2-729-199 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Fountain with Two Tritons Blowing Conch Shells, c. 1736. In this early chalk drawing, Boucher combined plants, dolphins, rocks, shells, and tritons (mythological creatures that are part man and part fish) into one seamless design that looks like a fountain in a rocky garden grotto. This sheet is a perfect example of the style of ornament that developed in France in the 1730s and became known as lart rocaille ("rock and shell art") or goût pittoresque ("picturesque taste"). More generally, we refer to this type of design as rococo, and it spread throughout Europe because of works such as this one, which other artists turned into prints in order to make them widely available.