Hab.t de l'Isle de Paques, from the playing cards (for quartets) "Costumes des Peuples Étrangers"
Medium
Etching and hand coloring (watercolor)
Dimensions
3 3/16 × 2 1/16 in. (8.1 × 5.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of the Estate of James Hazen Hyde, 1959
Accession Number
59.654.17(13)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming etching, *Hab.t de l'Isle de Paques* (Inhabitant of Easter Island), is one card from the French 18th-century playing card set *Costumes des Peuplestrangers*, designed for quartet games. Created anonymously around 1700–99, it captures a male figure from the remote Pacific island—known today as Rapa Nui traditional attire, reflecting Europe's growing curiosity about distant cultures during the Age of Exploration. The small scale (just over 3 by 2 inches) made it perfect for pocket-sized entertainment, blending education with leisure. Printed via etching—a precise intaglio techniqu...
About the Artist
Anonymous, French, 18th century · 1700–1800
The artist known as Anonymous, French, 18th century, represents a collective of unidentified talents active roughly between 1700 and 1800, a period of profound artistic evolution in France from the opulent Rococo to the austere dawn of Neoclassicism and Revolutionary fervor. Little is documented about their personal training or mentors, as their anonymity obscures individual biographies, though th...