Charles Jean Louis Courtry’s etching of Jean Jacques Henner’s painting, “La Fontaine"

Charles Jean Louis Courtry (1846–97)

“La Fontaine”, 1880, after a painting of the same name by Jean Jacques Henner (1829–1905), printed by Alfred Salmon (1863–94; fl.), published in “L'Art”, XXI, 1880, page 180.

Etching with drypoint on cream laid paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 42.8 x 29.8 cm; (plate) 27.7 x 21.6 cm; (image borderline) 24.2 x 19.1 cm.

Lettered above the image borderline (centre): “SALON DE 1880.”

Lettered below the image borderline with production detail and title: (left) “J.J. Henner pinx. / L'Art”; (centre) “LA FONTAINE”; (right) “Ch. Courtry sc. / Imp. A. Salmon.”

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3356685&partId=1&searchText=la+Fontaine+henner&page=1

IFF 103 (Inventaire du Fonds Français: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département des Estampes, Paris, 1930); Beraldi 1885-92 12 (Beraldi, Henri, “Les Graveurs du dix-neuvième siècle”, 12 vols plus supplement, Paris, 1885)

Condition: a richly inked and sensitively printed impression in near pristine condition (i.e. there are no tears, stains, abrasions, holes or foxing).

I am selling this richly worked etching by Coutry for a total cost of  [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this softly beautiful nude, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

A hallmark of great artists is the way that they represent areas of strong shadow in their artworks. By this I mean that uncommitted artists working in a perfunctory manner are likely to spread a relatively even layer of tone to portray shadows, whereas more insightful artists add “life” to their representation of shadows with a complex layering of strokes.

This attribute of a layered complexity of strokes rendering shadows is what makes this very beautiful etching of a nude so engaging to examine. From my standpoint, I find myself drawn to looking into the darks to see what I’m missing at a casual glance. Going further, what I really love about this print is that my close examination is rewarded: there are subtle shifts in the direction of groups of aligned strokes that create subtle rhythms breathing life into the shadows.