Dame laat zich een ontwerp voorleggen

About this artwork

collector's mark, verso, lower centre: Lugt 2228

Art Historical Context

Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin’s delicate pen drawing, created between 1772 and 1774, captures a refined moment of consultation typical of eighteenth-century French society. The small sheet (just 112 by 175 mm) shows a lady examining a design, reflecting the period’s keen interest in fashion, interior decoration, and the decorative arts. Saint-Aubin, a keen observer of Parisian life, often recorded such everyday interactions with lively yet precise line work. Working primarily in pen and ink, the artist employed fluid, economical strokes to convey both the elegance of the figures and the textures of their surroundings. These intimate drawings were rarely intended as finished exhibition pieces; instead, they served as visual notes or studies that preserved the fleeting social rituals of the time. The presence of the collector’s mark Lugt 2228 on the verso further attests to the work’s later appreciation by connoisseurs. Today the drawing offers modern viewers a charming glimpse into the refined tastes and social customs of pre-Revolutionary France, reminding us how even the simplest pen sketch can illuminate an entire cultural moment.

About the Artist

Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin · 1724–1780

Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin (14 April 1724 – 14 February 1780) was born in Paris into an artistic family — one of fourteen children of the court embroiderer and engraver G.-G. de Saint-Aubin. Art ran deep in the family: his brothers Charles Germain and Augustin de Saint-Aubin were also accomplished artists. Gabriel received his earliest training at home before entering the studios of Étienne Je...