Design for Wallpaper "L'Innocent Badinage, or Boys at Play"
ca. 1745–50
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 15/16 × 7 15/16 in. (30.3 × 20.1 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Kee Il Choi Jr. and Svjetlana Kabalin, in cherished memory of their friend, Walter Liedtke, 2015
Accession Number
2015.747
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming etching, titled *Design for Wallpaper "L'Innocentinage, or Boys at"*, captures the playful spirit of Rococo ornamentation. Created around 1745–50, it draws from the whimsical style of Antoine Watteau the French master of *fêtes galantes* for his lighthearted scenes of leisure and fantasy. Likely engraved by British artist Paul Sandby or. Voisin after Watteau's designs, the print depicts frolicsome boys at play, evoking innocence and joy in a delicate, decorative composition sized at nearly 12 × 8 inches. As an etching—a printmaking technique using acid to bite lines into a metal...
About the Artist
Antoine Watteau|Paul Sandby|D. Voisin · 1684–1721
Jean-Antoine Watteau, born in 1684 in Valenciennes to a modest family—his father a roofer named Jean-Philippe Watteau—was the second of four sons who displayed an early passion for art. After initial apprenticeship under local painter Jacques-Albert Gérin, he moved to Paris around 1702, working in workshops copying Flemish and Dutch genre scenes. By 1705, he entered the studio of Claude Gillot, ab...