Sheet of Sketches, from "Livre d’étude d’après les desseins originaux de Blomart" (1735, Met-Objekt 6476)
Original title: Sheet of Sketches, from "Livre d’étude d’après les desseins originaux de Blomart"
kurzbeschreibung
François Boucher made this sheet of sketches in 1735 as an etching for the 'Livre d'étude d'après les desseins originaux de Blomart'. It belongs to a set of prints after designs by the little-known Blomart and presents a figure scene in a garden, drawn out in Boucher's elegant, flowing line.
Description
On the left a woman sits in loose, billowing drapery, reading or writing in a book. Facing her stands a man with a basket, bending down as if to pick something up or look at it more closely. Shrubs and plants frame the pair and suggest a natural setting. Gradations of black and white and fine hatching bring out the fabric of the clothing and the movement of arms and legs. The layout is deliberately uneven: the seated woman on the left, the standing man on the right.
Context
The sheet came out of a series of etchings Boucher made after drawings by Blomart, an artist about whom very little has come down to us. Around this time Boucher was turning more and more to printmaking and was already known for his graceful rural scenes. The series was probably meant as study material for draughtsmen and art lovers.
Impact
A quiet, everyday mood comes across, carried by the relaxed posture of the figures and the natural surroundings. Delicate lines and soft shading lend the scene lightness and grace.
Technique
For this etching the drawing was bitten into a copper plate and then printed. Boucher worked with thin lines and hatching to create depth and surface texture, as was usual in eighteenth-century printmaking. The image measures 14.1 x 20.4 cm, the sheet 14.8 x 20.5 cm.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)