(Pierre) Paul-Adrien Bouroux (1878–1967)

(left image) "Ruins at Damman", 28th July, 1918

(right image) "La Halle d'Ypres,Belgium", 9th August 1918

From "De la Mer aux Vosges", Geneva, 1921.

Etching (with drypoint?) in sepia ink on wove paper, in an edition of 300

Size: (sheet) 27.8 x 22.4/27.3 x 22 cm; (plate) 21.7 x 16.8./21.3 x 16.2cm.

Inscribed in the plate (lower edge) with the artist's signature, title and date.

Condition: richly inked impressions with plate tone and margins in pristine condition.

I am selling this pair of prints by Paul-Adrien Bouroux for AU$135 (currently US$97.44/EUR86.83/GBP67.16 at the time of posting these prints) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing these visually arresting etchings of ruins from WW1, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

The First World War must have been a dreadful time for artist-illustrators like Bouroux and these richly inked etchings of ruined churches certainly seem to capture a hint of the artist's melancholic mood at the time. What I find particularly interesting about these images, in terms of expressing melancholy—presuming that I am not alone in seeing such a mood expressed in these prints—is the way that Bouroux uses the juxtaposition of dark tones and dense line work rendering the ruins' architectural details with the lightness and sparse line work describing their surroundings to project non-visual feelings.