Bernard Picart or Picard (11 June 1673 – 8 May 1733), was a French draughtsman, engraver, and book illustrator in Amsterdam, who showed an interest in cultural and religious habits.
Life
Picart was born in rue Saint-Jacques, Paris as son of Etienne Picart, a famous engraver. In 1689, he studied drawing and architecture at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. He was taught by Charles le Brun, along with Benoît Audran the Elder, Sébastien Leclerc and Antoine Coypel. In 1696 he wintered in Antwerp, where he was well-received. He stayed in Amsterdam for more than a year and had commissions before returning to France at the end of 1698. He took over his father's workshop. After his wife, Cloudina Pros, the daughter of a bookseller, and their children died, he settled in The Hague together with Prosper Marchand in January 1710. There Picart, Marchand and Charles Levier belonged to a "radical Huguenot coterie", who studied the works of John Locke, which promoted the separation of church and state. They joined the Walloon church but were influenced by Jean Claude and Pierre Bayle who both fled to the Dutch Republic in earlier years. Picart accepted a commission to draw prints for the Bible. He and Marchand moved to Amsterdam in 1711 (later being joined by his father Étienne Picart (le Romain).
In April 1712 he married Anna Vincent (1684–1736) in Haarlem, the marriage was assisted by her father Ysbrand Vincent (1642–1718) who had initially disagreed with the marriage. Ysbrand was a rich paper seller, who moved to France but fled in 1686. From 1702 on, he was editor of playwrights written by himself or the other members of Nil volentibus arduum. Levinus Vincent became his uncle, a Mennonite who owned a cabinet of curiosities in Haarlem. Picart moved in with his father-in-law and designed several book frontispieces. In May 1713 the couple had male twins, who both died within a few weeks; he portrayed them both. Picart became a citizen, joined the guild and published a book about his teacher Charles Le Brun. His three daughters were baptized in Westerkerk. Picart may have had a better understanding of the Dutch language.
In 1711 he collaborated with Cornelis de Bruyn on the frontispiece of Reizen over Moskovie, door Persie en Indie, published in 1718 as Voyages de Corneille le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Occidentales. In 1724, he worked with Philipp von Stosch, a Prussian antiquarian, whose Gemmæ Antiquæ Cælatæ (Pierres antiques graveés), Picart's engravings reproduced 70 antique carved hardstones such as onyx, jasper and carnelian from European collections, a volume of inestimable value to antiquarians and historians. His most famous work is Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, appearing from 1723 to 1743 and in collaboration with Jean Frédéric Bernard, a successful author and publisher who promoted religious tolerance and gallicanism. Between 1733–1736 Bernard published a book about superstition with engravings by Picart. Because of the many prints it also seems he sympathized with Jansenists, the Armenian Apostolic Church and Collegiants. In 1728 Les Césars de l'empereur Julien, traduits du grec par feu Mr. le Baron de Spanheim, avec des remarques & des preuves, enrichies de plus de 300 médailles, & autres anciens monumens, gravés par Bernard Picart le Romain was published. In 1729 he collaborated with Louis Fabricius Dubourg.