Revelers at a Table in the Countryside
Medium
Pen and black ink with bister wash over black chalk
Dimensions
9 15/16 × 7 11/16 in. (25.3 × 19.6 cm) Framed: 24 × 18 in. (61 × 45.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Robert Lehman Collection
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number
1975.1.701
Tags
Art Historical Context
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin’s *Revelers at a Table in the Countryside* captures a lively outdoor gathering from the 1760s, when French society embraced the pleasures of country fêtes. The scene shows men and women gathered around a table, enjoying food and drink amid a relaxed, pastoral setting. Saint-Aubin, a keen observer of Parisian life, often recorded such moments of social leisure with wit and spontaneity, reflecting the era’s growing interest in informal entertainment beyond the rigid court of Versailles. Executed in pen and black ink with bister wash over black chalk, the drawing highlight...
About the Artist
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin · 1724–1780
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780) was one of the most vivid and irrepressible graphic artists of eighteenth-century France, a tireless draughtsman whose sketchbooks and prints constitute an extraordinary visual chronicle of Parisian life during the Ancien Régime. Born into a family with strong connections to the decorative arts — his father was an embroiderer to the king — Saint-Aubin received fo...