PÉRELLE, Gabriel

French printmaker. He studied drawing with Daniel Rabel and started making etchings in 1635; his first plates, somewhat dry in style, showed the influence of the Flemish landscape artists Paul Bril and Roelandt Savery. From c. 1645 until 1657 he worked on plates of Les Glorieuses Conquètes de Louis Le Grand, for the collection known as the Petit Beaulieu; he was granted the titles of Ingénieur du Roi and Graveur du Roi. About 1655 his work began to evolve towards depicting nature in a more dramatic aspect, animated by waterfalls and buildings, in the style of Gaspard Dughet. From 1660 onwards the contrast of light and shade in his prints gave way to an emphasis on restless foliage and heavy skies and a greater use of stippling.

He made prints after Jacques Fouquier, Pierre Patel, Laurent de La Hyre and Bril, but principally from his own drawings: many landscapes, seaports and pastoral scenes, generally drawn from imagination, with some monotony in the depiction of scenery. His work is often confused with that of his sons and pupils Adrien and Adam Pérelle, with whom he engraved the collections Les Vues et monuments de Paris, Les Délices de Paris et des environs and Les Délices de Versailles et des maisons royales. Gabriel Pérelle gave up printmaking c. 1665 and turned instead to drawing maps and plans for the King.