La soiree des Thuileries

The prolific reproductive printmaker Jean Baptiste Blaise Simonet frequently etched paintings by Pierre Antoine Baudouin. This frothy confection lacks Baudouin’s pastel colors and gauzy glazes, but substitutes an ethereal sense of moonlight. Two stylish lovers share a knowing glance—and a glimpse of skin—on a park bench partially concealed behind a monumental column. This early state of Simonet’s print lacks a title or signature, but the couple’s elegant meeting place is specified in the final state as the Tuileries Garden, near the Louvre, Paris.