Woman Sealing a Letter

Étienne Fessard, a French engraver, was born in Paris in 1714. He was a pupil of Edme Jeaurat, and proved an artist of sufficient merit to be accepted for candidacy (agréé) at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (1753). A protegé of le comte de Caylus, whom he may have assisted in the development of skill in etching, Fessard received the appointment Engraver of the King's Library in 1756, with responsibility for the engravings of the royal collection of paintings and drawings, as a result of Caylus' influence. On his death in 1777, the position was given to his student Augustin de Saint-Aubin. Fessard executed a considerable number of plates, but his efforts to resume the engraving of the King's paintings did not obtain the support of the Académie royale and resulted in only two plates: "Feste Flamande" after Rubens and "L'Empire de Flore" after Poussin.