Nocturne — Hérouard

A clandestine night-garden scene in which a couple's embrace unfolds beneath a cherub's watchful gaze.

Original French title: Nocturne. Drawn by Chéri Hérouard. Published in La Vie Parisienne, Paris, c. 1915.

Chéri Hérouard's nocturnes belonged to a long tradition of pastoral garden scenes refigured for the modern French weekly. The set-pieces — the cupid statue, the moonlit foliage, the embracing pair — descend from eighteenth-century fête galante painting, here updated for the Belle Époque salon and its taste for amorous décor.

Chromolithograph. Sheet size approximately 37.7 × 28.7 cm. Very Good.