Le Printemps, d'après un pastel de Millet
Original title: Le Printemps, d'après un pastel de Millet
kurzbeschreibung
In 1888 Félix Bracquemond made an etching titled "Der Frühling, nach einem Pastell von Millet", showing a farmyard where a woman is surrounded by chicks. The print is the ninth state of nine and derives from a work by Jean-François Millet.
Description
A peasant woman squats on the ground in the foreground, a small animal — most likely a hen — held in her arm. Chicks crowd around her. A massive blossoming tree trunk rises up and dominates the layout. A gate appears at the left, a thatched building at the right. Everything stays in shades of grey, the light spread evenly across the surface.
Context
The source was a pastel by Jean-François Millet, a leading master of the Barbizon school. Millet specialised in scenes of rural life; Bracquemond carried one of them over into printmaking. The etching was made in 1888, thirteen years after Millet's death in 1875, and testifies to the high regard the younger artist held for the older one.
Impact
A quiet rural idyll unfolds. The even brightness and the commanding tree give the sheet a balanced mood. The woman with the chicks feels close and welcoming without slipping into sentimentality.
Technique
Lines are incised into the metal plate and bitten with acid — an intaglio process. Varying densities of stroke and etching stages produce the tonal values. The present impression is the ninth of nine states, which suggests the plate was thoroughly reworked.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)