Felix Bracquemond "Songe Mogol" Signed Etching 1886 After G. Moreau Fables

Description: [WORKS ON PAPER - ORIGINAL ENGRAVING - ETCHING -FABLES OF LA FONTAINE - GUSTAVE MOREAU - ORIENTALISM - FELIX BRACQUEMOND] Felix BRACQUEMOND1833-1914Painter, ceramist, graphic artist, engraver, lithographer, etcher, writer Society of French etchers (1862)National Society of Fine Arts (1890)precursor of Japonism Auguste Joseph Bracquemond, known as Félix Bracquemond, born in Paris on May 28, 1833 and died in Sèvres on October 27, 1914, was a French painter, ceramist, engraver and decorator of art objects.From 1856, he was considered the first in France to discover the interest of Japanese art.He was one of the founding members of the Society of Etchers in June 1862. He played an essential role in the revival of etching, encouraging Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro to use this technique.He married Marie Quivoron, impressionist painter, better known under the name ofMarie Bracquemond, August 5, 1869, in Paris. We sell herea rare and very good proof "The dream of a Mogol inhabitant"Hand signed in pencil by Félix Bracquemond under the subject, lower margin on the right(1886) Original etching.Proof on tinted Japanese paper, before the letterPrinting instructions printed in small letters above the subject towards the wide black border"October 1, 1886, London, published by Boussod and Valadon [...]"Small oval dry stamp at the bottom left under the subject -Test on Japan Free sheet, Small traces (old remains of a strip of paper for fixing under a frame or marie-louise) on top edge on reverse Approximate sheet size: 41.3 x 32.7 cmBowl approximately: 35.5 x 27.5 cmImage format (black border included) approximately: 27.5 x 21.5 cmLight Paper yellowed as alwaysBeautiful and rare proof,good general condition, without foxing,some small dirt, marks or friction on the left margin Good margins, center of the image in perfect condition, various traces in the margins, or tiny inevitable folds and usual miscellaneous handling see visuals... First printing of great rarityPublished in 1886 in London, on the occasion of the exhibition in London and Paris of 67 original watercolors by Gustave Moreau illustrating La Fontaine's FablesFélix Bracquemond performs 6 of these works, This rare engraving is part of the series “6 Fables de La Fontaine” (Beraldi 796) For further explanation, cf. text at the bottom of the page after the photos of the item sold . The illustration of La Fontaine's Fables by Gustave Moreau Born on April 17, 1833 in Marseille, Antony Roux (1833-1913), son of a rich merchant, inherited a large family fortune very early on which allowed him to lead a life as an incomer and patron, to travel in France, in Germany and Switzerland. Attracted by painting, he quickly built up a collection initially bringing together works by Marseille artists.including Félix Ziem and Gustave Ricard. Later, those of Corot, Delacroix, Fromentin, Rousseau complete it… In the late 1870s,Antony Roux wishes to bring together, alongside his paintings, a set of graphic works and is thinking of publishing a new illustrated edition of La Fontaine's Fables. To carry out this large-scale project, he followed the advice of the painter Jules-Élie Delaunay, who put him in contact with a certain number of artists, including Gustave Doré, Henri Gervex, Jules Jacquemart, the landscaperHenri Harpignies.The relationship between the collector and Gustave Moreau began from the very firstmonth of the year 1879 when Antony Roux came to Paris to meet different painters, met him thanks to Élie Delaunay. The foundations of the project laid, the agreement between the two men was immediate, the collector was full of praise, and Moreau immediately set to work with a view to quickly delivering the illustration of a first fable, Phoebus and Boreas, July 7, 1879. Without anythingallows us to know whether it is a personal initiative or a request from his patron, the painter adds to this first sending an Allegory of the Fable, a frontispiece to the work, such as has never existed previously.The two men will then exchange an abundant correspondence of which the Gustave Moreau museum only preserves a part, a little more than two hundred letters which cover the period from the beginning of 1879 to December 15, 1897. Very early on, the sponsor not only chooses the fables to illustrate but gets involvedof their iconography or their technique, his letters being peppered with proposals which he sometimes repented of, as well as his interventions on the works themselves.Genesis of a workOf great erudition and always curious, Gustave Moreau studies regularly in the various places of knowledge in the capital; he goes among others to the National Library and regularly attends, since 1853, the National Museum of Natural History which is for him the privileged place to carry out his studies on the living world and enrich his creations.Exploiting all the opportunities offered to him by this mecca of science, we see him attending organic chemistry seminars, taking courses in paleontology and mineralogy, obtaining information in the Jardin des Plantes library...To execute the Fables series, Gustave Moreau proceeds in two phases:the first is dedicated to investigation with naturalistic type research,the second is carried out in his workshop on rue de la Rochefoucauld.Studying from life is an essential element for the painter. So, from August 24 to September 12, 1881, he resumed his visits to the Museum and studied the animals of the Menagerie which he drew and observed carefully. He began his investigation on August 24 – with his access card obtained the same day – with the drawing of a European deer for the illustration of the Horse having wanted revenge on