Frédéric Jacque’s etching, “La Veillée à Barbizon”, 1880

Frédéric Jacque (1859-1931)

“La Veillée à Barbizon” (The evening activities [vigil] at Barbizon), 1880, printed by G Malthe (fl.1850–1900) and published in 1891 in an edition of 550 impressions by A Ferroud and Benezit-Constant in Paris, and Harry C Dickens in London as plate 8 (of 17) to “Le livre D’Or de J.-F. Millet par un Ancien Ami”.

Note: someday soon I may be able to offer an intact copy of this publication as my records show that I have a copy bound in leather and numbered 403 in the edition of 550 with a handwritten note (untranslated). At present, however, the book is hiding somewhere on my bookshelves waiting to be discovered.

Etching with dot roulette and plate tone on watermarked cream (Hollande teinté) laid paper.

Size: (sheet) 32.6 x 22.9 cm; (plate) 20.7 x 15.4 cm; (image borderline) 19 x 14.2 cm.

Lettered on plate below the image borderline: (left) “F. Jacque, inv. & sc.”; (centre) “LA VEILLÉE À BARBIZON”; (right) “G. Malthe, imp.”

Condition: a richly inked, faultless impression in near pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains, foxing or signs of handling.

I am selling this Rembrandtesque masterwork of etching by Charles Jaque’s son, showing a rural house at night illuminated by the light from a window and by a lamp carried by a woman and her child about to ascend an exterior staircase, for a total cost of AU$203 (currently US$157.24/EUR130.92/GBP113.29 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) 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 poetically beautiful etching executed at the height of the Etching Revival period—note the artist’s clear joy in portraying features of the scene that are in almost complete darkness—and at a time when artists were increasingly becoming fascinated by the effects of light, 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