Abraham Bosse

Abraham Bosse (born 1604, Tours, France—died Feb. 14, 1676, Paris) was a notable engraver, painter, and architect who was active during the Baroque period in France.

Under the influence of a mathematician, Girard Desargues, Bosse mastered perspective, of which he became a professor at the Academy of Painting. Elected an honorary academician, he was subsequently expelled because of his serious quarrels with colleagues. His prints—mostly of allegories, genre scenes, frontispieces, and costumes—include The Ages of Man (1636) and The Marriage of Ladislas IV (1645). One of Bosse’s best-known writings is Traité des manières de dessiner les ordres de l’architecture antique (1664; “Treatise on the Ways of Designing the Orders of Classical Architecture”). His paintings, which today are rare, include The Foolish Virgins. Contributing to the development of caricature and cartoon, Bosse also lampooned trades and professions in his dispassionate woodcuts and engravings.