Richard Parkes Bonington’s lithograph, “Le Château d'Harcourt”, 1824

Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828)

“Le Château d'Harcourt”— a section of the ruins of the medieval Harcourt Castle near Lillebonne (Northern France in Normandy, between Rouen and Le Havre), 1824, plate 3 from the series of ten lithographs (Beraldi 16–25), “Restes et Fragmens d'Architecture du Moyen Age” (Remains and Fragments of the Architecture of the Middle Ages) (aka “la Petite Normandie” [Beraldi]), printed in Paris by Feillet (fl.1822–28).

Lithograph on fine wove paper trimmed with a narrow margin around the image borderline with loss of the text above the borderline, “Lillebonne.”, and below the borderline, “Chateau d'Harcourt”, backed with a support sheet providing wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 22 x 15.6 cm; (image borderline) 21.5 x 15.2 cm.

Lettered in stone/plate (with partial loss of text) below the image borderline: (left) “R P Bonington”; (right) “Lith de Feillet”.

Curtis 9 (Atherton Curtis 1939, “L'Oeuvre Lithographié et Gravé de R. P. Bonington”, Paris, Paul Prouté, cat. no. 9); Bouvenne p. 18 (Aglaüs Bouvenne 1873, “Catalogue de l'Oeuvre Gravé et Lithographié de R. P. Bonington”, Paris. 1873, p. 18); Beraldi 18 (Henri Beraldi 1885, “Les Graveurs du XIXe Siècle: BELLANGÉ - BOVINET”, vol. 2, Paris, Librairie L. Conquet, p. 159, cat. no. 16–25 [no. 3]).

The British Museum offers the following description of this print: “A ruined square tower with an arched window in the lowest storey, in a wooded landscape, with two men resting by the path in front of it, and another moving planks in front of the window. 1824 Lithograph (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1866-1114-249).

Beraldi descibes that the set of ten lithographs of which this print is one as not only a “very beautiful and rare suite” (“Très belle et rare suite …”) (p. 159), but, interestingly, also proposes that “they are masterpieces and they must be put in the first place among the pieces which did honor to lithography” (“ Ce sont des chefs-d'oeuvre et il faut les mettre au premier rang parmi les pièces qui ont fait honneur à la lithographie …”) (p. 157).

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression in a good condition with no tears, holes or significant stains, trimmed with losses to the text above and below the image borderline and laid onto a sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper providing wide margins.

I am selling this very beautiful and rare lithograph by “one of the most influential British artists of his time” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Parkes_Bonington) and certainly one of the acclaimed masters of lithography, for the total price of AU$269 (currently US$175.22/EUR161.78/GBP138.39 at the time of this listing) including Express 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 acknowledged masterwork of lithography, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.