La Soiree du Palais Royal (The evening at the royal palace)
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 32.1 × 26.5 cm (12 11/16 × 10 7/16 in.); Plate: 37.7 × 29.7 cm (14 7/8 × 11 3/4 in.); Sheet: 51.4 × 40.7 cm (20 1/4 × 16 1/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
30178
Art Historical Context
**La Soirée du Palais Royal**The Evening at the Royal Palace), an etching by Jean Gabriel Caquet from 1781, captures the social life of one of Paris's most celebrated gathering spots. Created on luxurious ivory laid paper, this measures 32.1 26.5 cm for the image alone, with generous margins on the full sheet of 51.4 × 40.7 cm. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints Drawings department, it offers a window into the opulent world of pre-Revolutionary France. The Palais Royal, with its arcades, gardens, and theaters, was a hub of fashion, gossip, and entertainment in the late 18th centu...