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Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Huet Making a Chalk Drawing

c. 1778
Louis-Marin Bonnet (French, 1736–1793) Published by Louis-Marin Bonnet (French, 1736–1793) After an ink and wash drawing of c. 1778 by Louis-Marin Bonnet (French, 1736–1793) Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet (French, 1745–1811)
Seated by a top-floor window, the artist portrayed here has natural light to draw by. Amid the tools piled at the base of the bull's-eye decorative frame are several objects that emphasize the fundamental importance of drawing for eighteenth-century artists: a plaster bust to sketch from, an open drawing manual, a composition drawn on a canvas, and a rolled-up male academy (or drawing of a nude). Louis-Marin Bonnet himself engraved many illustrations for drawing manuals and probably created An Artist Making a Chalk Drawing for one of these sets of instructive prints.

Object Details

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