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

049. Volume I, folio 45 recto
050. Volume I, folio 46 recto
051. Volume I, folio 47 recto
052. Volume I, folio 48 recto
053. Volume I, folio 49 recto
054. Volume I, folio 50 recto
055. Volume I, folio 51 recto
056. Volume I, folio 52 recto
057. Volume I, folio 53 recto
058. Volume I, folio 54 recto
059. Volume I, folio 55 recto
060. Volume I, folio 56 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.