François-Roland Elluin

François-Roland Elluin , born with Abbeville the May 5th 1745 and died in Paris towards 1810, is a French, manifestly known engraver for its illustrations of erotic works.

Its life and its work

Wire of merchant, it settles in Paris, where it remains in his relative the engraver Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet of which he becomes the pupil. It produced there some prints known as “serious” according to François Butcher, Luca Giordano, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, then, introduced into the gallant mediums, it makes many portraits of actors and actresses. It joins then the merchant-bookseller Hubert Martin Cazin and the vignettist Antoine Borel to devote itself to the engraving of licencieux subjects.

Elluin thus carries out series of illustrations for the Temptation of Saint Antoine of Michel-Jean Sedaine, the Histoire of Dom Bougre of Jean-Charles Gervaise de Latouche, Arétin French of François-Felix Nogaret, Félicia, or My fredaines of Andréa de Nerciat, Parapilla of Charles Borde, the Foutro-mania of Gabriel Sénac de Meilhan, the Academy of the ladies of Nicolas Chorier, the Prostitute, or Memories of Miss Fanny of John Cleland, like for Cantiques and pot-rotted and Therese philosophize .

“One cannot refuse with the works illustrated by Borel and Elluin a certain value”, write Roger Portalis and Henri Béraldi, while estimating that “the key of Elluin is heavy, without spirit”. These two historians of art in addition judge its portraits “without much skill nor artistic value” and conclude: “Elluin, all in all, except in some of its erotic labels to which it particularly applied, as with a work which it liked, was only one extremely ordinary engraver. ”

Two portraits

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