Etching Tools
1861
Medium
Etching; proof before lettering
Dimensions
Sheet: 16 × 11 in. (40.6 × 28 cm) Plate: 8 7/8 × 6 1/8 in. (22.5 × 15.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1968
Accession Number
68.673.24
Art Historical Context
François Bonvin's *Etching Tools* (1861) is a captivating etching that invites visitors to peer into the intimate world of the 19th-century artist’s studio. This proof before lettering—meaning an early impression without added text—showcases Bonvin’s meticulous skill in capturing everyday objects with striking realism. As a French Realist painter and printmaker, Bonvin inspiration from 17th-century Dutch masters elevating humble subjects like these etching tools into studies of texture, light, and form. The compact plate (8 7/8 × 6 1/8 in.) renders burnishers, needles, and grounds with exquisi...
About the Artist
François Bonvin
François Bonvin (1817–1887) was a French Realist painter whose quiet, meticulously observed canvases of domestic interiors and humble working-class subjects placed him among the most thoughtful and committed practitioners of the Realist movement in nineteenth-century France. Born in Vaugirard, on the outskirts of Paris, Bonvin came from modest origins and largely educated himself as an artist thro...