Saint-Aubin, Gabriel-Jacques de

Saint-Aubin, Gabriel-Jacques de (b Paris, 14 Apr. 1724; d Paris, 14 Feb. 1780).
French draughtsman, etcher, and painter, the best-known member of a family of artists. He drew incessantly (Greuze spoke of his ‘priapism of draughtsmanship’) and his work forms a lively record of various aspects of the Paris of his time. Throughout his career he regularly went to art sales (as well as the Salon) and he embellished his copies of the catalogues with small drawings of the works of art and of the passing scene. A number of these catalogues survive (mainly in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) and they form a valuable resource for the art historian. Saint-Aubin's relatively rare paintings are as spirited as his drawings (A Street Show in Paris, 1760, NG, London). Among the other members of the family was his brother Augustin (1736–1807); he was a draughtsman of considerable charm but is best known for his large output of engravings after Boucher, Fragonard, and others.