Charles Jacque’s etching, “Une Bourrasque”

Charles Jacque (aka Charles Émile Jacque) (1813–94)

“Une Bourrasque” [a flurry/one gust], 1846

Etching on chine-collé on wove white paper

Size: (sheet) 19.8 x 24.6 cm; (plate) 12.3 x 16.8 cm; (image borderline) 7.5 x 11.5 cm

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Windswept landscape with three figures walking towards a shed at left; on the right a pig stands by a pond.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3359784&partId=1&searchText=Jacque+Une+Bourrasque&people=119978&page=1)

Inscribed on the plate with the artist’s signature (upper right corner) and lettered below the image borderline (lower right) “37”

Guiffrey (Guiffrey, J-J, L'Oeuvre de Charles Jacque: catalogue de ses eaux-fortes et pointes sèches, Paris, Mlle Lemaire, Éditeur, 1866) 1866 110; IFF (Inventaire du Fonds Français: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Estampes, Paris, 1930) 166

Condition: crisp and well-printed impression with wide margins in near pristine condition.

I am selling this superbly executed etching from one of the leading luminaries of the Barbizon movement for a total cost of AU$119 (currently US$90.01/EUR81.57/GBP69.56 at the time of posting this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this freely executed etching by Jacque, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This superb etching by Jacque has the freshness and vitality of line that are the hallmarks of great masters like Rembrandt. What this print captures is the impression of “real” rural life and it communicates this expression of genuine experience and observation through the spontaneity and passion of the marks depicting the three wind-blustered figures heading to shelter from a looming storm.

Although I have little doubt that Jacque initially drew this image very quickly while outdoors, I do not believe that the image was complete entirely outdoors. Indeed, close examination of the very controlled and calculated strokes that Jacque uses to depict the barn door to which the tree figures are heading seem—at least to my eyes—more like marks made in the calm of his studio. Similarly, I believe that Jacque has added details like the flock of migrating birds while “finishing” the image in the studio. He may have seen such a flight pattern while outdoors, but this pattern seems so well planned and integrated into the design of the image that it a vital part of the composition. Moreover, the rendering of the birds themselves is very considered suggesting that they were not drawn quickly. Note, for instance, that the closer birds have an “extra” stroke at the end of their wings to denote their spatial proximity while the further away birds are treated more schematically as they recede into the distance.