Berain. Dessinateur du Roi Soleil

Paris: Herscher, 1986.

Folio. Hardback with the pictorial dust-jacket. 160 pages; richly illustrated including many full page illusts. Text in French. A Fine copy. Jean Berain (1640–1711 was a draughtsman and designer, painter and engraver of ornament. The artistic force in the Royal office of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, his inspiration lay behind the designs originated for court spectacles, from fêtes to funerals, and many designs for furnishings not covered by the Bâtiments du Roi. The "Berainesque" style of light arabesques and playful grotesques was an essential element in the style Régence that led to the French Rocaille and European Rococo.