The Charming Doll

Art Historical Context

**The Charming Doll** (1742) is a delicate etching with some engraving by the acclaimed French sculptor Edme Bouch and the antiquarian engraver Anne Claude Philippe deières, comte de Cay. Created during the height of the Rococo era France, this print measures about 9 x 7 inches and captures a tender moment of childhood innocence, featuring a girl with her doll—a subject evoking whimsy and playfulness typical of 18th-century. Bouchardon, known for his elegant sculptures, likely provided the graceful design, while Caylus etching technique brought fluid, expressive lines to life, enhanced by precise engraving for finer details. Prints like this were vital in the 1700s, allowing artists to share intricate compositions affordably with a wide audience, from aristocrats to collectors. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953), *The Charming Doll* reflects Rococo's celebration of everyday joys amid Enlightenment-era refinement. It invites us to ponder how dolls symbolized not just toys, but ideals of femininity and nurture in pre-Revolutionary France. A charming window into a gilded age!

About the Artist

Edme Bouchardon|Anne Claude Philippe de Tubières, comte de Caylus · 1698–1762

Born 29 May 1698; died 27 July 1762. Bouchardon was a student of Guillaume Coustou, and won the prix de Rome in 1722. He spent ten years (1722-1732) in Rome, Italy working on various projects for Pope Clement XII. In 1732 Bouchardon was recalled to Paris and named sculptor to the king. Bouchardon became a professor at the Académie Royale in 1746. He worked on an equestrian monument of Louis XV, Ki...