Au Moins Soyez Discret (At Least be Discreet)

Description

This portrait and its companion print Depend on My Promises (1926.918) are likely based on sketches of Augustin de Saint-Aubin and his wife in their youth. The prints depict two fashionable young lovers murmuring sweet nothings to each other as daybreak brings their tryst to an end. The figures lean toward each other in their respective oval frames as if to break the barrier separating them before parting. The prints are deliciously ambiguous, for the young man may or may not intend to keep the affair secret. Indeed, the tiny cupids in cameos beneath each frame suggest a less positive interpretation: hers laments that love is blind; while his has plucked a rose, rejoicing in his triumph over virtue.

Au Moins Soyez Discret (At Least be Discreet)

Augustin de Saint-Aubin

1789

Accession Number

30045

Medium

Etching and engraving on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Image: 33.7 × 24.6 cm (13 5/16 × 9 11/16 in.); Plate: 36.5 × 26.4 cm (14 3/8 × 10 7/16 in.); Sheet: 42.6 × 31.8 cm (16 13/16 × 12 9/16 in.)

Classification

etching

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of the Print and Drawing Club