Four men and a woman smoking and drinking in an arbour and listening to a travelling hurdy-gurdy player. Etching by R. Daudet, 1787, after C. Dusart.

Paris : chez Joubert, [1787]

1 print : etching, with engraving ; image 19.9 x 16 cm

Tiré du cabinet de Mr le Brun d'après le tableau original de Corneille Dusart, de 17 pouces de h.r sur 14 po.s de l.r . P.t sur bois. C. Dusart pinxit ; R. Daudet sculp. 1787

The Inventaire du fonds français (loc. cit.) cites letters from Daudet to Lebrun about this print. On 14 June 1787 Daudet writes that he is working incessantly on this etching, and that he does not allow himself to leave his house before sunset in order to ensure that the work is done. In November 1787 he reports that he has finished the plate at last, that his calculation that it would take three months was an underestimate, that this plate took as long as two ordinary plates, and that he is asking 800 livres for his work

Marcel Roux, Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du XVIIIe siècle, Bibliothèque nationale, Département des estampes, tome VI, Paris 1949, p. 57, Daudet no. 32 ("Les buveurs: paysans attablés sous une treille; au premier plan, verre en main, une villageoise assise de profil a dr., sur un baquet renversé")

Wellcome Collection 3006309i