20 
House & Garden 
"L'Amant Ecoute" is by Bonnet after Hueb. “L’Amant Surpris” by Descourtis after Challe In ‘‘La Cocarde Nationale,” which is by Le- 
a delicate color print which, like the others has a delicate beauty of line and coloring of grand after Boilly, is evidenced an exquisite 
shoivn here, is from the Widener collection lohich one can never tire reflection of the France of radiant times 
THE GAY AND RADIANT LADIES OE ERENCH PRINTS 
Who Survived the Fury of the Revolution 
to Grace the Walls of Our Rooms Today 
PEYTON BOSWELL 
A bout the year 1792, or 
it may have been 1793 
or 1794, a Parisian workman 
stopped at a meat shop and 
selected a generous portion of 
the l)Utcher’s stock. The pro¬ 
prietor wrapped it up in a 
rectangular piece of paper, 
which he roughly crumpled as 
if angry because it wasn’t 
large enough to suit the pur¬ 
pose : then, grabbing another 
sheet from the same pile, 
wrapped the meat the other 
way and handed it to the cus¬ 
tomer. The workman paid 
his bill, looked at the package, 
scrutinized the wrapping, con¬ 
temptuously shrugged his 
shoulders and walked out. 
\\ hen he arrived at his 
home, his little daughter took 
the trackage from his hand 
and, hurrying to a table, un¬ 
wrapped it. 
“Ob!" she cried, holding up 
the first piece of wrapping 
paper. “See! Isn’t it pret- 
ty?" 
The child regarded the pa¬ 
per, stained though it was by 
the juices of the meat, with 
ecstacy. She danced around 
the room with it, then stopped 
before the candle again to 
enjoy the beauty of the pic¬ 
ture imprinted thereon. 
“Oh, see the pretty lady 
sitting by the side of the 
wood. Oh, papa, when are 
we going to the country 
again? Isn’t it nice!’’ 
“Llere, Marie, give that 
Johnston-Hewitt Studios 
Eighteenth Century French prints are especially prized because they 
give an exquisite completion to a Louis XV or Louis XVI room 
piece of paper to me at once.’’ 
The father spoke harshly. 
He took the piece of paper 
from the hand of the little 
girl, gave it a hasty glance and 
thrust it into the fire. The 
child began to sob as if her 
heart would break. The man 
picked her up in his arms, 
stroked her hair and kissed 
her tenderly. His mind was 
on the picture he had just de¬ 
stroyed—and his daughter. 
It was one of the most 
beautiful of French prints. 
Its title was “Pauvre An¬ 
nette’’ and it was one of the 
masterpieces of Debucourt, 
the great French engraver. 
It depicted a pretty young 
woman, seated in grief by the 
side of a wood, her heart 
breaking at the wrong she had 
suffered, a broken vase on 
the ground in front of her 
symbolizing the love tragedy 
that had overwhelmed her life 
when she met one of the gal¬ 
lants of the king’s court. 
The French workman 
thought of the girl seated by 
the wood, and he clasped his 
own little daughter more 
closely to his breast. He 
clenched his teeth and was 
glad that he had burned the 
print, which typified for him 
the wrongs of the old regime, 
swept away a little while be¬ 
fore in a crimson flood. In 
its destruction he felt a sense 
of personal satisfaction and 
justification. 
I 
