Sailboat within a cartouche, after a bas-relief on the Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons (Paris)

Art Historical Context

This delicate etching captures a sailboat elegantly framed within an ornate cartouche, faithfully reproducing a bas-relief from Edme Bouchardon's iconic Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons Paris. Completed between 1739 and 1745, the fountain adorns the Rue de Grenelle and celebrates the city's water supply through allegorical sculptures blending classical grandeur with Rococo flourish. Bouchardon, a leading French sculptor of the 18th century drew from ancient Roman models to create these lively reliefs,izing navigation and commerce amid the seasons' bounty. Created anonymously in the mid- to late 18th century, this print exemplifies the era's fascination with disseminating architectural and sculptural marvels through etching—a precise intaglio technique where acid bites into a metal plate to yield fine, detailed lines. The cartouche, a decorative oval frame often evoking scrolls or shields, enhances the image's ornamental appeal, making it ideal for collectors' albums or scholarly study. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this work highlights how prints democratized access to Bouchardon's masterpieces, bridging sculpture and graphic arts during France's Enlightenment. Its trimmed sheet preserves the intricate play of waves and sails, inviting visitors to ponder the enduring romance of maritime motifs in urban splendor.

About the Artist

Edme Bouchardon|Anonymous, French, 18th century · 1698–1762

Born 29 May 1698; died 27 July 1762. Bouchardon was a student of Guillaume Coustou, and won the prix de Rome in 1722. He spent ten years (1722-1732) in Rome, Italy working on various projects for Pope Clement XII. In 1732 Bouchardon was recalled to Paris and named sculptor to the king. Bouchardon became a professor at the Académie Royale in 1746. He worked on an equestrian monument of Louis XV, Ki...