Fountain with Two Tritons Blowing Conch Shells
Details
- Author / creator
- François Boucher (French, 1703–1770)
- Object type
- Drawing
- Date or period
- c. 1736
- Dimensions summary
- Sheet: 37.7 × 22.2 cm; Secondary Support: 39.6 × 24.2 cm
- Place of origin
- France
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the Hartley Bequest Fund, 1952
- Paper / support
- Laid paper
- Catalogue raisonné
- Michel 2554?; Ananoff 968?
- Image rights
- Public domain (CC0)
About this object
In this early chalk drawing, François Boucher combined plants, dolphins, rocks, shells, and tritons (mythological creatures that are part man and part fish) into a design that was meant to suggest a fountain in a rocky garden grotto. This sheet represents l'art rocaille, or "rock and shell art," a style of ornament that developed in France during the 1730s and featured decorative compositions with abundant detail. The image was one of seven that the printmaker Gabriel Huquier translated as etchings around the time Boucher completed them. These reproductions helped to bring Boucher's work to a broader audience, including other artists who emulated his style.
Materials and technique
Black chalk with stumping, and red chalk, heightened with white chalk on beige laid paper
Signature and marks
lower left, in brown ink: Boucher; secondary support, in graphite: [195?]; verso of secondary support, upper center, in brown ink: M / No. 53; center, in graphite: B / [illegible]
