François Bernard LÉPICIÉ

(1698 – Paris – 1755)

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La Gouvernante - 1739

Etching and engraving on laid watermarked paper. After Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699 - Paris - 1779).

Size of sheet: 40.1 x 29 cm.

IFF 53; Bocher 24 (A).

A good impression with margins. Time-staining at edges.

François Bernard Lépicié : La Gouvernante [The Governess]

An engraving by Lépicié was announced in December 1739, only a few months after the picture was shown at the Salon.

There was a developing undercurrent of interest in genre themes both among the cultured bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. In Chardin’s case it was marked by an austerity in technique and content directly contrasting with François Boucher’s open eroticism. The prints engraved after his paintings facilitated his almost immediate popularity and led to wide-spread copying of his work.

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