Sandra Petch (asker) Sep 8, 2021:

Misprint Here is the reply from the curator:
Concernant l’indication « inventeur », il s’agit en effet d’une erreur.
Le mot « inventeur » est à remplacer par « dessinateur ».

Sandra Petch (asker) Sep 7, 2021:

I've asked the client for info and will keep you posted.
Other entries refer to "dessinateur" and "graveur". It'll be interesting to find out why these particular ones are different.

Mpoma Sep 7, 2021:

Multiple meanings Although I've no doubt that Helen's answer is the right one here, I originally put another, based on an entry in TLFi:

"Domaine de l'art. C'est une qualité rare chez les peintres que l'invention (...). Comme si l'imagination était une faculté plutôt septentrionale et germanique, il n'y a eu guère d'inventeurs puissants qu'Albert Dürer et Rembrandt (Ch. BLANC, Gramm. arts dessin, 1876, p. 495)".
[NB a rather odd use of "guère ... que"? alternatively a word is missing before "puissants": "aussi" or "plus"].

In fact this TLFi entry continues: "Les grands inventeurs en musique donnent un corps à la sensibilité inquiète qui se cherche et s'ignore (SUARÈS, Debussy, 1936, p. 95) :
2. Ainsi donc, dans les arts l'inventeur est celui
Qui peint ce que chacun put sentir comme lui;
Qui, fouillant des objets les plus sombres retraites,
Étale et fait briller leurs richesses secrètes...
CHÉNIER, Invention, 1794, p. 13."

In a more general sense in art the word is probably "inventor" or possibly "innovator". "Innovator" would certainly apply quite nicely to Dürer and Rembrandt, I think.

It'd be nice to know whether modern French art writers still use the word like this.

Helen Shiner Sep 6, 2021:

@Lisa in which case they would be listed as both original artist and engraver or whatever.

Lisa Rosengard Sep 6, 2021:

The person could be an innovator and a print-maker.

Helen Shiner Sep 6, 2021:

Prints The problem with using the term ‘artist’ is that there may be two involved if this is about prints copied as lithographs or whatever from original paintings. Very frequently people would specialise in this type of work and they may well be anonymous unfortunately. So maybe ‘original artist’ should be used alongside ‘engraver’, ‘lithographer’ or appropriate other term.