'La Pucelle ou la France délivrée'. Plate 12: Charles VII watching the French troops entering Paris

Abraham Bosse (c. 1604-1676) was a notable engraver, painter and architect who was active during the Louis III and earlier Louis XIV periods in France. Stylistically he was inspired by his senior, Jacques Callot, who is more famous today but Bosse's career was far longer and more prolific. Under the influence of the mathematician, Girard Desargues, Bosse mastered perspective, of which he became a professor at the Academy of Painting. Elected an honorary academician, he was subsequently expelled because of his serious quarrels with colleagues, particularly the all-important Charles Le Brun. Bosse's prints—mostly of allegories, genre scenes, frontispieces, and costumes—include <em>The Ages of Man</em> (1636) and <em>The Marriage of Ladislas IV</em> (1645). One of Bosse’s best-known writings is <em>Traité des manières de dessiner les ordres de l’architecture antique</em> (1664; “Treatise on the Ways of Designing the Orders of Classical Architecture”). His paintings, which today are rare, include <em>The Foolish Virgins</em>. Contributing to the development of caricature and cartoon, Bosse also lampooned trades and professions in his dispassionate woodcuts and engravings.

This etching, based on a design by Bosse's contemporary Claude Vignon (1593-1670), is an illustration for a lavishly produced epic poem by Jean Chapelain, published in 1656. Entitled <em>La Pucelle ou la France </em><em>délivrée</em>, its heroine is Joan of Arc and her role as France's spiritual leader in the Hundred Years' War. This print depicts Charles VII ('the Victorious'), watching the French troops entering Paris in 1437, which after English occupation was now the capital of France once more. Further troops, buildings on fire and the twins towers of the cathedral of Notre-Dame are in the far background.

This etching is part of the Old Master print collection in the so-called King George IV album, and was acquired by the Dominion Museum in 1910.

Sources:

British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=131587

Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 'Abraham Bosse', https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham-Bosse

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   April 2019