Two Women with Children

Art Historical Context

Created in 1766, *Two Women with Children* offers a charming glimpse into everyday domestic life during the French Rococo period. This aquatint print, rendered in warm brown ink, depicts women and children engaged in quiet activities such as reading, with a cat adding a touch of playful intimacy. The work reflects the era’s interest in lighthearted genre scenes that celebrated ordinary moments with elegance and grace. The print resulted from a collaboration between François Boucher, the leading Rococo painter renowned for his idyllic and decorative style, and Jean Claude Richard, Abbé de Saint-Non, an amateur artist and printmaker who often reproduced Boucher’s compositions. Aquatint technique, still relatively novel at the time, allowed Saint-Non to achieve soft tonal effects that closely mimic the fluidity of drawings or paintings, making such prints more accessible to a wider audience. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this sheet measuring roughly 9 5/8 by 6 7/8 inches exemplifies how 18th-century reproductive prints helped disseminate Rococo ideals of refined daily life across Europe.

About the Artist

Jean Claude Richard, Abbé de Saint-Non|François Boucher (French) · 1727 –1791

French, Paris 1727–1791 Paris