Cleveland Museum of Art

Tomb with Sphinxes and an Owl

Louis Jean Desprez

Date

c. 1779–84

Medium

aquatint with etching

Culture

France, 18th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Originally trained as an architect, Louis Jean Desprez produced this print depicting a tomb while living in Rome. He combined details observed while visiting catacombs in southern Italy with macabre inventions, such as the pair of feet visible from within the sculptural space. Desprez creatively used aquatint—a printmaking technique that produces shades of gray—to render the space’s dramatic shadows and stone surfaces. The growing popularity of Egypt in the late 18th century, bolstered by Napoleon Bonaparte’s ultimately failed attempt to colonize the country, ensured a ready market for the subject of Louis Jean Desprez's print.

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