Interior view of the Enfants Trouvés

Etienne Fessard|Augustin de Saint-Aubin

1759 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

From a series of fifteen plates engraved by Fessard after the paintings by Natoire in the Chapel of the Enfants-Trouvés, Paris. The chapel was built in 1746-50 based on designs by Germain Boffrand, but destroyed in the 19th century. The main altar depicted The Adoration of the Magi and subsidiary scenes included the children and nuns of the orphanage as onlookers. Natoire’s scenes were set into trompe l’oeil surrounds painted by Paolo Antonio and Gaetano Brunetti, giving the illusion that the viewer was standing in a ruined building. This perspective view of the interior is based on a drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin. The print depicting the ceiling (Caviglia-Brunel, 2012, under *P.195, p.360) is missing from the Met’s set.

Artist

Etienne Fessard|Augustin de Saint-Aubin

Date

1759

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959