Jacques Beltrand, “Bellone”, 1907, after Rodin

Jacques Beltrand (1874–1977)

“Bellone”, 1907, chiaroscuro colour wood-engraving after the sculpture, “Buste de Bellone”, by Auguste Rodin (aka Pierre Auguste Rodin) (1840–1917). Inventaire du Fonds Français (IFF) advises that this print was published in “L'Art et les Artistes” (see cat. no. 14: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5488531x/f167).  

Wood-engraving in two colours (dark brown and tan) on heavy tan wove paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 30.5 x 20.2 cm; (platemark) 18.2 x 11.3 cm.

Lettered above the image: “A. RODIN”; (in plate below the image at left) “J. Beltrand./ d’ap. RODIN”; (below the platemark at centre) “BELLONE/ Gravure sur bois en couleurs par J. BELTRAND”.

IFF 14 (Jean Laren 1937, “Inventaire du Fonds Français après 1800”, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Estampes, vol. 2, p. 158, cat. no. 14.

Condition: a strong and well-printed, near faultless impression in a pristine condition free of tears, holes, folds, abrasions, or stains.

Price & Shipping: AU$278 (approx. US$182.31/ €156.26 / £136.41), including worldwide express shipping. Import duties are the buyer’s responsibility.

If you are interested in purchasing this visually arresting image of the Goddess of War and the sister of Mars after a bronze by Rodin, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Jacques Beltrand, “La Cathédrale d'Amiens”, 1913

Jacques Beltrand (1874–1977)

“La Cathédrale d'Amiens”, 1913, a chiaroscuro colour woodcut on fine laid Japanese paper with a small margin around the image borderline printed in a transition of burnt umber and sanguine with the addition of pale ochre and backed with a support sheet. This is an unsigned proof with minor restorations (see upper cloud at centre).

Size: (sheet) 27 x 18.1 cm; (image borderline) 24.8 x 15.7 cm.

IFF 42 (Jean Laren 1937, “Inventaire du Fonds Français après 1800”, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Estampes, vol. 2, p. 160, cat. no. 42 [see https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5488531x/f169]).

The National Gallery of Australia offer a brief description of this print (not reproduced): https://searchthecollection.nga.gov.au/object/99564.

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with no significant stains. There are minor restorations to small breaks in the tissue-thin paper and the print has been laid onto a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper.

I am selling this very beautiful colour woodcut of the Amiens Cathedral (aka Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens; Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Amiens) in the city of Amiens located in the Somme River valley north of Paris, France, for AU$215 in total (currently US$142.37/EUR130.14/GBP111.17 at the time of posting this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this eye-catching woodcut, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Jacques Beltrand’s chiaroscuro woodcut portrait of Beethoven (first version), 1907

Jacques Beltrand (aka Jacques Anthony Louis Beltrand) (1874–1977)

“Beethoven”, 1907, published by the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.

Chiaroscuro woodcut, printed in two shades of grey-green on fine laid paper

Size: (sheet) 27.5 x 18.5 cm; (plate) 13.8 x 12.7 cm

Lettered below the image “BEETHOVEN” and further below on the right in a block of five lines of text: “GRAVURE SUR BOIS ORIGINALE / DE JACQUES BELTRAND POUR / LA “ LÉGENDE DORÉE / DES GRANDS HOMMES” / Sts NATIONALE DES BEAUX-ARTS SALON 1907

Condition: Excellent impression in pristine condition with a binding hinge attached on the left side.

I am selling this small woodcut masterpiece for AU$90 (currently US$70.24/EUR61.18/GBP54.79 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this perfectly preserved original print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This is the second portrait of Beethoven by Beltrand that I have posted. Unlike the previous post in which the print was hand-signed by the artist in a very small edition of 40 impressions, this original print was published in a much larger edition by the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.

Jacques Beltrand’s chiaroscuro woodcut portrait of Beethoven, c1910

Jacques Beltrand (aka Jacques Anthony Louis Beltrand) (1874–1977)

”Ludwig van Beethoven”, c1910

Chiaroscuro woodcut, printed in two shades of grey-blue on fine Japanese paper, hand-signed in pencil by the artist and numbered “40/40”

Size: (irregularly cut sheet) 18 x 13.6 cm; (plate) 14 x 9.7 cm; (image borderline including the text tablet) 11.5 x 7.4 cm

Lettered in two lines “LVDWIG.VAN.BEETHOVEN /M.D.CC.LXX-M.D.CCC.XX.VII”

Condition: a faultless impression in near pristine condition hand-signed in pencil and numbered “40” in an edition of 40 impressions.

I am selling this small woodcut masterpiece for AU$110 (currently US$87.02/EUR75.67/GBP67.22 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this perfectly preserved hand-signed print, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

This is the second woodcut by Beltrand that I have featured and like the previous print (see http://www.printsandprinciples.com/2017/03/jacques-beltrands-chiaroscuro-woodcut.html), this portrait of Beethoven—moulded from his plaster cast death mask—is a remarkably strong image.

One feature of it that I wish to point out is that sometimes prints look better in reality than they do in reproduction. This is certainly the case here. When seen “in the flesh”, the colours may be the same two shades of grey-blue as can be reproduced digitally, but what is not seen in reproduction is the delicacy of the print surface and how the printed colour has a different tactile appeal—a slightly waxy appearance—compared to the dry surface of the paper. Going further, the colour in the physical print is almost opaque, but not quite, and it is this note of translucence that is not seen in reproduction and which makes the actual print so special.  

Jacques Beltrand’s chiaroscuro woodcut after a bust by Rodin

Jacques Beltrand (aka Jacques Anthony Louis Beltrand) (1874–1977)

”Study of a sculpture after Rodin” (descriptive title only), early 1900s, proof state

Chiaroscuro woodcut, printed in two shades of brown on tissue paper laid onto a conservator’s support sheet hand-signed in ink by the artist

Size: (irregularly cut sheet) 17 x 12.5 cm

Lettered in the plate “J. Beltrand. / d’ap. RODIN”

Condition: excellent proof state impression on exceptionally fine tissue paper with minor abrasions and flattened folds, laid onto a support sheet

I am selling this small woodcut of great beauty for AU$226 (currently US$170.77/EUR161.75/GBP140.26 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this proof state print that may be unique as I have been unable to find another copy on the market, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Very few prints catch the eye like this visually striking woodcut.

No doubt a great deal of its graphic strength rests with the subject portrayed: a sculpted bust of an antique figure kitted out with a Roman helmet by the legendary master, Auguste Rodin (1840 –1917). Beyond the subject, however, I am also struck by the feeling of grandeur—the feeling of a large-scale image—that this very small print projects.

In technical terms the expression of a grand scale is intimately connected to the chiaroscuro woodcut process employed (i.e. printing strong tonal contrasts using two different plates—light brown and dark brown—and the “white” of the paper). There is another more subtle device that I should mention: the length of the lines used. Finding the “right” line length is the secret to making an enormous mural seem to have human scale and, as shown here, making a small print seem to be as big as a mural. For those interested in the pseudo-science behind what constitutes a human scale of line in a composition (viz. lines that are an eighth of a composition’s longest length/aspect) see my earlier discussion: “Human Scale: Jacque & Legros” (17 June 2012) (http://www.printsandprinciples.com/2012/06/jacque-legros-human-scale.html)