Quand l'Hymen dort, l'Amour veille

Book Description

Paris: Chez Vidal, Graveur, Rue de la Harpe, No. 181, circa 1760. Colour- printed stipple engraving. In excellent condition. Image size: 13 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches. 15 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches. 16 1/16 x 18 3/4 inches. A magnificent impression of this breathtaking colour-printed genre print, exhibiting the best of French Rococo art. Genre painting came back into favour when the Academy admitted Watteau's "The Pilgrimage to Cythera" to its ranks in 1717. From that point on a fashion for decorative genre subjects swept the country influencing an entire generation of French artists. This craze did not subside until after the onset of the Revolution when, the frivolous tastes of the aristocratic elite were dispelled and a more sober era descended upon French art. This spectacular print by Mauclerc after Challe epitomizes the grand era of French Rococo art, and is a wonderful example of French colour printing. The scene depicts an elegantly dressed lady sitting indiscreetly on the lap of her sleeping gallant. She surreptitiously deposits a love letter into the quiver of a statue of Cupid, while from behind a tree her lover peers in excited expectation. This impression is a lovely example of early colour printing, which was developed as a means of reproducing the effects of painting in oils. This spectacular print exemplifies the single plate colour printing technique used in England, then adopted in France, at the close of the eighteenth century. The effect is achieved by inking a single plate with several different colours by using a rag stump, this process is known as "a la poupée". The outcome achieved by this laborious method of inking has a wonderful painterly effect and creates a delicacy of image which is charming to behold. Nevill, French Prints of the Eighteenth Century p. 121

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