La Nuit (Night, from Quatre parties du jour)
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 27.2 × 20.1 cm (10 3/4 × 7 15/16 in.); Sheet: 34 × 26.8 cm (13 7/16 × 10 9/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
30271
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department will delight in *La Nuit* (Night), a captivating etching by Emmanuel Jeanomucene de Ghendt from his series *Quatre parties du jour* (Four Parts of the Day), created 1778. This work forms part of a traditional 18th-century European motif, allegorically representing the passage of time through dawn, day, evening, and night—a theme evoking harmony with nature's rhythms during the late Rococo era. Rendered in etching on fine ivory laid paper, the image measures 27.2 × 20.1 cm, with a larger sheet of 34 × 26.8 cm offering am...