Le Déjeuné
Print
1744 (printed), 1739 (painting)
1744 (printed), 1739 (painting)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
This print, advertised in the newspaper Mercure de France in 1744, was made by the printmaker Bernard Lépicié from a painting of 1739 by François Boucher, which is now in the Louvre, Paris.
Boucher's paintings were interesting for their wealth of interior detail showing the latest styles. The room in which this fashionable pair of ladies take their breakfast is decorated in the Rococo style, fashionable in the middle years of the eighteenth century. Some details, such as the painted hanging shelves and the Chinese figurine seem to be in the also contemporary Chinoiserie style. Knowledge of Boucher's paintings was disseminated through large prints such as this, which, showing the customs and interiors of fashionable people of Paris, served an aspirational purpose for their well-off buyers.
The ladies are taking coffee for breakfast and seem to be attempting to feed the drink to their young children. Though coffee drinking had by this time been practiced in Europe for about a century, by 1700, the high prices and relative shortage of coffee grown in Mocha in the Yemen, prompted the Dutch East India Company to establish and exploit - along with the local regents - coffee plantations in areas such as Java, Indonesia and Jamaica and Barbados. This enabled the price of coffee to reduce considerably and become affordable to a larger number of European consumers.
Boucher's paintings were interesting for their wealth of interior detail showing the latest styles. The room in which this fashionable pair of ladies take their breakfast is decorated in the Rococo style, fashionable in the middle years of the eighteenth century. Some details, such as the painted hanging shelves and the Chinese figurine seem to be in the also contemporary Chinoiserie style. Knowledge of Boucher's paintings was disseminated through large prints such as this, which, showing the customs and interiors of fashionable people of Paris, served an aspirational purpose for their well-off buyers.
The ladies are taking coffee for breakfast and seem to be attempting to feed the drink to their young children. Though coffee drinking had by this time been practiced in Europe for about a century, by 1700, the high prices and relative shortage of coffee grown in Mocha in the Yemen, prompted the Dutch East India Company to establish and exploit - along with the local regents - coffee plantations in areas such as Java, Indonesia and Jamaica and Barbados. This enabled the price of coffee to reduce considerably and become affordable to a larger number of European consumers.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Le Déjeuné (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Etching and engraving |
Brief description | Le Déjeuné, etching and engraving after François Boucher, by Bernard Lépicié; French, 1744. |
Physical description | Two fashionable ladies take a breakfast of coffee seated by a window at a low table laid with a decorated ceramic coffee set. One has her daughter beside her and tries to feed her coffee with a spoon. The other, also holding a spoon, turns towards her child (boy?), left, who is playing with a wheeled panier horse laid on a cushion on a stool. A female doll is propped up against the stool. A male servant handles a silver coffee pot. On the table are various serving bowls and cups. Setting is an ornately decorated room with large mantle mirror with rococo decorated surround surmounted by a shell motif, wall-mounted rococo candle sconces on either side, a wall-mounted clock in rococo style and on either side also two wall-mounted small shelves in possible Chinoiserie style?; one contains a ceramic teapot, a figurine (Chinese?), and two leather-bound books. |
Dimensions |
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Styles | |
Marks and inscriptions |
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Credit line | Bryan Bequest |
Object history | From 'F.R. Bryan Esq.' (Acccessions Register) FR Bryan bequest ca 1905 - Nominal file number MA/1/B3180 |
Subjects depicted | |
Summary | This print, advertised in the newspaper Mercure de France in 1744, was made by the printmaker Bernard Lépicié from a painting of 1739 by François Boucher, which is now in the Louvre, Paris. Boucher's paintings were interesting for their wealth of interior detail showing the latest styles. The room in which this fashionable pair of ladies take their breakfast is decorated in the Rococo style, fashionable in the middle years of the eighteenth century. Some details, such as the painted hanging shelves and the Chinese figurine seem to be in the also contemporary Chinoiserie style. Knowledge of Boucher's paintings was disseminated through large prints such as this, which, showing the customs and interiors of fashionable people of Paris, served an aspirational purpose for their well-off buyers. The ladies are taking coffee for breakfast and seem to be attempting to feed the drink to their young children. Though coffee drinking had by this time been practiced in Europe for about a century, by 1700, the high prices and relative shortage of coffee grown in Mocha in the Yemen, prompted the Dutch East India Company to establish and exploit - along with the local regents - coffee plantations in areas such as Java, Indonesia and Jamaica and Barbados. This enabled the price of coffee to reduce considerably and become affordable to a larger number of European consumers. |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | E.386-1905 |
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Record created | June 30, 2009 |
Record URL |
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