Le Retour du Baptesme (Return from the Baptism), Plate IV, from Le Mariage à la Ville (Marriage in the City)
Medium
interiors
Classification
interiors
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Museum purchase from Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program and Eleanor G. Hewitt Funds
Accession Number
1996-33-1
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Abraham Bosse’s *Le Retour du Baptesme* (Return from the Baptism) forms Plate IV of his series *Le Mariage à la Ville* (Marriage in the City), created in 1633. A leading French printmaker of the seventeenth century, Bosse specialized in finely detailed etchings that documented the rituals and domestic interiors of Parisian bourgeois life. This particular scene captures the moment a newly baptized infant is carried home, offering viewers a glimpse into the social customs that marked the early stages of family life in early modern France. Bosse’s precise line work and careful attention to costu...