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LOUIS-MARIN BONNET
French, 1736-1793
after Francois Boucher, French, 1703-1770
Head of Flora (Tête de Flore), 1769
Pastel-manner etching and engraving printed in color from seven plates.
15 3/4 x 12 1/2 in. (40 x 32 cm)
Gift of Nathaniel Donson. 87.75
The son of a Parisian stocking manufacturer, Bonnet trained with the
engravers Louis-Claude LeGrand and Jean-Charles François, the latter
the inventor of the chalk-manner technique of printmaking. Erroneously referred
to as engravings, chalk-, crayon- or pastel-manner prints are actually etchings
made with a metal wheel called a roulette with a random pattern of variously
sized points that was rolled over a plate coated with a protective wax ground.
When the plate was etched in acid, the resulting pattern of dots provided
a passable approximation of the original chalk drawing.
Bonnet's prints made in this way became immensely popular with collectors
seeking images that imitated the subtle blend of colors epitomized by the
drawings of Watteau, Boucher, and their contemporaries. During the late
1770s and 1780s, Bonnet's success as a color printmaker was unrivaled; he
counted among his patrons the wealthiest Parisian collectors of the time,
and at his death he was able to leave behind a sizable estate despite the
changing tastes brought on by the Revolution.
This portrait, once thought to be a likeness of Madame de Pompadour but
now known as an image of Boucher's seventeen-year-old daughter Marie-Emilie,
is one of the greatest achievements in French eighteenth-century color printmaking.
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