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Book of Fountains: No. 5
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Boucher was one of the most prolific designers of ornament prints. With their aquatic motifs and gracefully curving and scalloped forms, these designs for fantastic, even bizarre fountains perfectly illustrate the whimsical Rococo approach. Derived from the French word for shell, rocaille, the Rococo was a light, playful style filled with shell motifs (which stemmed in part from a vogue for collecting shells), naturalistic curves, scrolls, and plant forms.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineBook of Fountains: No. 5, c. 1736. Gabriel Huquier (French, 1695–1772), after François Boucher (French, 1703–1770). Etching. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Erich Lederer, 1953.675
