Normandy Farmhouse

1905

Jacques Villon

(French, 1875–1963)

Culture

France, 20th century

Medium

color aquatint and etching

Measurements

Sheet: 55.4 x 74.4 cm (21 13/16 x 29 5/16 in.); Platemark: 46.5 x 58.1 cm (18 5/16 x 22 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1996.326

Catalogue raisonné

Ginestet and Pouillon 138

Impression

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

Description

Villon, whose real name was Gaston Duchamp, arrived in Paris in 1895. In 1899 he met the printer Eugène Delâtre who encouraged him to produce his first intaglio prints. With the help of Delâtre, who was an excellent technician and teacher, Villon produced 175 color etchings and aquatints over the following decade. Many of these, like Normandy Farmhouse, were published in small editions by the print dealer Edmond Sagot. Villon was one of several excellent printmakers who helped to revive multiplate color etching in France. The technique of printing a plate for each color had been devised in the 18th century, but was no longer used because of the difficult and tedious task of accurately superimposing one inked plate after another onto a single piece of paper that would carry the final, multicolored image. Influenced by the lithographed posters of Jules Chéret, Japanese color woodblock prints, and the development of photomechanical color printing processes to illustrate journals and books, artists once again exploited the possibilities of color intaglio printmaking. Normandy Farmhouse is a beautiful example of Villon's achievement.