Frédéric Chevalier (1812- 1850 ca.) - Vanité au scarabée

Rare allegorical engraving depicting a "vanitas", called "Vanitas dallo scarabeo" (Vanitas from the Scarab), a work by the French engraver Frédéric Chevalier, an artist about whom little is known except that he was born in Lyon in 1812 and was active in France in the first half of the 19th century. The date of his death is not known with precision either.
A specimen with very wide margins, on rag paper, in excellent condition (see photo)
In the bottom right-hand corner lies the signature "FRED CHE", below the image at the center "Imp. Ch. Delatre", a famous artistic printing workshop active in Paris in the 19th century.
Allegorical figure with butterfly wings and female body, in one hand a "scepter" with a skull, leaning on a shield with a large scarab; on the ground a stringed instrument, a book, a dagger and a talismanic object with a hand making the horns gesture, in the background a hill with two windmills.