Le Carquois épuisé (The Empty Quiver)

1775

Nicolas Delaunay after Pierre-Antoine Baudouin

Associated Names
Nicolas Delaunay

Artist, French, 1739 - 1792

Pierre-Antoine Baudouin

Artist After, French, 1723 - 1769

This print shows two people in a lavishly decorated room. On the left, a man is seated on an ornate sofa, leaning back comfortably with one arm on the backrest and one knee bent, his other leg extended. He wears a tailored outfit with a jacket and frilly cravat. He has light skin and light hair styled in curls around his ear. A discarded tricorn hat lies at his feet. He looks up at the woman standing next to him on the right. She wears a richly adorned dress with ruffles and lace, shoes with a small heel, a bracelet on her wrist, and ruffled collar around her neck. She also has light skin and light, curled hair, put in an updo on the top of her head. She holds a small makeup compact up to her face in one hand and a small brush in the other hand as she looks down at the man beside her. A small dog is near her feet, jumping up on its hind legs. The room features heavy draped curtains on the left and ornate furniture including a fireplace on the far right. To the right of the woman is a small folding screen decorated with an image of a man in a robe and a flat hat. In the center, above the woman, is a large statue of a cherub. It appears to aim a bow at the couple below, but the quiver by its side is empty. A large clock hangs on the wall above the cherub statue.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    etching and engraving

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 35.7 × 25.5 cm (14 1/16 × 10 1/16 in.)
    sheet: 45.6 × 34.2 cm (17 15/16 × 13 7/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1942.9.2188

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Portalis/Beraldi 1880, no. 3


Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

2018

  • Sense of Humor: Caricature, Satire, and the Comical in Prints and Drawings from Leonardo to the Present, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018 - 2019.

Bibliography

1880

  • Portalis, baron Roger and Henri Beraldi. Les graveurs du dix-huitieme siecle. 2 parts, 3 vols. each part. Paris, 1880.

1987

  • Taylor, Sean J. "Pendants and Commercial Ploys: Formal and Informal Relationships in the Work of Nicolas Delaunay." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 50, no 4(1987): 509-538.

Wikidata ID

Q64960709

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