Bather

In this print, Louis-Marin Bonnet used chalk-manner engraving to reproduce the soft contours of a nude by François Boucher. An 18th-century invention, chalk- or crayon-manner engravings were made with roulette wheels that rolled dotted patterns onto copper plates and mimicked the line of chalk or pastel. Here Bonnet printed two separate chalk-manner plates in black and white inks on blue paper to give the impression of a carefully worked drawing.