Pierre-Alexandre Aveline

(b Paris, 1702; d 1760). Son of (1) Pierre Aveline (i). He was a student of Jean-Baptiste de Poilly. His oeuvre consists of 123 prints, most of them published by Gabriel Huquier. He worked with the burin on a previously etched base; usually he signed himself P. AVELINE, but he used the monogram P.A. on small-scale works. He was well known but, according to Michael Huber's Notices des graveurs divis?s par nations ... (Dresden and Leipzig, 1787), could have enjoyed a greater reputation if he had not 'spent part of his life in engraving merely sketches, and if he had been more discerning in his choice of subjects'. In 1737 he was approved (agr??) by the Acad?mie Royale but was struck off in 1742, not having finished the portraits of Louis Galloche and Jean-Fran?ois De Troy that had been set as his morceaux de r?ception. In 1753 he was once more approved but was never received (re?u) as an academician. He engraved many compositions after Fran?ois Boucher, such as the Bird-snare (Roux, no. 35), the Good Fortune (R 34) and Venus and Cupid (R 90), and he finished the Andromeda that Boucher had begun. He also reproduced some of Charles-Joseph Natoire's paintings, including the Four Elements (R 64-5), and engraved the Anatomies and a Livre d'enfants (R 40-45) after Edme Bouchardon. He is best known for his reproductions of works by Antoine Watteau, including L'Amante inqui?te (R 5), the R?cr?ation italienne (R 16), the Rape of Europa (R 8) and especially L'Enseigne de Gersaint (R 14). He also supplied portraits, illustrations and many ornaments for books. He participated in two great printmaking enterprises: the engraving of Charles Le Brun's Galerie de Versailles (R 98-101) after designs by Jean-Baptiste Mass?, and the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1755-9) after Jean-Baptiste Oudry.

Part of the Aveline family

See the Abbreviations for further details.