Actress Charlotte Desmares playing the role of a pilgrim, shown from behind with her head turned toward the right, she holds a walking stick, scallop shells adorn her cape 1710 - 1739

This is Louis Desplaces’ etching of the Actress Charlotte Desmares playing a pilgrim, made in Paris sometime around the early 18th century. The print captures the actress in costume, complete with scallop shells, staff, and gourd, common signifiers of pilgrimage. At the time, theatrical culture in France was closely managed through institutions like the Comédie-Française. Actresses like Desmares were celebrities, but their public image was carefully controlled. Prints like this one served as publicity but also shaped perceptions of actresses within specific roles. The image makes meaning through references to religious practice, which was a major part of French social life at the time. But it also alludes to the commercial theater and the performance of identity. Is this image conservative, in presenting an actress in a religious guise, or progressive, in suggesting the fluidity of identity? To understand this print better, you might research the history of French theater, the lives of actresses, and the visual culture of pilgrimage. The meaning of this artwork emerges from its complex social and institutional context.