Fountain with a Naiad Seated on a Shell (Une fontaine avec une näiade assise sur une conque)
ca. 1740
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 14 13/16 x 10 1/16 in. (37.7 x 25.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
Accession Number
47.30.74
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre's *Fountain with aad Seated on a* (ca. 1740) is a delicate etching that captures the whimsical elegance of 18th-century Rococo art. The composition features a mythological naiad—a water nymph—gracefully perched on a large shell, surrounded by playful children and cascading water motifs. Rendered on a sheet measuring 14 13/16 x 10 1/16 inches, this print evokes the ornate garden fountains popular in Versailles-era landscapes, blending fantasy with natural beauty. Pierre, a prominent French engraver and painter who later directed the Académie de France in Rome, excell...