The Painter
18th century
Medium
Crayon-manner etching printed in black and red ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 3/8 × 7 5/16 in. (23.8 × 18.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.600.506
Tags
Art Historical Context
**The Painter**, an enchanting 18th-century crayon-manner etching by Gilles Demarteau and Jean François Clermont, captures a young child at an easel, brush in hand, immersed in the act of creation. Printed in black and red ink on a modest sheet measuring 9 3/8 × 7 5/16 inches, this print evokes the playful spirit of artistic apprenticeship during the Rococo era. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it reflects the period's fascination with childhood innocence and the democratization of art through innovative printmaking. Crayon-manner etching, pioneered b...
About the Artist
Gilles Demarteau|Jean François Clermont · 1729–1776
Gilles Demarteau the Elder, born on January 19, 1722, in Liège, began his career steeped in the craft of metalwork. The son of a gunsmith, he learned engraving and goldsmithing from his father before moving to Paris around 1748–1750 to join his brother, who worked as a goldsmith for the engraver De Lacollombe, renowned for firearm ornament designs. Demarteau trained in De Lacollombe's workshop as ...