The Charmes of the Morning

Louis-Marin Bonnet’s color-printing repertoire included these variations on the fashionable pastel portrait genre (1924.1308 and 1927.875). Softly layering multiple chalk-manner plates in colored inks, he completed the images with gold-leaf-accented frames. As the use of gold leaf was strictly regulated in France, Bonnet created an elaborate ruse: the English titles, sometimes misspelled, and printer’s address on the paper frame suggest that these prints were published in London, not Paris. Patently 18th century, with a hint of the boudoir, the resulting works closely resemble highly finished pastels.