the Deer. THEAugust 25, he goes to the aviary to observe birds of prey, and studies vultures and ducks to compose The Vultures and the Pigeons and The Turtle and the Two Ducks. The same day, he made a drawing of a peacock, where he focused on the animal's colorful tail for The Peacock Complaining to Juno. The following day, he decided to devote himself to the rhinoceros and the elephant whichfind themselves to be the two protagonists of The Elephant and the Monkey of Jupiter. Then from August 28 to September 1, Gustave Moreau goes to the Rotonde, located in the heart of the Ménagerie, where the large pachyderms reside. From September 1, 1881, it was the Palace of Feral Beasts that attracted him for his study of lions; their roar and their different postures are deciphered.These drawings will be used for The Lion Growing Old and The Lion and the Rat. Finally, from September 7 to 12, Gustave Moreau stopped in the Gallery of Comparative Anatomy and made several drawings of skeletons, studies of skulls...He thus produced in the space of twenty days and in a precise manner, a salutary and considerable range of sketches of animal postures and attitudes. Butthis phase of research would be incomplete if we failed to recall the painter's multiple visits to exhibitions, to the Louvre Museum, to the National Library where he consulted, copied or traced. To this windfall is added his recourse, according to his habits, to the rich documentation which he has at home such as the copies of the Magasin Pittoresque.The second phase of his work is carried out in his workshop on rue de la Rochefoucauld, far from the tumult of the Jardin des Plantes and the Menagerie. Antony Roux chooses Moreau as sole illustratorIn 1881, the Society of French Watercolorists organized, in the private salonwhich she occupies at Durand-Ruel, a first presentation of the illustrations created by the different artists. There are twenty-five watercolors by Gustave Moreau there. The exhibition open untilJune 13, 1881 was a great success. For Moreau, it is a triumph.Thus, the art critic Charles Blanc, amazed by the works of the painterbelieves himself "in the presence of an enlightened artist who would have been a jeweler before beingpainter and who, having given himself over to the intoxication of color, would have crushed rubies,sapphires, emeralds, topaz, opals, pearls and mother-of-pearl,to make a palette.”In 1882-1883, Antony Roux abandoned his illustration project with severalhands, and decides to entrust all of the fables selected to Gustave Moreau.He perhaps acted under the influence of the critics of the 1881 exhibition whichfound the watercolors on display too disparate.Between 1879 and 1884, Moreau produced for Antony Roux sixty-fourwatercolor masterpieces that are presented, with some other of his works, from Mars 27 to April 26, 1886 at the gallery Boussod and Valadon, located 9 rue Chaptal in Paris, then again in 1886, in October in London. (it is on the occasion of this exhibition that Bracquemond's 6 etchings will be printed, including the one sold here) For Anatole France, this series of watercolors is “elegant and rarecuriosity. […] there are there […] the dreams of the most learned and refined taste, the dazzling and desolate visions of an artist who hates vulgarity to the point of fearing nature. »They were then shown one final time, in 1906, during the exhibitionposthumous dedicated to Gustave Moreau organized at the initiative of the CountessÉlisabeth Greffulhe, assisted by Robert de Montesquiou.Fortune and misfortune of a collectionShortly after the death of Antony Roux on October 14, 1913, his executor organized, on May 19 and 20, 1914, the sale of the collection.Sixty-three illustrations of the Fables by Gustave Moreau are acquired byMiriam-Alexandrine de Goldschmidt-Rothschild, of the sixty-fourwhat does the series count (The Middle-aged Man and his two Mistresses, hadbeen sold in the meantime). To date, of the sixty-four watercolors,twenty-eight, looted during the last War, are only knownby photographs. Of the remaining thirty-five, thirty-four aretoday kept in private hands. The Gustave Moreau museum inhas one offered in 1936 by Miriam-Alexandrine de GoldschmidtRothschild, The Peacock Complaining to Juno, from 1882.In 2021, (from October 27, 2021 to February 28, 2022) for the first time since the posthumous monographic exhibition ofGustave Moreau organized by Countess Greffulhe and Count Robert de Montesquiou, in 1906, visitors to the Gustave Moreau Museum were able to contemplate during a wonderful exhibition, thirty-five watercolors created for Antony Roux. They were presented with around forty preparatory studies (which were preferredblack and white photographs of the missing works) to makeaccount of the entire order, the exhibition also took place in England at Waddesdon Manor,from June 16 to October 17, 2021.Antony Roux wishes to bring together, alongside his paintings, a set of graphic works and is thinking of publishing a new illustrated edition of La Fontaine's Fables. To carry out this large-scale project, he followed the advice of the painter Jules-Élie Delaunay, who put him in contact with a certain number of artists, including Gustave Doré, Henri Gervex, Jules Jacquemart, the landscaper Studying from life is an essential element for the painter. So, from August 24 to September 12, 1881, he resumed his visits to the Museum and studied the animals of the Menagerie which he drew and observed carefully. He began his investigation on August 24 – with his access card obtained the same day – with the drawing of a European deer for the illustration of the Horse having wanted revenge on the Deer

Price: 497.16 USD

Location: Fontenay sous Bois

End Time: 2024-12-11T22:18:00.000Z

Shipping Cost: 65.98 USD