Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780), The Lesson of the Chemist Sage at the Hôtel des Monnaies, 1779
, Black chalk with some stumping and graphite, point of brush and brown ink, gray wash, some bodycolor, Purchased on the Sunny Crawford von Bülow Fund 1978
, 1991.4
On 11 June 1778, Balthasar Georges Sage (1740–1824) was appointed to the newly created chair of domestic mineralogy and metallurgy at the Hôtel des Monnaies. The hôtel, established at the beginning of the fourteenth century, was ordered demolished in 1768 by Louis XV, who that year commissioned Jacques-Denis Antoine to design a new building, which was completed in 1777. The new hôtel attracted the attention of many artists because of the "harmonie des proportions et la magnificence de l'ensemble." This is one of three known drawings by Saint-Aubin recording Sage's lectures and demonstrations.