Blacksmith Cupids
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 14 5/8 × 10 11/16 in. (37.1 × 27.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1962
Accession Number
62.602.1022
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where *Blacksmith Cupids (1714–39) enchants visitors with its playful Rococo charm. Created as an engraving by master printmaker Louis Desplaces after a design by painter Charles Antoine Coypel, work measures 14 5/8 × 10 11/16 inches. Coypel, a leading French artist of the early 18th century and son of court painter Noël Coypel, infused his compositions with the ornate, whimsical elegance of the Rococo style, which blossomed during the Regency and Louis XV's reign. The title evokes mischievous Cupids reimagined as bla...
About the Artist
Louis Desplaces|Charles Antoine Coypel · 1682–1739
**Louis Desplaces (1682–1739)** was a prominent French engraver and skilled draughtsman, born and died in Paris. Active from 1702 to 1739, he trained in the school of Gérard Audran, the renowned engraver whose precise and supple burin technique profoundly influenced Desplaces's own style. This classical foundation positioned him as a masterful reproductive engraver, bridging the meticulous 17th-ce...