The Abduction of Europa
c. 1788
Medium
Etching on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Plate: 13.5 × 18 cm (5 3/8 × 7 1/8 in.); Sheet: 18 × 27 cm (7 1/8 × 10 11/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
55591
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Pierre-Paul Prud’hon was a Romantic painter and draftsman dearly admired by Eugène Delacroix. He is known for his classical mastery of the female figure and worked primarily on allegories, scenes from ancient mythology, and portraits. In The Abduction of Europa, one of the few prints Prud’hon published, the delicacy of the etching is evident. In this seemingly unfinished print, the naked Europa holds onto the bull in profile, with only her face elaborately rendered. The second and final state in...
About the Artist
Pierre Paul Prud'hon · 1758–1823
Pierre Paul Prud'hon (1758–1823) was a French painter and draughtsman whose dreamy, sensuous art occupied a singular position between the Neoclassicism and Romanticism that competed for dominance in French painting around 1800. Born in Cluny in Burgundy, he received his early artistic training at the Dijon Academy before winning the Prix de Rome of the Estates of Burgundy, which allowed him to spe...