Monuments of Paris

Régine Carey was an accomplished printmaker who specialized in aquatint. Many of her prints showcase her great skill in layering the technique to create effects of dramatic contrast and shadow. Carey was born in Nuremberg as Regina Schönecker. She trained with Johann and Maria Catharina Prestel, pioneers of the aquatint technique in Germany. Carey accompanied the Prestels to Paris and it is likely there that she met her husband, printseller J.C. Carey.

This detailed ink drawing is attributed to Régine Carey due to its close likeness to her print, Monuments of Paris, first published in 1806. This drawing may have been her preparatory study for the print. While unsigned, Carey’s hand can be seen in her characteristic round-faced figures with heavy blots of ink marking the eyes and in the textured and clumped foliage, as seen in the bottom right. Her drawing prioritizes the ink line and linear elements that she would have needed to work out in preparing to make her print. She leaves bare areas that she would later fill with dramatic shadow using aquatint while making the print, like the piles of stones in the bottom left or the expanse of sky.

Carey’s drawing and subsequent print are based on a painting by Hubert Robert (1733-1808) dating to 1789. Robert’s painting and Carey’s works represent an imaginary gathering of great monuments of Paris. Carey chooses Robert’s later version of his painting that places a bronze statue of a Lion at the center – this statue was looted by Napoleon in 1797 and brought to Paris to showcase his military triumphs in Italy. Carey seems to have solicited the patronage of the Bonaparte regime: her Monuments of Paris print was dedicated to Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, and she made additional prints after the Napoleonic collections or dedicated to Empress Josephine Bonaparte.