Les Pêcheurs (The Fishermen)
Medium
etching and aquatint printed in brown on laid paper
Dimensions
image: 32.2 × 23.2 cm (12 11/16 × 9 1/8 in.) sheet (trimmed within platemark): 34.2 × 24.2 cm (13 7/16 × 9 1/2 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
Accession Number
1990.134.5
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Jean-Baptiste Le Prince’s *Les Pêcheurs* captures a quiet moment of everyday labor along a riverbank. Created in 1771, the print reflects the 18th-century fascination with genre scenes that celebrated ordinary people engaged in traditional activities. Le Prince, who had traveled extensively in Russia, often infused his work with a sense of exotic yet relatable rustic life, appealing to French audiences curious about distant cultures. The medium itself is noteworthy: Le Prince helped introduce aquatint to France, a tonal printing process that allowed artists to achieve soft, watercolor-like effects through etching. Here, the warm brown ink on laid paper enhances the gentle play of light and shadow across the figures and landscape, giving the scene a luminous, almost painterly quality. Measuring just over twelve inches in height, the intimate scale invites close viewing and underscores the delicacy of the technique. Acquired by the National Gallery of Art through the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, this impression preserves the subtle gradations that made aquatint revolutionary for its time. It stands as both a technical achievement and a charming window into 18th-century ideals of nature and work.
About the Artist
Jean-Baptiste Le Prince · 1734–1781
Comment on works: Genre; Landscapes; Portraits; Copper engraver; Illustrator; Master draughtsman