Badende vrouw aan een beek 1744 - 1781

Jean Baptist Leprince created this image of a bathing woman by a stream using etching. Its intimate scale and the use of red chalk, known as sanguine, make it seem like a personal and immediate study. Produced in France during the mid-18th century, the image reflects the Rococo period's fascination with sensuality and the pastoral. We see a move away from the grand, historical, or religious subjects. Instead, the image shows a more private, sensual moment, in harmony with nature. The art market was becoming more important at this time, which increased the demand for smaller, more domestic works like this one. The artistic conventions of the time favoured a kind of idealised naturalness. To understand Leprince's image better, one could look into the market for prints in 18th-century France. The archives of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture might reveal the dominant thinking about what constituted appropriate subject matter for art. This artwork is a product of its time, reflecting changes in social values and institutional structures.