Le jardin de la Noblesse Françoise [...].

12 etchings, 14 x 9,6 cm, laid paper with wide margins, signed and dated in the plate at lower edge "ABosse in. et fecit" (sm. water stain to lower edge of the series).

12 plates (incl. title) from the series "Le Jardin de la Noblesse Françoise" (20 pl.) with elegant representations of the court fashion of Louis XIII at around 1630. Bosse's full-length figures series were inspired by similar print series by Callot. Abraham Bosse (1604-1676) had met Callot around this time in Paris. Unlike Callot, his declared aim was to make etchings look like engravings, to which end he willingly sacrificed the freedom of the etched line, whilst certainly exploiting to the full the speed of the technique. In 1648, when Cardinal Mazarin established the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Bosse was made a founding member.
Ref. IFF 17e siècle 1304.