Gabriel Huquier

Who was Gabriel Huquier?

The entrepreneurial printseller Gabriel Huquier, established in rue Saint-Jacques, Paris, was a prominent engraver and designer of ornament in an advanced Rococo taste, a pivotal figure in the production of French 18th-century ornamental etchings and engravings who was himself a collector of works of art, whose collections were dispersed at three great auction sales, in Amsterdam, 1761, in Paris, 1771, and after his death, in Paris, 1772. He was working from about 1731 until his apparent retirement in 1761. He engraved Watteau's designs, interpreting and adapting them so that he became the main source through whom Watteau's ornament was known in the 18th century and went on to etch and engrave designs of Jacques de Lajoue, François Boucher, Gilles-Marie Oppenord, Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, Alexis Peyrotte, Nicolas Pineau and many other contemporary painters and designers.