Shepherd Resting in a Clearing (1849): Artwork and History

Shepherd Resting in a Clearing (1849) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Henri Joseph Harpignies French, 1819-1916.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

While most etchings are created in the intaglio process whereby the etched lines hold ink, in this print by Harpignies, the work is printed like a woodcut, a relief process. Here the surface of the plate was covered with black ink and printed as a relief so that the etched lines, which do not hold ink, appear white. This was an unusual process to be used in the nineteenth century and was likely done by the artist as a technical experiment.

Object facts

• Title: Shepherd Resting in a Clearing
• Date: 1849
• Artist attribution: Henri Joseph Harpignies French, 1819-1916
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Etching printed in relief on ivory wove paper
• Dimensions: Plate: 25.9 × 20.5 cm (10 1/4 × 8 1/8 in.); Sheet: 30.5 × 22 cm (12 1/16 × 8 11/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1930.940

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Albert and Miss Alice Roullier

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.