id: 166634 accession number: 2008.355 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.355 updated: 2022-09-22 10:51:30.596000 The Moscow Tavern, c. 1773. Jean Baptiste Le Prince (French, 1734–1781). Pen and brown ink and brush and brown and gray wash on white laid paper; sheet: 19.5 x 24.2 cm (7 11/16 x 9 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.355 title: The Moscow Tavern title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1773 creation date earliest: 1768 creation date latest: 1778 current location: creditline: Bequest of Muriel Butkin copyright: --- culture: France, 18th century technique: Pen and brown ink and brush and brown and gray wash on white laid paper department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Jean Baptiste Le Prince (French, 1734–1781) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 19.5 x 24.2 cm (7 11/16 x 9 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: beige laid paper, laid down on multi-ply board overmounted with decorative borders, framing lines in brown ink watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: on overmount, lower center, in brown ink: vue prise De [la Coup?] [illegible] R[illegible]; verso of secondary support, upper left, in graphite: 836 [underlined]; upper left, in graphite: 603 / xl; lower center, in graphite: 65000 [r?][r underlined] Dessin avec la / gravure; lower left, in graphite: Leprince [underlined]; lower right, in graphite: cl 3419; lower center, in graphite: Cabaret de Moscou translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin opening date: 2001-08-26T00:00:00 French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * --- PROVENANCE [Christie's, London (9 December 1975), no. 78]; purchased in 1975. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: French art during the 1700s often reflects an interest in the exotic, especially in imagery of lands then perceived as far away and unusual-such as Turkey and China, places with religions and cultural practices different from those of Western Europe. Le Prince developed his own type of exotic imagery based on the peoples and customs of Russia. But unlike most artists, who fabricated fantastic visions of such places, he based his work on his own observations made in Russia between 1758 and 1763. After returning to Paris, Le Prince continued to rely on his Russian experiences for artistic subject matter. This drawing shows a rustic structure built as an outdoor pleasure garden and drinking establishment. Le Prince, who was an innovative printmaker, developed the medium known as aquatint, which allowed artists to translate the broad tonal washes of ink drawing into a type of etching. Le Prince translated this drawing into an aquatint. For more about this technique, see the exhibition about French printmaking on view nearby in galleries 109 and 110. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. page number: Referenced: cat. no. 14, p. 38-39, Reproduced: p. 39 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.355/2008.355_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.355/2008.355_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.355/2008.355_full.tif