Rêtif de la Bretonne: The Little Godparents

Rêtif de la Bretonne: The Little Godparents — Jean-Michel Moreau the Younger. 1777.

Medium: etching and engraving. Dimensions: .

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Moreau was a printmaker and book illustrator, known best for his ability to depict fashion, poses, and gestures. Published in Monument du costume physique et morale, a suite of prints portraying the manners and dress of fashionable society at the end of the 1700s, this scene is part of a sequence narrating the pregnancy and birth of a young couple’s first son. Here, a superbly dressed boy and girl exit a mansion toward a waiting coach; behind them, a wet nurse carries their godson, whose gesturing father stands to the side with two footmen.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.