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Print, Rocaille (rococo design), in Nouveaux morceaux pour des paravents (New concepts for screens)
This is a Print. It was designed by François Boucher and engraved by Claude Augustin Duflos. It is dated 1730s and we acquired it in 1931. Its medium is etching, engraving on white paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
A Masterful Balance
This etching, a screen design by great artist François Boucher, is iconic for its inclusion of the French word rocaille. In the eighteenth century, rocaille referred to the irregular rockwork that was used to embellish picturesque grottos and garden fountains but the word has since come to be synonymous with the rococo as a style. The design exemplifies the fanciful profusion of flora and fauna characteristic of the period. Sinuous plant forms asymmetrically frame a fountain encrusted with shells. Below, two monkeys squabble beside a flowing pool of water. The entire composition evokes motion, tempting the viewer’s eye to travel continuously. There is the sensuous suggestion that one could hear the splashing of water and feel a breeze in the air. The configuration of the scene is similar to screen designs by Jacques de Lajoue (Petit Palais, Paris) particularly in the placement of the stream of water in the lower third of the composition.
Boucher contributed five screen designs, including this one, published in the Nouveaux Morceaux pour des Paravents [New Concepts for Screens]. The engraver Claude-Augustin Duflos uses a masterful balance of expressive lines and hatched marks to achieve the scene’s tonal variation and sense of liveliness. Painted in bright polychrome, the design could be applied to a multi-paneled folding screen. Freestanding screens provided privacy and invited painted ornament, creating a perfect synthesis of fine and decorative arts. Rococo interiors were conceived as total works of art, with architectural ornaments, furniture and objet d'art complementing one another; painted screens would be enjoyed within a greater ensemble of coordinating fixtures of eighteenth century domestic life. Boucher’s interest in the decorative arts distinguished him throughout a fifty-year long career, in which he produced designs and models for a variety of media.
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled A Masterful Balance.
This object was
donated by
Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Sarah Cooper Hewitt.
It is credited Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt.
- Drawing, Fountain Design with Three Bronze Animals
- chalk, brush and gray wash on laid paper.
- Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council.
- 1911-28-6
- Print, Two Designs for Ewer-shaped Ornaments, Album of Ornament
- etching, engraving on white laid paper.
- Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council.
- 1921-6-317-28
- Drawing, Elevation of the Maritime Fountain, for the Place de la Concorde, Paris
- pen and black ink, brush and watercolor, highlighted with white gouache on paper.
- Museum purchase from Sarah Cooper-Hewitt and Smithsonian Institution....
- 1997-1-1
Our curators have highlighted 6 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Print, Triomphe de Priape
- etching and engraving on white laid paper.
- Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council.
- 1921-6-203-6
- Valance (England)
- silk embroidery on silk foundation, linen backing.
- 1916-1-2-b
- Atmospheric Reentry, from Atmospheric Reentry collection
- acetate, acrylic, silver, plastic.
- Courtesy of Maiko Takeda.
- 10.2015.2a,b
Its dimensions are
49.4 x 24.8 cm (19 7/16 x 9 3/4 in.) Frame: 60.3 x 44.8 x 2.5 cm (23 3/4 x 17 5/8 x 1 in.) Mat: 55.9 x 40.6 cm (22 x 16 in.)
It is inscribed
Inscribed on plate, lower left: F. Boucher inv.; lower center: ROCAILLE; lower right: Cl. Duflos sculp.
Cite this object as
Print, Rocaille (rococo design), in Nouveaux morceaux pour des paravents (New concepts for screens); Designed by François Boucher (French, 1703–1770); Engraved by Claude Augustin Duflos (French, 1700–1786); France; etching, engraving on white paper; 49.4 x 24.8 cm (19 7/16 x 9 3/4 in.) Frame: 60.3 x 44.8 x 2.5 cm (23 3/4 x 17 5/8 x 1 in.) Mat: 55.9 x 40.6 cm (22 x 16 in.); Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt; 1931-94-11
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions Hewitt Sisters Collect and Rococo: The Continuing Curve 1730-2008.
