The Prayer, plate 6 from Paul et Virginie
- Medium
- Etching and engraving in yellow, blue, red, and black on ivory laid paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 37.5 × 41.2 cm (14 13/16 × 16 1/4 in.); Sheet, cut within platemark: 42 × 47.5 cm (16 9/16 × 18 3/4 in.)
- Genre
- etching
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Tags
mediamixed mediared inkinkartists' materialsprintprints and drawingcolored inkblack inketchingcoating (material)paper (fiber product)blue ink
About
In this print the other characters keep the discovery of Virginie’s body a secret from Paul, because he has been inconsolable in the weeks since the shipwreck. This scene shows Paul, Domingue, and the narrator praying near the church where, unbeknownst to Paul, Virginie has already been buried. In the coming months, most of the characters will succumb to illness, insanity, or death as they are consumed by their grief, leaving only the narrator to recount the story.
