A Frenchman, Sword in Hand 1630 - 1640

Abraham Bosse made this etching, "A Frenchman, Sword in Hand," sometime in the mid-17th century. It presents a swaggering figure, every inch the cavalier, posed against an ideal landscape complete with distant fortress. Bosse was a key figure in disseminating the visual vocabulary of class identity and aspiration in early modern France. His prints provided accessible models for how people wanted to see themselves. Through such imagery, codes of dress and deportment shaped social meaning and belonging. The culture of dueling, as seen here, was a key feature of that moment in French social history. Historians like me use prints such as this as primary documents for understanding the history of fashion and social life. We look at costume manuals, etiquette books, and other images to understand the aspirations and anxieties of the period. By placing artworks within these broader social contexts, we can better understand their place in the history of the institution of art.