Félix Buhot, “L'Hiver à Paris”, 1879

Félix Buhot (aka Félix Hilaire Buhot; Tohub [Buhot, in reverse]) (1847–1898)

“L'Hiver à Paris” (aka “Winter in Paris; “La Neige à Paris”; “Snow in Paris”), 1879, printed in Paris by Alfred Salmon (aka Adolphe Ardail; Salmon & Ardail; Alfred Fortuné Salmon) (fl.1863–1894).

This is a rare impression from the third state (of five [proposed by Bourcard] or nine [proposed by Goodfriend]) before the erasure of the artist’s monogram and the printer’s details of the fourth state (Bourcard). Interestingly, the number of dogs shown in the upper-right image changes: the three closer dogs are erased in the seventh state (Goodfriend) and two dogs are later redrawn giving four dogs in the eighth state.

Etching with drypoint, aquatint and soft-ground etching on fine laid paper (with partial watermark, “Arches”).

Size: (sheet) 28.5 x 41 cm; (plate) 23.8 x 34.9 cm.

Inscribed in plate: (upper-left image) “Montmartre”; (lower-left corner at foot of lamppost) “L’Art”; (at left on lower edge) “[in reverse] “Chauffeur public/ [Artist’s monogram]/ 25/ Imp. A Salmon”; (at centre on lower edge) “[in reverse] [au?] Boulevard des Italiens”; (upper-right image at lower-left corner) “Felix Buhot Paris ^Xbre 1879”; (upper-right image at lower-right) “à la Place Breda/ 9 Décembre”; (lower-right corner) “L’HIVER DE 1879 À PARIS”.

State iii (of v [Bourcard] or ix [Goodfriend])

Bourcard/Goodfriend 128 (Gustave Bourcard & James Goodfriend 1979, “Félix Buhot: Catalogue Descriptif de son Oeuvre Gravé”, New York, Martin Gordon Inc., pp. 77–78, cat. no. 128 [see also unpaginated supplement]).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print (state iii): “Paris during the winter, with five dogs in the centre foreground, two figures carrying spades at right, beyond an elegant woman and her daughter walking to the left, and on the right several coaches lined-up in front of a building; with marginal sketches including horses lying dead on road at left, at the bottom some legs, at bottom right figures skating on the river Seine” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0219-85).

Condition: a richly inked and well-printed (near faultless) impression in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, foxing, losses or significant stains.

I am selling this major print from the oeuvre of one of the most creatively inventive printmakers of the etching revival period, for the total cost of AU$554 (currently US$363.40/EUR331.96/GBP285.95 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU$554) as this is my currency.

If you are interested in purchasing this amazing etching where abutting images on the margin of a larger image—a pictorial arrangement that the artist called “marges symphoniques”—give “the other side” of street life for Parisiennes out shopping in winter—viz. horses that are frozen to death; starving dogs fighting for food scraps and labourers who shovel the snow trying to warm themselves near a crude brazier—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Note that I have listed another spectacularly fine etching by Félix Buhot, “The Cab Stand” (1876), that is currently still available: https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2023/04/felix-buhots-etching-and-drypoint-cab.html. 

This print has been sold