La Servante Justifiee conte de la Fontaine (The Servant Girl Justified from the Fables of la Fontaine), after J.B. Huet
Artist
Louis-Marin Bonnet
(French, 1736–1793)
Date18th c.
Mediumcolor softgournd etching, drypoint, and open-bite on cream laid paper
DimensionsSheet: 26.1 x 18.8 cm
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineMrs. Kingsmill Marrs Collection
Object number1926.1427
Label TextThe Servant Girl Justified recounts Jean de la Fontaine’s story of a husband who slips away from his sleeping wife at dawn to pursue a young servant. After tackling the innocent woman to the ground, he molests her. When a prying neighbor sees the pair from an overhead window, the husband covers his tracks by assaulting his wife the same way only hours later. The helplessness of this eighteenth-century maidservant stands in stark contrast to the confidence and control of the ballerina in Gavarni’s Backstage at the Opera, made less than seventy-five years later.On View
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