The Four Times of Day: Noon

Scenes representing times of day or the seasons were frequently used to thematically decorate rooms, and were suitable subjects for suites of prints. This example depicting a young shepherdess avoiding the noonday sun is from a set that also features <em>Morning, Afternoon,</em> and <em>Evening</em>. Each scene portrays the bucolic life of a shepherd or shepherdess in a rural landscape. Demarteau colored the prints to appear like drawings made with black and red chalk with wash, similar to Boucher’s <em>The Departure of Jacob</em> nearby.