Jean-Baptiste Lucien (French, c. 1748-1806)
after Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725-1805)
published by François Étienne Joubert (French, 1787-1836)
Head of a Young Woman Asleep
INV-1090
Jean-Baptiste Lucien (French, c. 1748-1806)
after Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725-1805)
published by François Étienne Joubert (French, 1787-1836)1787/95
Head of a Young Woman Asleep
Jean-Baptiste Lucien (French, c. 1748-1806) after Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725-1805) published by François Étienne Joubert (French, 1787-1836) →engravingprint
Date
1787/95
Medium
Crayon-manner engraving in red-brown on ivory wove China paper with a laid pattern
Dimensions
Image: 31.5 × 35.1 cm (12 7/16 × 13 7/8 in.); Plate: 35.7 × 35.8 cm (14 1/16 × 14 1/8 in.); Sheet: 38 × 38.1 cm (15 × 15 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections
Framed drawings came into vogue in 18th-century France during the Regency era of interior decoration. Their popularity spawned innovations in printmaking, unrivaled in technical sophistication, to create both original and reproductive prints that looked like drawings and satisfied the needs of the market. Roulettes and mattoirs, handheld tools with a cluster of fine-toothed ends, were devised to punch notches in metal plates so that, when inked and printed, the marks imitated the look of crumbly chalk on textured paper. Here, Jean-Baptiste Lucien used a red-brown ink to closely resemble the sanguine crayon used by Jean-Baptiste Greuze.