The Sense of Smell
Medium
Red chalk; counterproof
Dimensions
Sheet: 15 7/16 × 11 5/8 in. (39.2 × 29.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harry G. Sperling Fund, 1973
Accession Number
1973.317.1
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
Edme Bouchardon’s *The Sense of Smell* captures an elegant allegorical scene rendered in luminous red chalk on paper. Created as a counterproof—a technique in which a fresh drawing is pressed against a second sheet to produce a reversed image—the work showcases Bouchardon’s mastery of soft modeling and delicate line. The medium’s warm, velvety tones lend a lifelike quality to the central male figure, who is accompanied by a dog and ornate vases, traditional symbols associated with the sense of smell. Active in eighteenth-century France, Bouchardon was celebrated both as a sculptor and as a dr...
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...