François-Philippe Charpentier (1734-1817) , The Culbute. 1766. Etching, aquatint and wash after Fragonard. Printed in sepia. Nice proof on ivory laid paper. Signed in the plate lower right, 33 x 45,5 cm + frame, Inventor of the aquatint engraving imitating the wash, which earned him a place in the Louvre and a pension from the King. He used this process to reproduce Fragonard's brightly washed sepias, and no one was better at rendering the very appearance of these drawings. La Culbute, after this master, is an excellent specimen from this point of view. "(Portalis and Beraldi). Charpentier, appointed "King's mechanic", taught his technique to the abbé de Saint-Non and sold it to the comte de Caylus.