Charles-dominique-joseph Eisen, (attributed To), Putti Playing At Archery

Four putti playing with bows and arrows

H. 13.6 ; W. 21.2 cm
Red chalk

This charming drawing, attributed to Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen (Valenciennes 1720-Brussels 1778), depicts putti, or amours, practising archery.

The group of three amours, on the left, surround a target, with a heart at its centre, already pierced by an arrow. A fourth putto, at

right, is bending his bow, preparing to shoot.

Putti are recurring motifs in the work of Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen, frequently appearing in his vignettes and cul-de-lampe. The theme of lovers playing with bows and arrows is characteristic of the art of François Boucher, who was a major source of inspiration for Eisen.

His father, François Eisen (1695-1778), a painter renowned for his small paintings depicting mischievous scenes and children's games, also had a great influence on him.

A painter, draughtsman and engraver, Eisen joined the studio of Jacques-Philippe Le Bas (1707-1783), ‘the great artistic factory of the time’, , where the great draughtsmen and engravers of the golden age of French engraving were trained, such as his friend Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715-1790).

He quickly achieved great success and was much in demand by publishers, who asked him to compose illustrations, frontispieces,

vignettes and cul-de-lampe, for poetic or literary works, such as the Contes de la Fontaine, or Ovid's Metamorphoses.