L’Orage

Etching printed in brownish-black ink on tan Arches laid paper.

Reference: BnF IFF volume VI, page 167, mentioned as missing from the Bibliothèques collection.

Edition unknown but certainly small. Very scarce.

Signed in ink and bearing the red printing press monogram stamp of the artist (Lugt 105).

Short mended tear (on the verso) in the top margin, away from the plate. Otherwise in excellent unrestored condition, which is rare for a 155-year-old etching.

NOTE: This is one of Auguste Delâtre’s largest plate, and possibly his largest. He was not a prolific printmaker, focusing most of his career on his craft as an etching printer for other artists. When he etched, he did so mostly on a smaller scale. This is stormy view of Paris, then still mostly a low-rise city and the exurban Seine River. The windmill in the foreground and the rising moon seem to be in a dialog, as weather comes rolling in. The sheet’s warm tone and the impressions plate tone finish off the composition, making it moody in a way only 19th century etchings can. It is the most accomplished composition we have seen by the artist. Aside from a handful of etching colored "à la poupée", which are scarcer than hens teeth, this is as attractive as any etching by the artist gets.