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Rural Recreation

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince

1769

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Romanticism 18th Century

Dominant colour

Rural Recreation is a 1769 by Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Jean-Baptiste Le Prince
When & what style?: 1769 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

The painting shows people having fun in the countryside. It's a relaxed scene with trees and a sunny sky. The artist used a special method to create detailed prints of his drawings, which is pretty interesting because it helped him share his work with more people. You can learn more about this style by looking into the technique of chiaroscuro.

The story of this work

Overview

To create printed reproductions of his wash drawings, Le Prince refined the method of aquatint, which uses particles of resin and acid to etch areas of granular tone into the printing plate. The finished effect imitates the subtle gradations of light and shadow achieved in wash drawings like Landscape with Watermill .

Read the full account in the museum source.