La visite de l'amant (Ecole Française)

Last third of the 18th century

Oil on panel, in the taste of the compositions of the painter Pierre-Antoine Baudouin engraved sometimes by Nicolas de Launay . Wooden panel restored on the back.

Wooden frame and gilded stucco decorated with pearls and heart stripes, 18th century

According to the Goncourt brothers, the 18th century was the century of seduction and love intrigue. They made Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) the main illustrator, indeed the main agent, of this postulate. Baudoin was undoubtedly a mentor in libertine iconography for Fragonard, whose studio he shared.

Pierre-Antoine Baudouin (1723-1769), a butcher's pupil, was extremely successful in producing gouaches whose subjects overlapped with those of libertine literature. His scenes of erotic seduction are close to the novels of Crébillon (1707-1777), de la Morlière (1719-1785)