5. Adolphe Lalauze (1838-1906)
after Jean Béraud (1849-1936)

Autour du Piano (’Round the Piano)

(click on image to print)
Lalauze, Autour du Piano

Autour du Piano (’Round the Piano)

Etching, 1881, Bibliothèque Nationale Inventaire 106, 335 x 250 mm. Very fine impression on laid japan paper with small margins. Béraud was a fashionable painter of the time and Lalauze’s job was simply to get the image down in black and white, not losing the individuality of the faces. He did it quite competently in conventional etching technique, the last touches of finish mimicking the engraving of earlier years. It was this competence of technique that he taught to Buhot, who, obviously, had his eyes on something far more advanced. The little remarque at the base of the lady at the keyboard may be seen as a sort of primitive precursor of Buhot’s marginal commentaries, particularly so, as she is not present in the main image.