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Source Description
François Boucher’s design for a fountain presents an elaborate artistic fantasy with details drawn from mythology and the natural world. Two sea creatures, half-human and half-fish hybrids known as tritons, sit in a shell basin playing a pair of conchs. In the print, Gabriel Huquier transformed Boucher’s rocky grotto into a shell niche featuring the head of the sea god, also called Triton. These designs, though fanciful, reflect a wider Enlightenment interest in the collection and study of shells. In fact, French naturalist Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville even opened his scientific treatise on shells, <em>La Conchyliologie</em>, with a related print by Boucher.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
130139
label
No. 6: Fountain with Two Tritons Blowing Conch Shells
core
obj
dtoType
print
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
130139
contentType
print
title
No. 6: Fountain with Two Tritons Blowing Conch Shells
description
François Boucher’s design for a fountain presents an elaborate artistic fantasy with details drawn from mythology and the natural world. Two sea creatures, half-human and half-fish hybrids known as tritons, sit in a shell basin playing a pair of conchs. In the print, Gabriel Huquier transformed Boucher’s rocky grotto into a shell niche featuring the head of the sea god, also called Triton. These designs, though fanciful, reflect a wider Enlightenment interest in the collection and study of shells. In fact, French naturalist Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville even opened his scientific treatise on shells, <em>La Conchyliologie</em>, with a related print by Boucher.
date
c. 1736
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79911866
creators
28347
1888
28347
genreSpecific
Print
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Image: 25.1 x 15.1 cm (9 7/8 x 5 15/16 in.); Platemark: 27.2 x 17.3 cm (10 11/16 x 6 13/16 in.); Sheet: 36 x 26.5 cm (14 3/16 x 10 7/16 in.)
cul
France, 18th century
accession
1952.518
Source extras
tec
etching and engraving
tombstone
Book of Fountains (Recueil de Fontaines): No. 6: Fountain with Two Tritons Blowing Conch Shells, c. 1736. Gabriel Huquier (French, 1695–1772), after François Boucher (French, 1703–1770). Etching and engraving; image: 25.1 x 15.1 cm (9 7/8 x 5 15/16 in.); platemark: 27.2 x 17.3 cm (10 11/16 x 6 13/16 in.); sheet: 36 x 26.5 cm (14 3/16 x 10 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Erich Lederer, 1952.518
series
Book of Fountains
seriesInOriginalLanguage
Recueil de Fontaines
collection
PR - Etching
inscriptions
inscription
Upper right, in plate: 6; lower left, in plate: F. Boucher. In.; lower center, in plate: avec Privilege du Roy; lower right, in plate: Huquier. ex.
didYouKnow
In addition to his fame as an artist, Boucher was known by his contemporaries for his important collection of shells.
citations
citation
Landau, Ellen G. “‘A Fairytale Circumstance’ the Influence of Stage Design on the Work of François Boucher.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 70, no. 9 (November 1983): 360–378.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 367-368, fig. 11
catalogueRaisonne
Fonds Français 18eme siecle XI.457.576-582
creditline
Gift of Erich Lederer
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:43:24.511000
sourceId
130139
dept
Prints
coll
PR - Etching
med
etching and engraving
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
08692756661c5c9e