The Lover Heard (L'amant écouté),

ca. 1785

In eighteenth-century French culture, the boudoir—a private room or suite of rooms designed for upper-class women—became associated with luxury and sexual intrigue. In these two amorous scenes, the action takes place in elegant interiors furnished in the most up-to-date style, as evidenced by the Neoclassical daybed and incense burner. Sculptures and paintings of female nudes underscore the erotic and seductive tenor of the narrative, while details such as the barometer and hot-chocolate pot allude to the worlds of science and global commerce.

Following the invention and development of color printing in eighteenth-century France, affordable reproductions such as these engravings by Bonnet after paintings by Schall became an enormous commercial success with middle-class audiences.