Jean Jacques de Boissieu’s etching (with drypoint), “Entrée de forêt avec une masure, à gauche”, 1772

Jean Jacques de Boissieu (aka Jean Jacques de Boissieux) (1736–1810)

“Entrée de forêt avec une masure, à gauche” (Transl. “Entrance to forest with hovel on the left”), 1772

Etching and drypoint on grey chine collé upon laid paper.

Size: (sheet) 40.9 x 54.6 cm; (plate) 28.7 x 40.6 cm

Inscribed with the artist’s monogram below the image borderline at right: “DB *[asterisk]”

State iv (of iv) with the added monogram of the artist at lower right with asterisk

Perez 61 IV (Perez, Marie-Félicie 1994, “L'Oeuvre gravé de Jean-Jacques de Boissieu”, Geneva, pp. 142–43)

Condition: rare impression of great delicacy but there are spots of restoration where the tissue thin chine collé has been cut. There is also a closed tear at the centre top margin but this issue has been addressed with the whole sheet having been laid upon a conservator’s support sheet.

I am selling this very poetic etching for the total cost of ... [deleted] at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this beautiful print that one could argue links the vision of Ruisdael with the artists of the Barbizon School, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

There is a companion print to this marvellous etching, titled “Entrée de forêt en Brie, avec masure, à droite” (Ref. Perez 60) shown in the upper image, which presents the same dilapidated house, but from the viewpoint of standing behind it.

What I find interesting when studying these prints is that the raking light in both scenes has such a remarkable effect on how I perceive the form of the house, trees and figures. In short, the light streaming from the left in the upper print seems (to my eye) to render the portrayed forms as being more solidly three-dimensional than the same scene below it where the light illuminates the features from the right side. This effect may simply be the result of a Western reading direction and a whole tradition of art in Occidental art of lighting subjects from the top-front-left but the comparison reveals how important that the direction of light in a scene really is.

I should add at this point that even though the portrayed features in upper print may be more convincingly three-dimensional, this does not mean that I prefer the upper print. In truth, the opposite is true. For some strange reason, I like the not-quite-so-real dimensions of the lower print with its source of illumination from the right. Perhaps this is because the lower print has an aura of unreality to it: an awkward reality that is subliminally unsettling, but which keeps me interested nevertheless.