Les petits moissonneurs et la chevre (The Young Harvesters and the Goat), in an album containing Recueil de Compositions par Lagrenée Le Jeune (Collection of Compositions by Lagrenée the Younger)
Medium
Etching and aquatint; second state of two (Baudicour)
Dimensions
Sheet: 15 13/16 × 21 9/16 in. (40.2 × 54.7 cm) Plate: 8 7/16 × 11 5/16 in. (21.5 × 28.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, The Arthur Ross Foundation Gift and Charles Z. Offin Fund, 1999
Accession Number
1999.2(5)
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the enchanting etching *Les petits moissonneurs la chevre* (The Young Harvesters and Goat), created by French artist Jean-Jacques Lagrenée the Younger 1782, we glimpse a tender pastoral idyll. Part of the album *Recueil de Com par Lagrenée Leune* (Collection ofpositions by Lagrenée Younger), this second-state print captures children engaged in harvest play alongside a playful goat. Lagrenée, a prominent Rococo painter known for his graceful genre scenes and mythological works, infused late 18th-century French art with whimsical elegance, evoking the countryside's innocence just before the Revolution's upheavals. The artwork's medium—etching combined with aquatint—marks a technical innovation. Etching allowed precise, fluid lines for the figures' lively poses, while aquatint introduced subtle tonal gradations, mimicking wash drawings and adding atmospheric depth to the rustic scene. Measuring a modest plate size of 8 7/16 × 11 5/16 inches, it was designed for intimate appreciation or reproduction, reflecting the era's growing print culture that made fine art accessible beyond oil paintings. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (acquired in 1999), this piece highlights Lagrenée's skill in composing charming vignettes of childhood and nature, blending Rococo charm with emerging Neoclassical restraint. Visitors will delight in its joyful tags—children and goats—symbolizing timeless rural harmony.
About the Artist
Jean Jacques Lagrenée · 1739–1821
Jean-Jacques Lagrenée, known as Lagrenée the Younger (1739–1821), was a distinguished French history painter, draftsman, and engraver born into a family of artists in Paris. The younger brother of the prominent Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (Lagrenée the Elder), he studied under his elder sibling at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, honing his skills in the rigorous academic t...