La Galerie du Palais
c. 1638
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 25.1 × 32 cm (9 7/8 × 12 5/8 in.) sheet: 32.4 × 43 cm (12 3/4 × 16 15/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
2020.63.2
Art Historical Context
Abraham Bosse's * Galerie du Palais* (c. 1638) is a captivating etching that offers a vivid snapshot of 17th-century Parisian social life. This print depicts the bustling Galerie du Palais—an elegant arcade in the Palais-Royal—where aristocrats, merchants, lawyers and fashionable women gathered to shop, gossip, and see-and-be-seen. Bosse, a leading French printmaker of the Baroque era, masterfully captures the era's opulent attire, from elaborate lace collars and wide panniers to feathered hats, providing a treasure trove of details about daily life under Louis XIII. As an etching on laid pap...
About the Artist
Abraham Bosse · 1602–1676
Abraham Bosse (1604–1676) was a French printmaker and theorist whose approximately 1,600 etchings provide an unparalleled visual record of 17th-century French life. Born to Huguenot parents in Tours, he trained in Paris under Melchior Tavernier and became a devoted follower of Jacques Callot's technical innovations. Bosse's meticulous etchings depicted subjects ranging from daily life and fashion ...