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Colorful Impressions: The Printmaking Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France

October 26, 2003 – February 16, 2004
West Building, Ground Floor, Central Galleries

Philibert-Louis Debucourt, La Promenade Publique, 1792, etching and wash manner, printed in blue, carmine, dark pink, yellow, and black inks, Widener Collection, 1942.9.2266

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: 102 prints and drawings and 8 books illustrating the development of color printmaking in 18th-century France were shown in this exhibition. The works were by innovative printmakers such as Jakob Christoffel Le Blon, Charles-Melchior Descourtis, Anne Allen, and Louis-Marin Bonnet, who used new techniques to create full-color reproductions of paintings by well-known artists of the time. The exhibition complemented The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre Painting, on view in main floor galleries from October 12, 2003-January 11, 2004.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Margaret Morgan Grasselli, curator of old master drawings, was the curator.

Attendance: 133,212

Catalog: Colorful Impressions: The Printmaking Revolution in Eighteenth Century France, by Margaret Morgan Grasselli et al. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2003.

Brochure: Colorful Impressions: The Printmaking Revolution in Eighteenth Century France, by Margaret Morgan Grasselli with Judith A. Walsh. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2003.

Le Blon, Jakob Christoffel
German, 1667 - 1741
Descourtis, Charles-Melchior
French, 1753 - 1820
Allen, Anne
French, 1680 - 1820
Bonnet, Louis-Marin
French, 1736 - 1793