Study for Plate 7 of Bouchardon's "Premier livre de vases"

Art Historical Context

Edme Bouchardon, a prominent French sculptor and draftsman of the 18th century, created this preparatory study for Plate 7 of his *Premier livre de vases*, a influential series of ornamental designs. Active during the transition from Rococo exuberance to emerging Neoclassical restraint, Bouchardon drew on classical antiquity to produce elegant vase forms that served as models for decorative arts, architecture, and luxury objects. The drawing’s tags—highlighting weapons, faces, and vases—suggest it incorporates martial trophies and expressive masks, motifs that evoked ancient Roman grandeur while appealing to Enlightenment-era collectors and artisans. Executed in pen and black ink with gray wash, the work demonstrates Bouchardon’s precise technique for conveying volume and shadow, with framing lines and a central red-chalk guide aiding symmetry in the final engraving. Such studies were essential in the period’s print culture, allowing intricate designs to reach a wide audience of craftsmen and patrons across Europe. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this sheet offers a rare glimpse into the creative process behind one of the era’s key ornamental publications.

About the Artist

Edme Bouchardon · 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...