2006.313: Allegory of the Marriages Performed by the City of Paris in Honor of the Birth of the Duc de Bourgogne
Prints
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 2006.313
- People
-
Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin, French (Paris 1724 - 1780 Paris)
- Title
- Allegory of the Marriages Performed by the City of Paris in Honor of the Birth of the Duc de Bourgogne
- Other Titles
- Original Language Title: Allégorie des Mariages faits par la ville de Paris à la naissance de le Duc de Bourgogne
- Classification
- Prints
- Work Type
- Date
- 1751
- Culture
- French
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/318174
Physical Descriptions
- Technique
- Etching
- Dimensions
-
Image: 15.4 × 12 cm (6 1/16 × 4 3/4 in.)
Plate: 16.8 × 12.9 cm (6 5/8 × 5 1/16 in.)
Sheet: 20.2 × 15.5 cm (7 15/16 × 6 1/8 in.) - Inscriptions and Marks
-
- Signed: l.r.: G. de St Aubin fecit
- inscription: l.l., in plate: no 600. Dot. 300l.
- inscription: l.r., in plate: G. de St Aubin fecit
- inscription: lower margin, in plate: Allegorie des Marriages faits par la ville / de paris, a la naissance de mgr le duc de bourgogne en 1751
State, Edition, Standard Reference Number
- State
- iii/iii
- Standard Reference Number
- Dacier 86; Baudicour, vol. I, no. 5, p. 104
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Nesta and Walter Spink
- Accession Year
- 2006
- Object Number
- 2006.313
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
- Commentary
- The painter, draftsman, and printmaker Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin studied with François Boucher and exhibited and taught at the Académie de Saint-Luc. Much of his work chronicles daily Parisian life. He also etched a series of allegorical prints such as this one. The subject matter refers to the celebrations surrounding the birth of the grandson of Louis XV, the Duc de Bourgogne. Louis XV provided 300 livres each for the dowries of 600 of the less fortunate girls of Paris (the inscription in the lower left corner of the print reads "no. 600. Dot. 300l."). The marriages took place throughout churches of Paris on November 9, 1751. Saint-Aubin's allegory depicts Venus seated at the upper right, just below an oval portrait of the young Duke which is held by several putti. Venus is overseeing the transfer of coins from the City of Paris to Hymen, the winged god of marriage. These floating figures are surrounded by a group of putti, who are lighting their torches from the torch held by Hymen. Pont-Neuf and Notre-Dame may be seen in the distant background.
Publication History
- Perrin Stein, Artists and Amateurs: Etching in 18th-century France, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2013), cat. 36, p. 70 [not Harvard impression, related bibliography]
Verification Level
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