L’épouse indiscrète

Description

Marital indiscretion is the subject of this engraving by Nicolas Delaunay in which a husband is shown frolicking with a servant while his wife spies on them from behind a mattress. Nicolas Delaunay, who was received in the Académie Royale in 1789, was, along with his brother Robert, a fine engraver who captured the taste for sexually suggestive imagery. Delaunay’s engravings of amorous exploits were often executed after paintings by other artists, such as Fragonard, that were popular during the eighteenth century. L’épouse indiscrète is based on two gouaches by Baudouin, one of which belonged to the Goncourt brothers.
Exhibition label copy from "Eighteenth Century French Prints and Drawings," February 1 - May 4, 2003 by Curator Carole McNamara