Pierre Eskrich
Paris, about 1530 - after 1590
LC Heading: Eskrich, Pierre, approximately 1530-approximately 1590
Biography:
Pierre was the son of Jacob Eskrich, a native of Freiburg-im-Brisgau and engraver who worked in Paris in the first quarter of the 16th century and whose real name seems to have been Krug ('jug' in German, hence his nickname). Pierre Eskrich must have arrived in Lyons in about 1548. In 1552, he was in Geneva, being granted the right to live there in 1552 and becoming a burgher in 1560. In 1562, he was living in great poverty and seeking assistance. In 1564, he made a plan or view of Geneva for Admiral de Coligny, and was invited to Lyons for a month by the Consulate to work on 'certain portraits and models' on the occasion of the entry of the king there. In 1565, he made Lyons his permanent home, describing himself in 1572 as 'painter and embroiderer to Monseigneur de Mandelot, the king's governor in Lyons'. In 1574, he painted the ship that was to bring Henri III home from Poland. He was still living in Lyons in 1590. His work is only known today because of a few woodcuts signed with one version of his name: The Promised Land (of Canaan), a map with a cartouche and figures, signed Faciebat Peyrus Eskricheus. Lugduni 1566, published, as were the two following works, in Honorati's Bible (Lyons 1585). These were: The Land of Canaan Divided Between the Twelve Tribes of Israel, signed Faciebat Petrus Eskrichius, 1566; The Israelites in the Desert, signed P. Eskricheus inventor. Other works are: Plan of the Town and Suburbs of Paris, signed Cruche ('Jug'), a copy of an anonymous plan dated 1551 which appeared in B. Arnouller's Premier livre des figures... des villes of 1552; Monument with Wooden Front Used as a Pyre for an Emperor's Funeral, signed Cruche in C. Guichard's Funérailles... et manière d'ensevelir des Romains published by J. de Tournes of Lyons in 1581. It is also known, through archive documents, that Eskrich made the 16 plates of the New Papal Map of the World which was published in Geneva in 1566. Attributed to Eskrich are a later and rather different series of prints and, more certainly, the decorative engraved frames signed P. V. (Pierre Vase) in Emblemata A. Alciali and French and Latin Hours, both printed in Lyons in 1549 by Maci Bonhomme for G. Bovlile, as well as other works. It has been established that Eskrich is the anonymous artist known as Master P.V., also called Jean Monni. The woodcuts mentioned earlier, very different in style and execution, cannot be by the same hand, and although Eskrich is described as a 'carver of histories', this does not prove that he actually engraved. Perhaps he drew and signed, as the artist, the pieces that bear his name. However, it can be said that Eskrich was an illustrator working in Geneva and Lyons, that he drew with care, with a flexible and natural line, and that he was a minor artist, lacking personality and elegance but well able to imitate or copy contemporary masters
("ESKRICH, Pierre." Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed April 5, 2016, http://proxy.bostonathenae)
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