Vue de la Foire de Bezons
Medium
Etching, after second state
Dimensions
image: 5 7/16 x 6 3/8 in. (13.8 x 16.2 cm), trimmed to image
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.1122
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the lively chaos of 18th-century France with *Vue de la Foire Bezons* (View of the Fair Bezons), an etching by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin 1750. This-state print captures the bustling energy of the annual fair just outside Paris, teeming with crowds, horses, and carriages. Saint-Aubin, a master of Rococo draftsmanship, delighted in documenting everyday urban spectacles, infusing his scenes with witty detail and a sense of joyful disorder that reflects the era's fascination with leisure and social mingling. Etching allowed Saint-Aubin to achieve fine lines and intricate textures, perfect ...
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...