Charles Jacque’s etching with engraving and drypoint, “Pifferaris”, 1864

Charles Jacque (aka Charles Émile Jacque; Charles Jaque) (1813–1894)

“Pifferaris” (aka “Drie Italiaanse straatmuzikanten”; “Italian Buskers”), 1864, plate 14.3 from a series of twenty-four etchings published in 1864 (Guiffrey [1868] cat. nos. 177 to 212), “Various Rural and Pastoral Compositions by Jacque” (Rijksmuseum title [transl.], printed in Paris by Auguste Delâtre (aka Auguste Marie Delâtre) (1822–1907).

Etching with engraving and drypoint with pale plate tone on chine collé on heavy wove paper with wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 42.8 x 30.9 cm; (plate) 23 x 15.8 cm; (chine collé) 21.6 x 15 cm; (image borderline) 21 x 15 cm.

Signed in plate within the image borderline: (lower left corner) “Ch. Jacque”.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “CH. JACQUE.”; (centre) “PIFFERARIS”; (right of centre) “N^o. 14_3.”; (right) “DELÂTRE IMP.”

State (ii of ii) showing the following changes described by Guiffrey (1868): “[transl.] The heads have been completely reworked with a burin & drypoint” (94).

Guiffrey 190.II (J.-J. Guiffrey 1868, “L’Oeuvre de Ch. Jacque: Catalogue de ses Eaux-Fortes et Pointes Sèches”, Paris, Lemaire, p. 94, cat. no. 190, state ii); IFF 293 (Jean Adhémar, Jacques Lethève 1954, “Inventaire du Fonds Francais Apres 1800”, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, vol. 11, p. 115, cat. no. 293)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “Three pifferari (Italian buskers) playing music on a public square; the eldest of the boys plays the bagpipes whilst the other play the pipe; lettered state. 1864 Etching on chine collé” (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1889-0608-219). See also the description of this print offered by the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.128659.

Condition: a richly inked, strong and well-printed impression with generously wide margins. Beyond minor handling and other marks along with bumps at the corners, the sheet is in an excellent condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions or significant stains.

I am selling this exceptionally fine etching of three buskers—two playing the pipe and one, possibly the taller elder brother, playing the bagpipes—performing in a sunny market square animated with shoppers and (to give a sense of space and air?) a flock of birds flying in the far distance, for AU$279 (currently US$188.65/EUR172.20/GBP149.34 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 remarkably fine etching executed by one of the luminaries 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