Italian Peasant Woman
Medium
etching and aquatint on laid paper [proof ]
Dimensions
sheet (trimmed to plate): 22.8 × 16.7 cm (9 × 6 9/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund
Accession Number
2018.91.30
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
This intimate print captures the quiet dignity of an Italian peasant woman, rendered by François-Philippe Charpentier after an original composition by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Greuze, celebrated in eighteenth-century France for his sympathetic portrayals of rural life, often infused such figures with moral sentiment and naturalistic detail. Charpentier’s reproductive print, created between 1762 and 1766, helped disseminate Greuze’s imagery beyond the original canvas, allowing wider audiences to appreciate these evocative genre scenes. Executed in etching and aquatint on laid paper, the work show...