The Four Vases
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
sheet: 9 11/16 x 6 7/16 in. (24.6 x 16.4 cm) image: 9 3/8 x 6 1/8 in. (23.8 x 15.5 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Massar Gift and The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1988
Accession Number
1988.1021
Tags
Art Historical Context
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin’s *The Four Vases* (1754) is a delicate etching that captures the ornate spirit of mid-18th-century French Rococo design. Created during the height of the Rococo era in Paris, where Saint-Aubin thrived as a prolific printmaker and illustrator, this work exemplifies his fascination with decorative arts and architecture. As an etching—a printmaking technique using acid to bite intricate lines into a metal plate— it allowed for the fine, playful detailing that defined his style, showcasing vases as elegant centerpieces amid lively vignettes featuring children, men, and wome...
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...