Description
This print belongs to a series created by Louis-Marin Bonnet featuring innovative color printing techniques derived from optical science to mimic the pastel drawings and miniature paintings highly sought by collectors. To increase the works’ appeal, the artist also developed a method for printing decorative frames by applying gold leaf. Hoping to evade strict governmental regulations on the uses of gold in France, he passed off his prints as English imports, which he sold at his store Au Magasin Anglois (At the English Shop). Bonnet’s elaborate ruse included English titles, the address of a London printshop, and a pseudonym, L. Marin.
Provenance
(August Laube, Zürich, Switzerland, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) (?–2003); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 2, 2003–)
Accession Number
2003.50
Medium
color-pastel–manner etching and engraving with applied gold leaf
Dimensions
Image: 28.3 x 23.3 cm (11 1/8 x 9 3/16 in.); Sheet: 32.3 x 25.1 cm (12 11/16 x 9 7/8 in.)
Classification
Credit Line
Carole W. and Charles B. Rosenblatt Endowment Fund