Unidentified artist’s etching after John Singer Sargent’s “Le Docteur Pozzi à la Maison”

Unidentified artist from the circle of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)

“Le Docteur Pozzi à la Maison”, c1890, a proof state impression after John Singer Sargent’s (1856–1925) remarkable portrait, “Dr. Pozzi at Home”, 1881, in the Collection of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California.

Etching and drypoint (with aquatint?) printed in a warm black ink on buff laid paper with a lettered watermark, trimmed close to the platemark on the top and bottom with wider margins on the sides.

Size: (sheet) 54.6 x 32.3 cm; (plate) 53.8 x 28 cm; (image borderline) 50.8 x 25.3.

Regarding the Sargent’s portrait, the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers the following insights:

“Samuel-Jean Pozzi (1846–1918), was a pioneer in the field of modern gynaecology in France; his practices advanced the reproductive safety and dignity of women. He was also an aesthete and an art collector whom Sargent greatly revered. The artist’s admiration for his charismatic sitter is evident in this dramatic portrait. Sargent portrays the worldly man in an almost ecclesiastical mode, with a gracious, slightly mannered pose and crimson costume that reference images of popes and cardinals by the old masters. Pozzi’s long fingers and elegant hands suggest his surgical prowess but also hint at his sensuality, which is further evoked by his informal dressing gown and the lush velvet curtains. This portrait was the first work Sargent exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1882” (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/644345).

Condition: a richly inked and well-printed (near faultless) impression. The sheet is trimmed close to the platemark on the top and bottom with wider margins (approx. 2.3 cm) on the sides. There are inky finger and other surface marks appropriate to a proof impression, otherwise the sheet is in a good condition with no tears, holes, abrasions, significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this magnificent and large etching of the utmost rarity—note that after extensive research I have been unable to find another copy of this very beautiful and skilfully executed print in any museum repository—for AU$398 (currently US$278.52/EUR249.75/GBP207.84 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 amazing etching made by a printmaker of great creative ingenuity and flair who has (to my eyes) successfully captured the essence of Sargent’s dazzling portrait without its arresting blaze of red, 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