L'Infirmerie de l'hospital de la Charite de Paris
1641
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1951.16.11
Art Historical Context
Abraham Bosse's *L'Infirmerie de l'Hôpital de la Charité de* (1641) offers a poignant glimpse into 17th-century Parisian life through the lens of one of the city's key charitable institutions. This etching captures the bustling infirmary of the Hôpital de la Charité a hospital founded in the early 1600s to care for the poor, sick, and abandoned. Amid France's turbulent era under Louis XIII—marked by wars, plagues, and social upheaval—Bosse documents a scene of everyday compassion, with rows of beds, caregivers tending patients, and the stark reality of institutional medicine. As a master etch...
About the Artist
Abraham Bosse · 1602–1676
Abraham Bosse (1604–1676) was a French printmaker and theorist whose approximately 1,600 etchings provide an unparalleled visual record of 17th-century French life. Born to Huguenot parents in Tours, he trained in Paris under Melchior Tavernier and became a devoted follower of Jacques Callot's technical innovations. Bosse's meticulous etchings depicted subjects ranging from daily life and fashion ...