Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Edme Bouchardon's Vade Mecum

037. Volume I, folio 33 recto
038. Volume I, folio 34 recto
039. Volume I, folio 35 recto
040. Volume I, folio 36 recto
041. Volume I, folio 37 recto
042. Volume I, folio 38 recto
043. Volume I, folio 39 recto
044. Volume I, folio 40 recto
045. Volume I, folio 41 recto
046. Volume I, folio 42 recto
047. Volume I, folio 43 recto
048. Volume I, folio 44 recto

Edme Bouchardon (Chaumont-en-Bassigny 1698–1762 Paris) was one of the greatest sculptors during the reign of Louis XV (r. 1715–74) and one of the most prolific and talented draftsmen of eighteenth-century France. The Morgan’s two-volume Vade Mecum (“Come with me”) sketchbook contains no fewer than 111 drawings, made mostly in red chalk, as well as a partial third volume of drawings in black chalk by another hand. The drawings, made by Bouchardon in Rome, are mostly copies of sculptural and architectural elements from around the city, while some are creative inventions and preparatory commissions that the artist tried to secure.