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Jean Michel Moreau

The Arrival of Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the Champs-Élysées

1780
Pen and black ink, brush and brown wash and pale orange wash, on cream laid paper, prepared with a white gouache ground, laid down on off-white wove paper
23.2 × 33 cm (9.1 × 13 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Jean-Michel Moreau, the Younger, was Designer of Royal Entertainments (and soon to be Royal Designer and Engraver) when this drawing was among those shown at the Salon du Louvre of 1781, where it was extolled by the encyclopedist and critic Denis Diderot. As engraved by C. F. Macret in 1782, the subject of the scene was identified as a group of eminent philosophers and ancient authors—Montaigne, Voltaire, Homer, Plato, and Plutarch—welcoming into heaven Jean-Jacques Rousseau, author of The Social Contract.

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