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Painterly Prints

It may be hard to fathom today, but once upon a time prints were monochromatic. When the first generation of Western printmakers challenged themselves to create etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts in color, their efforts were at first viewed with disdain by many. Japanese woodcuts, which had been printed in color for hundreds of years by then, showed artists the way. This revolution was particularly hard-fought for intaglio: etching, aquatint, drypoint, and assorted copper-plate techniques. Etching was regarded mostly as a “graphic” art, from the ancient Greek, γράφειν: to write. The expectation was that the graphic artist was to render his vision in line or grayscale only. Color was for painting. Yet many printmakers forged ahead, threw caution to the wind, pushed the envelope. This selection is an ode to those works of art: painterly etchings.

Bernard Boutet de Monvel - La Patineuse - female fashion ice skater - color aquatint and soft-ground etching
$1,500

The Skater

BOUTET DE MONVEL, Bernard

La Patineuse (original French title) Color aquatint and soft-ground etching printed in color on thick wove paper. References: neither in the BN-IFF...

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