Claude Jean Baptiste Hoin, printmaker

This luminous image, composed of tones of different intensities, uses minimal outlining. Deceptively simple, the tonal range was carefully modulated by selectively covering areas of the plate and repeatedly exposing it to acid for different lengths of time. The use of sepia-colored ink enhances the warm glow of the impression as well as its resemblance to a pen-andwash drawing.

While the print’s inscription claims it is after Fragonard, the composition is based on a brown-wash drawing by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, now at the British Museum. Fragonard may have drawn a copy of Tiepolo’s work when he visited Venice. His copy was auctioned in 1775 after the death of the collector Pierre-Jean Mariette, then may have been acquired by Hoin.