Spring, after a drawing completed in Saint-Chamond 1795

Jean Jacques de Boissieu created this print called "Spring, after a drawing completed in Saint-Chamond" using etching techniques, sometime before 1810. It presents a scene of rustic calm, with livestock grazing under the watchful eyes of shepherds. This image encapsulates the 18th-century French fascination with the pastoral, a romanticized view of rural life that contrasts sharply with the realities faced by the peasantry. We see this idealization reflected in the art institutions of the time, like the French Academy, which promoted landscape painting as a vehicle for moral and aesthetic education, or the Salon which displayed these works to a largely aristocratic audience. Boissieu, by creating this print, participates in a much wider cultural trend. But for whom was this image made? Did it serve to reinforce existing class structures? Or did it invite viewers to reflect on the social inequalities of the period? By exploring archival records, studies of print culture, and histories of French landscape painting, we can better understand its place in the social and institutional history of its time.