Fortune and Misfortune, or The Broken Pitcher
Medium
Mezzotint (black), three etched and engraved plates (colors); second state of three
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1935
Accession Number
35.100.27
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the whimsical yet poignant world of late 18th-century Frenchmaking with Louis Philibert Debucourt's *Fortune and Misfort, or The Broken Pitch* (1787). This allegorical print captures the interplay of luck and loss through figures of men and women amid sheep and trees, with the broken pitcher serving as a timeless symbol of shattered innocence or fleeting fortune—a motif drawn from pastoral traditions. Debucourt's technical brilliance shines in his use of mezzotint for deep, velvety blacks, layered with three etched and engraved color plates to produce vibrant hues. This second state...