Entrance to a Forest by Jean Jacques de Boissieu

Entrance to a Forest

c. 1772

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Artwork details

Dimensions
Image: 24.2 × 37.1 cm (9 1/2 × 14 5/8 in.) Plate: 25.3 × 38 cm (9 15/16 × 14 15/16 in.) Sheet: 41.5 × 57.8 cm (16 5/16 × 22 3/4 in.)
Location
Harvard Art Museums
Copyright
CC0 1.0

About this artwork

Editor: This is Jean Jacques de Boissieu’s "Entrance to a Forest," and the etching feels like a scene from a fairytale. What symbols jump out at you? Curator: The forest itself is potent. Beyond its obvious nature, the forest is a traditional symbol of the unconscious. Do you see how the riders disappear into the trees? Editor: So, the forest is a space for both journey and loss of self? Curator: Precisely! And the figures near the cottage seem to be enacting some ritual. How do you interpret the figures clustered there? Editor: I hadn't considered ritual. It makes me rethink the piece entirely. Curator: The image certainly invites us to reflect on what we project onto it.

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