43. Félix Buhot
(1847-1898)
Le Petit Enterrement (The Little Funeral)

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Buhot, Le Petit Enterrement

Le Petit Enterrement (The Little Funeral)

Etching with roulette and aquatint, 1878, B/G 154 ii/ii, 87 x 114 mm. Exceptionally fine impression in blue on laid paper with full margins, signed with the red owl stamp. Impressions of this print exist in three different colors: brown, which is common and almost never stamped or signed (a published edition); black, which is scarce; and blue, which is the rarest and most strikingly effective. According to an article on Buhot by Philippe Burty, the Boulevard de Clichy, where Buhot lived, was, on one side of the street, filled with buildings of five of six stories containing artists’studios. The opposite side of the street was lined with undertakers, tombstone makers and sellers of funereal goods. So what Buhot frequently saw when he emerged from his studio was a funeral, sufficient reason for him to have painted, drawn and etched such scenes. The two figures in the foreground are also to be seen in his Retour des Artistes aux Champs Elysées of the preceding year, a sample of how elements of his observation or imagination wander from one image to another.