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Primary sourcePainting1761

Rousseau at Montmorency

Jean Houel · 1761

A pencil drawing by Jean Houel depicting Rousseau at Montmorency in 1761, during his lifetime.

This drawing is catalogued as a depiction of Rousseau made during his lifetime at Montmorency.

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Lithograph of a seated woman in a cap and apron, knitting or sewing, with a dog and a cat beside her. A lit candlestick stands on a table at left; kitchen pots hang on a shelf behind. Caption text in French lies below the image.
Jean Houel (attributed), Rousseau at Montmorency, 1761.

About this source

What it is

This is a pencil drawing made by the artist Jean Houel in 1761, showing Jean-Jacques Rousseau at Montmorency, where Rousseau lived for a time. The record identifies the subject and date, though the surviving image file shown here is a lithograph of a different domestic scene, suggesting a mismatch between the catalogued drawing and the image available.

Why it matters

If accurately attributed, this drawing would be a direct, contemporary depiction of Rousseau made during his lifetime at Montmorency, a place closely associated with his writing years. Such images help historians understand how Rousseau was pictured by those around him.

Look closer

  • What might an artist choose to include or leave out when drawing someone during their lifetime?
  • Why is it important to check that an image file actually matches its historical caption?
  • What does the setting of Montmorency tell you about this period of Rousseau's life?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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