Bold satire in the depths of the forest (Satire audacieux, dans le fond des forets)
Medium
Hand-colored engraving
Dimensions
Plate: 14 15/16 × 11 1/4 in. (37.9 × 28.5 cm) Sheet: 15 15/16 × 12 5/8 in. (40.5 × 32 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of George D. Pratt, 1948
Accession Number
48.163.21
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints will delight in *Bold Satire in the Depths the Forest (Satire audacieux dans le fond des fore)*, a hand-colored engraving created between 1714 and 1739. This collaborative work unites the talents of Charles Antoine Coypel, a leading French Rococo painter celebrated for his lively, theatrical designs, and Louis Desplaces, a skilled engraver who brought Coypel's vision to life intricate line work. Measuring about 15 by 12 inches on its sheet, the print exemplifies the era's printmaking prowess, where engravings served as affordable...
About the Artist
Louis Desplaces|Charles Antoine Coypel · 1682–1739
**Louis Desplaces (1682–1739)** was a prominent French engraver and skilled draughtsman, born and died in Paris. Active from 1702 to 1739, he trained in the school of Gérard Audran, the renowned engraver whose precise and supple burin technique profoundly influenced Desplaces's own style. This classical foundation positioned him as a masterful reproductive engraver, bridging the meticulous 17th-ce...