Auf allen vieren am Boden hockender Mann (mit Küken spielender Bursche) before 1730

Nicolas Lancret made this drawing of a man playing with chicks on grey paper in the 18th century. Lancret was a painter of fêtes galantes, or aristocratic entertainments, and he drew and painted many images of the theatre. Lancret was part of a generation of artists working in Paris at a time when the institutions of art were becoming more open and accessible. In 1737, the Palace of the Louvre became a public museum. Lancret and other artists who were members of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture were given exhibition space there. These institutions played a crucial role in shaping the development and appreciation of French art, as well as cultivating a new audience. The meaning of art is never fixed or self-evident, but is always contingent on the specific social and institutional context in which it is made and received. Art historians can investigate that context through research in archives and libraries.