Eugène Bléry’s etching, “Le Chemin dans la Forêt”, 1851, after Van Ruisdael

Eugène Bléry (aka Alexandre Stanislas Eugène Bléry) (1805–1887)

“Le Chemin dans la Forêt” (The Path in the Forest) (aka “Le Ruysdaël” [Beraldi & BM title]), 1851, proof before lettering for publication, after the pencil and brushed ink drawing by Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael (aka Jacob van Ruysdael; Jacob van Ruisdael; Jacob de Goyer) (1628/9–1682) in the Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris (see http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr/de/node/219412#infos-principales).

Etching on light grey chine collé (China) on wove paper with small margins backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 25.4 x 36.6 cm; (plate) 23.4 x 34.1 cm; (chine collé) 23.1 x 33.8 cm.

Inscribed on plate below the image borderline: “(left) “EBlery Sculpt aq.a.forti”; (right) “.1851.”

Inscribed in ink by an old hand at lower below the image borderline: (right) “Ruisdaël invt.”

Note: I wish to propose that the hand-written ink note is inscribed by the artist as the writing style matches the inscribed style on the plate of the later states (cf. the style of writing the word, “Ruisdaël”, in states ii and iii).

State i (?) of iii (?) before lettering below the image borderline at centre: “d’après le dessin original de Ruisdaël, tire du Cabinet de Monsieur Simon. […]” (see https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/E._BLERY%2C_Le_Ruysda%C3%ABl_%28Le_Chemin_dans_la_For%C3%AAt%29%2C_1851..jpg) and the later erasure of this lettering and the addition at lower left “- Ruisdaël delineavit” (see BM no. 1856,0712.324).

Beraldi 1885-92 88 (Henri Beraldi 1885, “Les graveurs du 19e siècle; guide de l'amateur d'estampes modernes”, vol. 2, Paris, L. Conquet, p. 115); IFF 109 (Département des Estampes 1930, “Inventaire du Fonds, Français: graveurs du XVIIe siècle”, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print:

“Landscape representing a forest; a path in the right foreground; two oaks in the left foreground”

(https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3288244&partId=1&searchText=blery&page=2).

Condition: richly inked and well-printed impression in excellent condition with small margins and laid upon a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this elegantly simple and very beautiful etching after Ruisdael’s drawing, featuring a sweeping arc of a path leading into a forest, for AU$278 in total (currently US$185.67/EUR169.63/GBP144.11 at the time of posting 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 sensitively and insightfully executed etching—note how the artist has rendered the detail and darker tone of the foreground trees in a mimetic way, compared to the cross-hatched treatment of trees in the middle distance and the vertical and horizontal strokes suggesting the shapes of distant trees—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