DOI issue:
No. 200 (November, 200)
DOI article:Frantz, Henri: The etchings of Jean Francois Raffaelli
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20968#0146
The Etchings of J. F. Raffaelli
"LA GARe" BY J. F. RAFFAELLI
of Montmartre, and the sadness of the faubourgs ;
and, lastly, of the romanticists Bonington, Johannot,
Deveria, Rocqueplan. Raffaelli rounds off and
completes the work of all these by the intensity of
his modernism, and by his very personal conception
of the life of the present day.
It is, therefore, with extreme pleasure that one
turns over these proofs—in seeing first this view
of the Madeleine so full of life, so lightly, so
directly executed, the seething crowd and the pal-
pitating life of the Boulevard des Italiens, the
noble and lofty majesty of Notre-Dame seen from
the same spot from which Bonington painted it,
the melancholy of the deserted districts and barren
parts of the environs—how fully these and many
other works realise the ideals of modern life !
A word must also be said about the etcher's
technique. For a long time Raffaelli has been in-
terested in etchings in colours, fully realising that
this charming art had fallen into disuse. He has,
furthermore, himself told us how this art, since
the days of Debucourt, Janinet and Watteau, had
been revived in a few tentative efforts by Bracque-
mond, by Henry Guerard, and by himself. One
remembers that in 1893 MM. Boussod et Valadon
published a series, called "Les Petites Gens," of
etchings in colours by him. I remember also the
124
exhibition of forty engravings which he held in
1898, and from which sprang that important asso-
ciation, La Societe de la Gravure en Couleurs,
whose salon achieves such a great success each
autumn. Like the engravers of the eighteenth
century Raffaelli adheres to the principle of
multiple printings. His only innovation has been
to substitute for plates printed in tint or wash, plates
cross-hatched with the dry point, and executed
with exceeding fineness. It is this that gives to
his works their own particular character, and which
suffices to distinguish them markedly from the
productions of his contemporaries, if, indeed,
they have not already attained a position ahead
of all others by their bold frank vision and
distinctive interpretation of nature and life.
" SUR LE CHEMIN" By J. F. RAFFAELLI
"LA GARe" BY J. F. RAFFAELLI
of Montmartre, and the sadness of the faubourgs ;
and, lastly, of the romanticists Bonington, Johannot,
Deveria, Rocqueplan. Raffaelli rounds off and
completes the work of all these by the intensity of
his modernism, and by his very personal conception
of the life of the present day.
It is, therefore, with extreme pleasure that one
turns over these proofs—in seeing first this view
of the Madeleine so full of life, so lightly, so
directly executed, the seething crowd and the pal-
pitating life of the Boulevard des Italiens, the
noble and lofty majesty of Notre-Dame seen from
the same spot from which Bonington painted it,
the melancholy of the deserted districts and barren
parts of the environs—how fully these and many
other works realise the ideals of modern life !
A word must also be said about the etcher's
technique. For a long time Raffaelli has been in-
terested in etchings in colours, fully realising that
this charming art had fallen into disuse. He has,
furthermore, himself told us how this art, since
the days of Debucourt, Janinet and Watteau, had
been revived in a few tentative efforts by Bracque-
mond, by Henry Guerard, and by himself. One
remembers that in 1893 MM. Boussod et Valadon
published a series, called "Les Petites Gens," of
etchings in colours by him. I remember also the
124
exhibition of forty engravings which he held in
1898, and from which sprang that important asso-
ciation, La Societe de la Gravure en Couleurs,
whose salon achieves such a great success each
autumn. Like the engravers of the eighteenth
century Raffaelli adheres to the principle of
multiple printings. His only innovation has been
to substitute for plates printed in tint or wash, plates
cross-hatched with the dry point, and executed
with exceeding fineness. It is this that gives to
his works their own particular character, and which
suffices to distinguish them markedly from the
productions of his contemporaries, if, indeed,
they have not already attained a position ahead
of all others by their bold frank vision and
distinctive interpretation of nature and life.
" SUR LE CHEMIN" By J. F. RAFFAELLI