The Indiscretion (1788): Art, History and Details

The Indiscretion (1788) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean François Janinet (French, 1752–1814); Nicolas Lavreince (Swedish).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The Indiscretion is from a suite of three scenes of women sharing secrets in the privacy of their boudoirs. The woman wearing a decadent hat has taken a love letter from the girl in white, who pleads with her older companion to give it back. Janinet refined the tools used in chalk-manner printmaking to create wash-manner etchings and engravings that imitate opaque watercolors, such as The Lover’s Visit and The Surprised Lovers on view nearby.

Object facts

• Title: The Indiscretion
• Date: 1788
• Creator attribution: Jean François Janinet (French, 1752–1814); Nicolas Lavreince (Swedish)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: Color wash-manner engraving and etching
• Dimensions: Sheet: 57.6 x 43 cm (22 11/16 x 16 15/16 in.); Platemark: 48.3 x 36.2 cm (19 x 14 1/4 in.)
• Collection: PR - Lavis manner
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2001.18

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.