25. Theodore Roussel
(1847-1926)

Chelsea Children, Chelsea Embankment

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Roussel, Chelsea Children

Chelsea Children, Chelsea Embankment

Etching, 1889, 186 x 130 mm., Rutter p. 69, no. 18 and plate xxvi; Hausberg 32, edition about 30. Fine, clean-wiped impression on thick cream wove paper with good margins all around. The image is of a portion of Cheyne Walk between Chelsea Old Church and Oakley Street, seen in reverse, with the Albert Bridge just visible in the background. The etched line here is heavier and less modulated than Whistler's, but there is a human empathy in the scene that is clearly not in the "art for art's sake" vocabulary and has its own distinctive appeal.