

Berton, Henri-Montan (1767-1844) (Composer portrait)

Iconclass

48C713
portrait of composer

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Lyre guitar [3247]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 3

Bibliographic references

Bocher, Emmanuel. Les graveurs français du XVIIIe siècle, ou catalogue raisonné des estampes, eaux-fortes, pièces en couleur, au bistre et au lavis, de 1700 à 1800 (Paris: Librairie des bibliophiles, 1875–1882) fasc. 5, no. 356.

Portalis, Roger & Béraldi, Henri. Les graveurs du dix-huitième siècle (Paris: Morgand et Fatout, 1800–1882) 43.

Bergquist, Stephen A. "The musical portraits of Augustin de Saint-Aubin", Music in Art XLII/1–2 (2017) fig. 9.

Taïeb, Patrick. "Berton, Henri Montan", in: MGG Online, hrsg. von Laurenz Lütteken, Kassel, Stuttgart, New York: 2016ff., zuerst veröffentlicht 1999, online veröffentlicht 2016, https://www.mgg-online.com/article?id=mgg01472&v=1.0&rs=id-a557ab94-9405-b975-54b7-3e2add3887bf

RIdIM record id

5020