Alfred
Prunaire (aka Alphonse
Alfred Prunaire; Léon-Alphonse-Alfred Prunaire) (1837–1912)
“The Print Collector” (aka “L'Amateur d'Estampes”), c1880 (1860–1902), hand-coloured
wood-engraving after Honoré Daumier’s (1808–1879)
famous painting “L'Amateur d'Estampes”, c1860, in the Petit Palais, musée des
Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris (inv. no. PPP39).
Wood engraving with hand-colouring on China
paper with small margins around the image borderline and backed with a support
sheet.
Size: (support sheet) 41.7 x 35.7 cm; (sheet)
32 x 26.1 cm; (image borderline) 29.8 x 23.9
cm.
Signed in plate at lower right corner: “h.
Daumier”.
Paris Musées offer the following description
of the portrayed scene and insights regarding its background:
(Transl.) “In a shop whose walls are covered with works,
a man wearing a top hat bends down to consult prints contained in a portfolio
of drawings placed on a board. A rolled up newspaper sticks out of his left
pocket.
The theme of the print lover, dealt with on
several occasions by Daumier, illustrates the emergence, in Balzac's France, of
a new type of collector from the petty bourgeoisie. The founding of the Société
des aquafortistes in 1861 corresponded to a renewed interest in original
prints, which were more accessible than paintings to amateurs with modest
incomes” (https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/en/node/226665#infos-secondaires-suggestions-meme-siecle).
See also the descriptions of this print
offered by the Rijksmuseum and the British Museum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.623969;
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1906-0418-2.
Condition: a strong and near faultless
impression with small margins in an excellent condition with no tears, holes,
folds, abrasions, stains or foxing and laid upon a support of
archival (millennium quality) washi paper providing wide margins.
I am selling this luminously beautiful and
large wood engraving after Daumier’s famous—possibly even iconic—painting, exemplifying
the surge of interest in prints in France during the late nineteenth century,
for AU$259 (currently US$180.05/EUR170.52/GBP146.74 at the time of posting this
print) 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 superb
engraving capturing the spirit of a passionate print collector—note the roll of
paper in the collector’s pocket which is possibly his newly acquired prints rather
than his newspaper—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
