Design School, from Encyclopédie

Art Historical Context

This etching and engraving by Benoît-Louis Prévost, created in 1763, originally appeared as a plate in Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert’s groundbreaking Encyclopédie. The image captures the interior of a design school, where students practice drawing and drafting under the guidance of instructors—an apt illustration for the ambitious publication’s goal of documenting and sharing practical knowledge across the arts and sciences during the Enlightenment. Prévost’s precise line work, achieved through a combination of etching and engraving on cream laid paper, exemplifies the refined printmaking techniques favored for illustrated books in eighteenth-century France. Such plates not only served an educational purpose but also elevated the status of skilled trades by presenting them with the same visual dignity as scholarly subjects. Today, this print from the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection offers visitors a window into the period’s belief in the power of education and the dissemination of knowledge, reflecting broader cultural shifts toward reason, observation, and the democratization of learning.