Départ pour le Marché 1772

Anne Philiberte Coulet engraved this scene of rural life, titled "Départ pour le Marché"– Departure for the Market – sometime in the 1700s. It offers us a glimpse into the economic and social structures of 18th-century France. The image depicts peasants setting off to market, with goods loaded on a cart. Note the contrast between the relatively well-off figures on the donkey-pulled cart and the walking figures. The work subtly comments on the social hierarchy of the time, capturing the daily lives of those involved in agricultural production. Coulet was affiliated with both the Royal and Imperial Academies, suggesting the institutional networks through which artists circulated at the time. To fully understand this print, we need to consider the broader economic conditions that made the market such a central place in French society. Records from local archives, guild documents, and travel logs can all help us to reconstruct the world in which Coulet's image circulated, reminding us that art is always made within a specific set of social and institutional circumstances.