BOSSE, Abraham

Bosse’s genre scenes provide a source of documentation on 17th-century French life and manners. This engraving represents Hearing from a series entitled Five senses.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes):

Georg Muffat: Concerto grosso No. 9, VI Borea

The picture shows an illustration (engraved after Claude Vignon by Abraham Bosse) for Jean Chapelain’s ‘La Pucelle ou La France d�livr�e’.

The standard interior layout of the mid 17th century in France is known today through Abraham Bosse’s engravings and to paintings based on his works, such as the cycle of the Five Senses. This picture shows a painting by an unknown painter after an engraving by Bosse.

Abraham Bosse is generally studied purely as a recorder of life and manners, but he is also an artist of high quality. He began as an illustrator of novels and religious works and as a copier of the Late Mannerists. But in the 1630s he developed an independent and very personal style. His subjects are either taken from contemporary life, as in the Marriage à la Ville and the Marriage à la Campagne series (1633), or are clothed in the forms of his own period as in the Wise and Foolish Virgins (c. 1635).

When Bosse renders a biblical subject such as the Wise and Foolish Virgins he makes the parable the means of conveying a moral dear to the serious hearts of his audience, and at the same time gives yet another series of scenes from bourgeois life. In the engravings of the Wise Virgins we see his narrative and descriptive skill, but at the same time his mastery of technique. His detached naturalism in the rendering of the subject brings him close to Louis Le Nain, and he has further in common with him a fine grasp of classical composition, coupled in this case with a Caravaggesque use of lighting. His qualities are the opposite to those of Callot — solid technical ability and clear composition, as opposed to wit and brilliance of touch — so that to a certain extent he represents the classical phase of French engraving just as Callot embodies the Mannerist stage.

In 1645 French artist and printmaker, Abraham Bosse wrote, illustrated and published in Paris the first treatise on engraving and etching techniques: Tract� des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l’airin. Later it went through many reprintings and translated editions in the decades and centuries to come. Although Bosse favoured the esthetic of the engraving, the technique of etching as he treats is basically that employed by Rembrandt, the greatest master of etching.

The present illustration is from a Dutch edition of 1662. which copied the illustrations from Bosse’s. It shows the plate being heated on a chafing dish to prepare it for receiving the ground.

In 1645 French artist and printmaker, Abraham Bosse wrote, illustrated and published in Paris the first treatise on engraving and etching techniques: Tract� des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l’airin. Later it went through many reprintings and translated editions in the decades and centuries to come. Although Bosse favoured the esthetic of the engraving, the technique of etching as he treats is basically that employed by Rembrandt, the greatest master of etching.

The present illustration is from a Dutch edition of 1662. which copied the illustrations from Bosse’s. It shows the thinner needles, with sharp points, and the broader ones below, with the whetting stone for shaping the points. The brush is for keeping the etching ground clean once it has been applied to the plate.

In 1645 French artist and printmaker, Abraham Bosse wrote, illustrated and published in Paris the first treatise on engraving and etching techniques: Tract� des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l’airin. Later it went through many reprintings and translated editions in the decades and centuries to come. Although Bosse favoured the esthetic of the engraving, the technique of etching as he treats is basically that employed by Rembrandt, the greatest master of etching.

The present illustration is from a Dutch edition of 1662. which copied the illustrations from Bosse’s. Here the acid is poured over the plate in a holder put together expressly for that purpose.

In 1645 French artist and printmaker, Abraham Bosse wrote, illustrated and published in Paris the first treatise on engraving and etching techniques: Tract� des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l’airin. Later it went through many reprintings and translated editions in the decades and centuries to come. Although Bosse favoured the esthetic of the engraving, the technique of etching as he treats is basically that employed by Rembrandt, the greatest master of etching.

The present illustration is from a Dutch edition of 1662. which copied the illustrations from Bosse’s. After the acid is poured over the plate ten or twelve times, the latter has to be turned in various other positions in order to ensure equal biting.

In 1645 French artist and printmaker, Abraham Bosse wrote, illustrated and published in Paris the first treatise on engraving and etching techniques: Tract� des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l’airin. Later it went through many reprintings and translated editions in the decades and centuries to come. Although Bosse favoured the esthetic of the engraving, the technique of etching as he treats is basically that employed by Rembrandt, the greatest master of etching.

The present illustration is from a Dutch edition of 1662. which copied the illustrations from Bosse’s. It shows an etching going through the press. The printer’s stance shows that he is exerting himself and the plate is being subjected to considerable pressure. Printed etchings are hung up behind the press to dry.