Satyr Carrying a Nymph
1769/1771
Medium
etching on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 11.7 x 14.4 cm (4 5/8 x 5 11/16 in.) sheet: 12 x 14.7 cm (4 3/4 x 5 13/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of John O'Brien
Accession Number
1994.3.4
Art Historical Context
Created around 1769–1771, *Satyr Carrying a Nymph* showcases Salomon Gessner’s delicate etching technique on laid paper. A Swiss artist, poet, and publisher celebrated for his pastoral and mythological scenes, Gessner worked during the late Rococo period. His small-scale prints often captured idyllic visions of nature infused with classical themes, reflecting Enlightenment interests in harmony between humans and the natural world. The subject draws from ancient mythology, depicting a satyr—a half-human, half-goat figure—gently bearing a nymph through a wooded landscape. Such imagery evokes pl...
About the Artist
Salomon Gessner · 1730–1788
Salomon Gessner was born in Zurich in 1730 into a family of printers and publishers, an upbringing that placed books, images, and ideas at the center of his world from an early age. Though largely self-taught as a visual artist, he received some instruction during a period in Berlin, where he encountered the German Rococo tradition, and his mature work reflects a deep absorption in the pastoral li...