Chedel (Pierre Quentin)

after François Boucher, a perfect blend of rustic and classical landscape, depicting a monumental Roman aquaduct in the background, with a simple medieval stone road bridge in the foreground, both being subsumed by nature in the densely wooded valley they were built to overcome, the resurgence of natural growth echoed in the suitably bucolic Latin verse quoted from Virgil’s third book of Eclogues to either side of the French title, which translates as ‘Every field, every tree now budding, now the woods are green, now the year is at its loveliest’. A lone figure shelters under the low road bridge, leaning on a staff,

etching on thick laid paper, 330 x 460 mm. (13 x 18 1/8 in), slight surface dirt mostly in the wide margins, a few repaired tears at the upper sheet edge,