7. Félix Bracquemond
(1833-1914)
Frontispice pour "Les Trétaux" de Charles Monselet (Frontispiece for "The Stage" by Charles Monselet)

(click on image to print)
Les Trétaux

Frontispice pour "Les Trétaux" de Charles Monselet (Frontispiece for "The Stage" by Charles Monselet)

Etching, 1859, 218 x 158 mm., Béraldi 373 iii/iii, B.N. Inv. 123, Bouillon Af 39 iii/iii. Provenance: Samuel Isham (Lugt 1402); New York Public Library (duplicate). A fine impression on old laid paper with small margins all around (the first two states were of the uncut plate that also included the etching B. 374). One should note here that Bouillon's dimensions, which differ from these, are of the image size and not the plate as here. Bracquemond made little distinction between his so-called commercial work (book titles and illustrations, reproductive prints) and his artistic images, the same aesthetic and the same superlative technique being evident in both. But a single plate was used here for two totally different projects in order to save the publisher money. The book edition of the print was 2000, but Bouillon mentions that the impressions were of unequal quality. Proofs apart (and presumably before), such as this, are quite rare. Bouillon found five impressions from the uncut plate in major public collections, and mentions only four of this state, two in NYPL of which this may be one. Though the subject matter of the print is true to the book (Monselet had to approve it), one can see, on the right side of the screen behind the players, a lightly-etched group of ducks, in its way, and like Félix Buhot's owl, a sort of signature in itself.