The rape of the Tanagran women by Triton, Apollo in his chariot in the background (recto); Figure studies (verso)

Although Brébiette has recently been re-discovered as a painter, he is mainly known as an printmaker and draughtsman. He engraved almost 300 plates, and his drawings are today better known thanks to Jacques Thuiller's article 'Pierre Brébiette dessinateur' in Hommage au dessin, Rimini, 1996, pp. 275-323, fig. 1-54. Pierre-Jean Mariette described him in his Abécédario as '[il] trouvait plus de facilité à dessiner qu'à peindre, sa vie se passa presque toute entière à faire des desseins qu'il grava lui-même à l'eau forte ou furent gravé par d'autres' (quoted in E. Brugerolles, Le dessin en France au XVIIe siècle, exhib. cat., Paris, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, 2001, no. 18). Mariette added, concerning Brébiette's character, that he was 'un homme de bonne compagnie et qui inspiroit la joie dans les sociétés où il se trouvait, et la mort, qui le surprit dans la fleur de l'âge, le fit regretter de ses amis, quoique quelquefois on eût à essuyer de sa part de l'humeur et un peu de bizarrerie'. Brébiette lived in Rome from 1616 to 1625 and travelled a few times to Venice.
Drawings by Brébiette are today rare, as a great number of them were burnt on 30 August 1730 with the collection of the furniture-maker Charles-André Boulle. Brébiette specialized in light mythological subjects from obscure sources, sometimes even invented. A small list of Brébiette's subjects will suffice to show the extent of his originality: The Sacrifice of Virginity, The Banquet of Psyche, The Sacrifice to Pan, Love victor of the Gods, The Victims of Love, The Triumph of Love, Love resting, etc... The present drawing possibly depicts the Tanagrans, inhabitants of Boeotia. They probably considered Triton as one of the many minor sea-gods but saw him as a menace, as he was constantly harrassing their women when they bathed in the sea in preparation to make offerings to Dionysus.