Sébastien Barras, a painter and engraver

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

, was born at Aix, in Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

, in 1653. He was a pupil of Boyer d'Aguilles

Jean-Baptiste Boyer d’Éguilles

Jean-Baptiste Boyer, Marquis d’Éguilles, a French nobleman, was born at Aix, in Provence, in 1650, and was procurator-general of the parliament of that town...

, and studied for some time in Rome. He died at Aix in 1703. The first edition of the Boyer d'Aguilles Collection, published in 1709, contained twenty-seven plates in
mezzotint

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

, scraped by this master; they were replaced in the second edition by plates engraved by Coelemans. The former have become very scarce. He also engraved a portrait of Lazarus Maharkysus, a physician of Antwerp, after Van Dyck

Anthony van Dyck

Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...

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