Art Institute of Chicago

The Night, plate 1 from Paul et Virginie

Charles-Melchior Descourtis (French, 1753-1820)

Date: 1795
Medium: Etching and engraving printed in yellow, blue, red, and black inks on paper
Culture: France
Department: Prints and Drawings
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago

Night falls as Paul and Virginie are returning from the plantation, and they stop, fatigued and hungry, with little hope of finding their way home. Suddenly, they hear the familiar barking of their dog Fidèle, and they see Domingue, one of the two enslaved people owned by their family, running anxiously toward them out of the woods. Domingue was sent to find the children by their concerned mothers, but on his way through the jungle he passed the plantation and learned of the fugitive woman’s dire fate.

View at Art Institute of Chicago ↗

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Linked open data

Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.

Object type: AAT300041273

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.

The Fugitive Slave, plate 2 from Paul et Virginie

Art Institute of Chicago

The Prayer, plate 6 from Paul et Virginie

Art Institute of Chicago

The Departure, plate 4 from Paul et Virginie

Art Institute of Chicago

Finding Virginie's Body, plate 5 from Paul et Virginie

Art Institute of Chicago

The Arrival of Monsieur de la Bourdonnais, plate 3 from Paul et Virginie

Art Institute of Chicago

The Story of Adam and Eve

Getty Museum

“You tramp! I would like to see you drown in your beer! Leaving me alone like that with my three children, he gives me twelve sous, and when he comes back in the evening, he asks for his change!,” plate 48 from Moeurs Conjugales

Art Institute of Chicago