Félix
Bracquemond (aka Joseph Auguste Félix Bracquemond; Joseph Félix Bracquemond)
(1833–1914)
“Charles Méryon”
(aka “Portrait de Meryon”; “Portrait of Artist Charles
Meryon”), 1853, printed by Alfred Salmon (fl.1863–1894) and published
in the June 1, 1884 edition of the “Gazette des Beaux-Arts”, opposite page 518.
Heliogravure
on cream wove paper
with full margins, two binding holes within the flattened left publication fold
(as bound in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts).
Note: Boullion
(1987) offers the following information regarding the original etching plate and
the subsequent printing as a heliogravure plate:
(transl.) “plate
made in 1853, then destroyed after a print [edition] of ten proofs; reproduced
by the Amand-Durand process then reduced and published in the Gazette des
Beaux-Arts on June 1, 1884” (p. 34).
From what I understand
from reading about this print in Boullion’s catalogue raisonné, Meryon was far
from happy about Bracquemond’s portrait of him and it may Meryon (but I may be
wrong) that destroyed the original etching plate to make his dissatisfaction
known.
A friend to
both Meryon and Bracquemond, the art critic Philippe Burty, makes the following
insightful comment (in translation from Boullion) about this portrait:
“The
physiognomy is serious; the eyes have a piercing, insecure look like that of a
beast who realizes that he is being observed” (Burty 1868).
Size: (sheet)
28 x 20.3 cm.; (plate) 19.5 x 14.3 cm.; (image borderline) 18.5 x 13.3 cm.
Inscribed on
plate: (upper left) “à Ch.M./ B./ 1853”; (upper right) “Gazette
des Beaux-Arts.”; (lower right corner) “Imp. A. Salmon.”
State iv (of
iv) with inscribed publication details of the “Gazette des Beaux-Arts.”
Bouillon Aa 14-4
(4) (Jean-Paul Bouillon 1987, “Félix Bracquemond: Le
Réalisme Absolu: Œuvre Gravé 1849–1859”, Skira, Genève, Skira, pp. 34–35); IFF
36; Beraldi 77
The Rijksmuseum
offers the following description of this heliogravure :
(transl.) “Portrait
of the artist Charles Meryon in half-figure sitting on a chair three-quarters
to the right with his arm nonchalantly resting on the backrest. At the top left
is the year in which the man was recorded. At the top right is the title of the
magazine in which the portrait was published.”
Condition: well-printed,
richly inked impression in near pristine condition as published. There are previous
collectors’ pencil notations on both sides of the sheet.
I am selling
this famous heliogravure etching—the original etching plate was destroyed (possibly by the sitter as a
sign of disapproval) after only ten proofs were pulled—for the total cost of
AU$368 (currently US$248.55/EUR225.83/GBP196.66 at the time of this listing)
including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course,
any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).
If you are
interested in purchasing this historically important heliogravure of one of the most famous
French printmakers of the 19th century, 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
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