Object ID: 74.012
Creator: Abraham Bosse
Title: La Dame réformée (The Reformed Lady)
Date: 1629
Culture: French
Period: 17th C.
Dimensions: 11.73 x 8.23″
Materials: Etching (ink on paper)
Credit: Purchased by Wheaton College through the Shippee Memorial Fund
Provenance: circa 1650, Collection of Maximilian Willibald Waldburg-Wolfegg (Bavaria, Germany); circa 1903, Princes of Liechtenstein (Vaduz, Liechtenstein and Vienna, Austria); 1951, acquired by Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY, NY) from the P&D Colnaghi auction house (London, England); 1958-1974, Lucien Goldschmidt, Inc. (NY, NY); 1974, purchased by Wheaton College
Provenance research conducted by Anna Bachan, Jack Brotherton, and Rommie Cardenas, Class of 2017
“I have no doubt that a woman
must appreciate her riches;
Be they those of the mind or the soul,
More than the adornment of the body.
And still I believe,
That the splendor of man-made art,
Is in the service of nature
In order to enhance its beauty.
This is why my spirits are so, That I feel sorry for my misplaced hope,
No longer having to appear beautiful,
Neither lace nor scalloped points.”
-English translation of French text from the exhibition catalog Impressions: The Art of the Print, Selections from the Wheaton College Collection, published by Wheaton College in 2000.