La terrasse de la Villa Brancas

Etching, signed and dated Bracquemond / 1876 / L'Art inscribed in plate, along bottom: La Terrasse inscribed in plate, lower left: Imp. Salmon.

Example of the sixt final state, published in L'Art, 1879.

Bracquemond here represents his wife Marie painting her sister outdoors on the terrace of their villa at Sevres.

The engraving, one of the artist's most significant works, was executed in the year of the second Impressionist Exhibition and exhibited. The specificity of Bracquemond's graphic work, which is based on the "color/painting en plein air" relationship, clearly emerges in this work, where the effect of light is masterfully interpreted in the whites of Louise's dress and parasol, which are very bright because they are directly exposed to the sun, while Marie's dress is rendered in absolute black.  The etching suggests that already in the '70s the couple were engaged in meditating on common stylistic problems that would, however, soon take divergent paths.

The print was published in the periodical L'Art in 1879, the year that both Marie and Félix exhibited with the Impressionists. Excellent condition.

Bracquemond (Paris 1833 - ivi 1914), painter de engraver, who at the beginning of his career preferred subjects of landscape and animals, inspired by the Dutch, but treated with acute research of form and light relationships. Remarkable, among his engravings, the portraits. He was among the first to experiment (1873) the color printing, inspired by Japanese art. He was also involved in the engraving on porcelain (as a ceramist in the manufactures of Sèvres) and furniture, becoming a promoter, at the end of the century, Art Nouveau. He published Du dessin et de la couleur (1885) and Étude sur la gravure sur bois et la lithographie (1897).

References:

H. Béraldi, Les graveurs du XIXe siècle: Guide de l'amateur d'estampes modernes, vol. XII, cat. no. 215, pp. 80-81;  J. Adhémar, J. Lethève, Inventaire du Fonds Francais Apres 1800, cat. no. 377, p. 381.