The Public Scribe
Medium
Etching, drypoint, and roulette on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 25.8 × 38.4 cm (10 3/16 × 15 1/8 in.); Plate: 29.3 × 42.1 cm (11 9/16 × 16 5/8 in.); Sheet: 30 × 42.7 cm (11 13/16 × 16 13/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
108946
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This large plate is characteristic of de Boissieu' s last period of printmaking, which was dominated by his interest in landscapes and scenes of daily life. The influence of seventeenth-century Dutch genre scenes is clear in this work, which depicts the predicament of a writer who must transcribe the message of a young couple although more interesting activities distract his attention. Boissieu used the roulette, a tool with a spiked wheel, to indent the plate and simulate the effects of an inke...
About the Artist
Jean Jacques de Boissieu · 1736–1810
French, Lyons 1736–1810 Lyons