23. Félix Buhot
(1847-1898)

La Maison Maudite

(click on image to print)
Buhot, La Maison Maudite

La Maison Maudite

Etching and drypoint, 1877, Bourcard/Goodfriend 117 i-ii/iii, 247 x 178 mm., ex collection: HB (Henrietta Buhot). Superb proof impression, with heavy plate tone, of an unrecorded state between the first and second, on old laid paper with a crowned shield watermark and large, full margins. The state is before the shadow at the left of the seated old woman, before erasure of the clouds of smoke at the right of the woman and before the horizontal shading over most of the lower plate area. The burr is rich and heavy and there are some wavy streaks of wiping at the bottom of the plate and the lower right and left sides. The border line at the left and bottom is still very strong. Though inspired by Barbey d’Aurevilly’s novel L’Ensorcelée, for which Buhot made a set of illustrations, this print never appeared in the book, even in cut-down form. Verso is the pencil inscription “Pour une épreuve,” possibly in the hand of Mme. Buhot. A wonderfully effective and possibly unique impression.