1771 Nicolas Ponce La Toilette Engraving After Pierre-Antoine Baudouin. Historic Hunterian Museum / Glaha 949 Notation

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Description

Nicolas Ponce (1746–1831), after Pierre-Antoine Baudouin (1723–1769)
La Toilette
Paris, 1771
Etching and engraving / copperplate engraving
Framed under glass

… Read more Nicolas Ponce (1746–1831), after Pierre-Antoine Baudouin (1723–1769)
La Toilette
Paris, 1771
Etching and engraving / copperplate engraving
Framed under glass

An antique impression of La Toilette, the celebrated 1771 French engraving by Nicolas Ponce after a composition by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin, painter to King Louis XV.

The intimate Rococo interior depicts a fashionable young woman at her toilette, attended by her maid while a seated gentleman observes from beside the window. A small dog appears at her feet. The composition is surrounded by an elaborate neoclassical ornamental border; the National Gallery of Art attributes the border design to Charles-Nicolas Cochin II.

The engraving bears its original printed inscriptions, including:

“Peint à Gouasse par P. A. Baudouin Ptre du Roi”
“Gravé par N. Ponce en 1771”
and the Paris publisher’s address for Basin and Poignant.

Examples of La Toilette are held in major museum collections including the Musée du Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Of particular interest, the old paper backing bears a handwritten red notation reading “Hunterian Museum GLAHA 949.” GLAHA is an accession-number format associated with The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow. The precise historical relationship of this example to the museum has not been independently established, and the notation is presented as part of the object’s documented physical history rather than as confirmed museum provenance.

Presented in an old narrow molded frame under glass. The frame shows considerable age-related surface wear and losses. The backing paper is brittle, torn and partially deteriorated and separated, with an old hanging wire and remnants of an inventory label. The engraving itself exhibits overall age toning and other expected signs of age. Please examine all photographs carefully; the object is being offered in its existing antique condition and has not been restored.

A handsome surviving example of an important late-18th-century French Rococo engraving with an intriguing historic museum notation.

Measurements: 17 in x 13 in


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