IDBURY PRINTS

This print uses a mixed-media printmaking technique invented by Félicien Rops, and only ever used by Rops and a handful of other artists who contributed plate to the revue L'Artiste. It involved making a héliogravure plate after a painting (as in this case) or an etching that needed to be reduced in size (as in the case of Louis Legrand's La parole divine, our only other example of this process); the artist then worked on top of the heliogravure with a drypoint needle, thus producing a strange hybrid between a reproduction and an original print. The original painting of Puvis by Desboutin is in the Musée d'Amiens. This "pointe-sèche sur fond d'héliogravure" was published by L'Artiste. It is initialled in drypoint at the bottom left, and there are printed credits to the title, the publisher, and the printer, Nys. It was printed on dark cream laid paper, which looks to have darked further with time (especially around the edges of the sheet, which were not protected by the tissue guard). Ref: Sanchez & Seydoux 1895-7. Condition: Very good, see description.