Charles-Émile Jacque, (France, 1813-1894)

Graveur original et peintre, École de Barbizon

1845 Original Etching

Pastoral Landscape, Plowing with Oxen

Initialed & dated in plate at upper left

This is a very beautiful and clear etching by the prominent French Barbizon School master, Charles Jacques. It is also an early example of the 19^th c. revival of the 17^th c. Dutch tradition of eau forte printmaking, championed by a number of the artists of the French Barbizon movement.

The image size is approximately 7-3/4” wide x 4-3/8” high (19.8cm x 11cm). The copper plate was 8-1/8” x 4-9/16” (20.6cm x 12 cm). The paper sheet is approximately 16-5/8” wide by 12” high (42.4cm by 32cm).

It is a good quality print, but it does have age spots (foxing) on the paper, mostly outside the area of the image, see photos.These could be removed by a conservator, but for my own collection, I enjoyed the print as is. The print is in an old mount (mat) that measures 19” wide by 14” high (48cm by 35.5cm); this mount should be replaced with an archival mat preparatory for framing.

"Fleeing the cholera epidemics that besieged Paris in the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Jacque relocated to [the town of] Barbizon [in the Fontainebleau forest region outside of Paris] in 1849 with Jean-Francois Millet. There, they painted rustic or pastoral subject matter; shepherds, flocks of sheep, pigs, and scenes of farm life. In addition to painting, Jacque was also famous for his etchings and engravings. He, along with Felix Bracquemond and Felix Buhot, is credited with the nineteenth-century revival of seventeenth-century [Dutch printmaking] techniques.... His sons Emile Jacque (1848-1912) and Frederic Jacque (1859-1931) were both painters and engravers especially of rural subjects." In total Charles Jacque created 470 original etchings. In 1867 he received the prestigious Legion d’honneur from the French government.

The Barbizon movement in France preceded and paved the way for the developments of Impressionism, and fundamentally established the roots of modern art. Barbizon artists and Impressionist artists were friends and acquaintances, some living and working together. Barbizon painting, prints, and sculptures departed dramatically from classical themes in art, were essentially revolutionary in character, and were widely enjoyed by the bourgeois, demonstrating a shift in the economic power of the art marketplace. The artistic focus and dramatic changes embodied in the works of the French Barbizon school ushered in the era of modern art. You can see many examples of Charles Jacque’s prints on the Internet, and his work has been collected by major museums around the world.

Barbizon artists bravely abandoned the stultifying influences of past academic arts, and focused steadily on an intimate, essentially spiritual, relationship with nature, while around them the Industrial Revolution and various wars raged. They pioneered a new relationship with art, and championed direct observation of nature. The movement continues strongly today, testimony to the core of important human truth they explored. And, in the quietude of their works, we can see the visible tremors that would erupt as "modern art."

Packed carefully for shipment via USPS Priority Mail, or Priority Mail International.