Bernard Boutet de Monvel

As two elegant gentlemen in bowler hats stroll a Parisian street, a fashionable lady enters the frame at left. While this print has the appearance of a fleeting snapshot, its making was laborious and time consuming. Multiple plates-one for each color-were printed consecutively in careful registration, with the printmaker

letting the inks dry between passes in the press so the colors did not blend.

Influenced by photography and Japanese prints, Boutet de Monvel turned to color printing at a time it had become unfashionable because of its associations with commercial advertising. He was encouraged by the printer Eugène Delâtre, who persuaded a number of artists to revive the medium, including Mary Cassatt, whose work hangs nearby in this gallery.