Les Nouvellistes
Medium
Etching, early state
Dimensions
image: 4 x 5 1/4 in. (10.2 x 13.4 cm), trimmed to image
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1939
Accession Number
39.31.2
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin’s 1752 etching *Les Nouvellistes* captures a lively gathering of men and women exchanging news in an intimate Parisian setting. small print, measuring just4 by 5 inches, draws viewers into scene of animated conversation reflecting the artist’s keen eye for everyday life in mid-eighteenth-century France. Working during the reign of Louis XV, Saint-Aubin specialized in etchings that documented the bustling world of cafés, salons, and public spaces where ideas circulated freely. An early state of the print reveals the spontaneous quality of his line work, with delicate cross-hatching and fluid figures that convey both movement and informality. Etching allowed him to produce affordable images that reached a wider audience than paintings, making scenes of contemporary manners accessible to collectors and the public alike. This work highlights the growing culture of news and public discourse in Enlightenment Paris, where printed information and oral exchange shaped opinions across social classes. Through its modest scale and lively detail, *Les Nouvellistes* offers a charming window into the social rhythms of the period.
About the Artist
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin · 1724–1780
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780) was one of the most vivid and irrepressible graphic artists of eighteenth-century France, a tireless draughtsman whose sketchbooks and prints constitute an extraordinary visual chronicle of Parisian life during the Ancien Régime. Born into a family with strong connections to the decorative arts — his father was an embroiderer to the king — Saint-Aubin received fo...