L'enveumant au bal

Etching and engraving, 1775. After Eberts and Freudeberg

First state of three, ante litteram.

The etched state was executed by Antoine-Jean  Duclos, and Francois-Robert Ingouf completed the plate with some engraving.

The final state was published in Monument du Costume Physique et Moral de la fin du Dix-huitième siècle.

The scene depicts a young man in masquerade dress, kneeling to kiss the hand of a young woman, who sits in an alcove behind a curtain on the left, removing her mask, hidden by a companion who stands before the man and acts as intermediary; table set with food to right, dancers in the background to left.

Antoine-Jean Duclos, born in 1742 in Paris where he died in 1795, was a French draftsman and engraver.

Born in Paris, Duclos was a student of Augustin de Saint-Aubin, whose drawings he reproduced. He later became one of the most gifted vignettists of his generation, executing numerous small-format illustrations that were very much in vogue in the second half of the eighteenth century. He was also gifted in copperplate preparation, working for other engravers, draftsmen, and painters such as François Boucher, Charles-Nicolas Cochin, Jean-Michel Moreau, Charles Eisen, Hubert François Gravelot, Charles Monnet, and Clément-Pierre Marillier. 

References:

Lawrence & Dighton, French Line Engraving of the late XVIII Century (217.I/III).