The Pleasures of Education
Medium
Pastel-manner engraving and etching in color, with gold leaf, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 29.3 × 23.8 cm (11 9/16 × 9 3/8 in.); Sheet: 31.5 × 24.5 cm (12 7/16 × 9 11/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
35690
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Louis-Marin Bonnet’s color-printing repertoire included these variations on the fashionable pastel portrait genre (1924.1308 and 1927.875). Softly layering multiple chalk-manner plates in colored inks, he completed the images with gold-leaf-accented frames. As the use of gold leaf was strictly regulated in France, Bonnet created an elaborate ruse: the English titles, sometimes misspelled, and printer’s address on the paper frame suggest that these prints were published in London, not Paris. Pate...
About the Artist
Louis-Marin Bonnet · 1736–1793
Comment on works: Copper engraver